Everton ready to move on from Gnonto to Juventus wide man

Following weeks of speculation but no deal as yet, it now appears that Everton are no longer prioritising the signing of Wilfried Gnonto from Leeds United.

That at least is what the latest media stories claim as Italian outlet Tuttosport say the Blues are now looking at Juventus forward Samuel Iling-Junior instead.

This is because Leeds appear unwilling to drop their asking price for Gnonto from the £30 million or so quoted and Everton won’t or can’t pay that.

Gnonto is a player the Toffees have been pursuing all summer – if the paper talk is to be believed – and yet no prospect of anything concrete seens to be on the horizon.

So, are the club readly to move on?

19-year-old Iling-Junior who is London-born and the same age as Gnonto, is apparently available for about £10 million less making him presumably a more financially realistic target.

Juventus are ready to negotiate, according to this report, and the possibility of a return to England and the Premier League might appeal to Iling-Junior.

Transfermarkt value him at about £9 million, which given his youth and lack of experience is much more reasonable.

Once again, as with so many of the alledged transfer targets now, he is a very young, raw attacking talent who has very little top flight experience.

Although, he has played just over a hundred games of senior football including an appearance in the Champions League.

The Left-footed winger tends to operate on the left hand side although he has played on the right and through the middle too.

What else can be said about this rumour?

His profile appears to fit the general trend we have seen this summer of youthful attacking players who would be relatively inexpensive to sign and might, were they to progress, potentially bring in substantial sell-on fees.

These endless speculative reports almost always fizzle out without anything solid to back them up and I imagine this is another of them.

But, whatever the truth about this player or the many others we have reported on, Everton must get moving and bring in some decent attacking talent in the next few days and weeks