Everton to be priced out of move for Lille midfield ace

While Everton prepare for their first game of the club’s pre-season tour of the US, stories claim the Toffees’ have found out the price of another alledged transfer target.

According to 90minutes.com Everton along with Premier League rivals Newcastle and West Ham United have been told it will take a fee of at least £50 million to sign Lille midfielder Amadou Onana.

A fee like that would surely price the Toffees’ out of the running, even if they were genuinely interested in the 20-year-old Belgian international.

The lack of concrete moves in the transfer window has been a source of increasing frustration for  Evertonians, as once again their club appears unable to conclude deals relatively quickly while rivals successfully move to strengthen for the new season.

Names have come and gone and hints of bids or even talks with this player or that, but so far only James Tarkowski has been added on a free transfer.

Obviously, the club’s huge financial problems are a big factor in this, and everything seemed to hinge on the Blues’ getting a deal done for Richarlison to move on before the fianancial year ended in June or else nothing further could happen.

Well, that has been done and the Brazilian is now a Spurs’ player. So far though, there appears to be little prospect of Everton adding any further new players in the near future.

One area of the team that has been a constant focus of attention when looking at improvements, is the midfield.

The Toffees’ have a bit of a rag-bag of players in the middle of the park with ageing veterans and younger players, and there is a lack of enough energy, pace, creativity and goals.

At their best Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure would probably start every week. Both offer solid defensive qualities and plenty of energy but they are getting on in age and are injury prone too.

Then there is Tom Davies who has been out with injury for all of this calendar year and has anyway never managed to impress consistently enough to hold down a place in the side.

Youth team product Tyler Onyango has had fleeting moments in the first-team but never a settled run in the side and he may be heading out on loan this coming season.

Finally, there is the enigma that is Jean-Philippe Gbamin. As we all know, the Ivory Coast international has had a disasterously injury-hit time on Merseyside since he joined in 2018.

Last season after finally proving he was fit again, he went on loan to Russian club Spartak Moscow but has now come back and is once again in the Blues’ squad. Could he possibly revive his Everton career next season?

With all this uncertainly about the current players and a need for so much more from the middle, it’s no wonder that reinforcing midfield is considered such a key priority for the summer.

Onana’s name joins a long list of supposed midfield targets such as Oleksandr Zinchenko, Harry Winks, Conor Gallagher and Cheike Doucoure.

Well, Zinchenko is now likely to stay at City, talks with Spurs’ over Winks have apparently stalled, Gallagher’s future is yet to be decided by Chelsea and Doucoure has joined Crystal Palace.

Onana certainly appears to tick the boxes in terms of what Everton ideally need. He’s very similar to Palace’s Doucoure and offers real defensive strengths and qualities, height and youthful energy. In addition, at 20 he is the ideal age as well.

As I said though, a fee of the sort being quoted would certainly seem prohibitive for the Toffees’ and so I think we can forget about any chance of this player wearing royal blue next season.

So, we continue to wait for any signs that new faces are imminent as the rumour mill keeps on churning out ever more improbable alledged targets.