Reports: Everton in Pole Position to Sign Premier League Striker
What's the rumour?
Everton have been very busy in the transfer market as they have done a lot of work to secure the two signings they have made this summer. They have signed Richarlison for £35.28 million and Lucas Digne from Barcelona for £18.18 million. By the looks of recent reports, they are in no mood to stop.
Early reports today from Sport Witness have claimed that Everton boss, MarcoSilva, is very intent on bringing in a new striker and Leicester City forward, Islam Slimani has been touted as the man to lead their line in the coming new season.
In case you didn't know...
Everton sold their marquee striker, Romelu Lukaku, last summer for a whopping £75 million. Everton's ex-boss, Ronald Koeman, splashed the cash generated from Lukaku's sale on six new players, but none of them impressed last season.
Most importantly, they did not buy a good striker to replace the Belgian forward. They always had a problem getting the goals last season. The Toffees were left with one complete striker in Oumar Niasse and Theo Walcott and Kevin Mirallas played the role of part-time strikers. This is one area of the pitch where they just had to improve in the transfer window.
The heart of the matter
Leicester City bought Islam Slimani from Sporting for a fee of £11 million. But the Algerian never really was a starter for the club as they stuck to Jamie Vardy to lead their attack. To be fair to say, Slimani also did not impress that much to make the manager think of a formation to play him alongside Jamie Vardy.
Slimani has been looking for a new club and he went on loan to Newcastle United, but with the problems in the attack there, he was always short of good service and was not able to show the world what he can do as a striker.
Video: Islam Slimani - Algerian Goal Machine
Rumour Probability Rating: 8/10:
Everton needs a striker and Slimani fits the bill at Goodison and moreover, he is looking for a new club. This is a perfect match made in heaven.
What's next?
If Everton complete Slimani's signing, then they would have solved their striker problem, but there is one big problem on hand they need to solve. Jordan Pickford is still not tied to a new contract.