Although his contract release clause expired on Thursday, according to reports Everton still have an interest in signing Salernitana striker Boulaye Dia.
Like so many others this transfer window, Dia’s name has cropped up again and again with various stories alledging he was a player Sean Dyche was keen to bring in.
But so far at least, there has been no concrete movement from Everton and instead other names have come to the fore, in particular Arnaut Danjuma, who is supposedly having a medical today before his move is finally confirmed.
As for Dia, his release clause which was said to be around £25 million or so expired on Thursday, meaning that if they want him the Toffees will now have to pay closer to £40 million.
This seems unlikely, but the source for this story claims that the Blues have an ‘ace up their sleeve’ in the form of forward Neal Maupay.
That’s quite something to say that a striker who managed just one solitary Premier League goal all season long, is an ace in the hole. I would have thought the opposite was the case!
Well, so the story goes, despite this lack of productivity in front of goal, the Salernitana owner is a keen admirer of Maupy and has long coveted the former Brighton striker.
It is clear too that Dyche doesn’t see a future for the Frenchman in his Everton team and would like to find a way to offload him this summer.
Therefore there might be a possible swap deal of some sort on the cards with Maupay moving to Italy and Dia coming to Merseyside in his place. I’d take that.
All this however seems rather fanciful stuff and I don’t think it is a deal that will happen.
Especially at the sort of fee being now quoted (unless the Maupay swap reduces it considerably) as this would appear to be prohibitive for the Toffees, given their financial constraints.
Dia is a player who at least on paper could certainly improve the Blues attack.
He scored nineteen times last season with sixteen coming in the Italian top flight, an impressive tally in Serie A.
He can also play anywhere across the frontline, although his best position appears to be centre-forward, a position where Everton certainly need help.
Once again after all the talk, as with so many of these rumours, all we can do is wait and see if anything solid regarding Dia emerges over the next few days and weeks.