Eveton can sign El Bilal Toure by paying £17m up front, Almeriar not interested in loan deal

Everton could sign El Bilal Toure from Almeria for an initial £17m with the rest of his release clause paid over three more instalments, according to IDEAL.

The Toffees have tabled an offer to the La Liga club for the striker, confirmed by the club chairman, but talks have stalled after it was a loan bid with an obligation to buy for the

following year.

However while Everton want to make payments over several instalments, Almeria are reportedly open to listening to that if the first instalment is around half of the total of £34m

“Those from Liverpool seemed to be the first on the list to get El Bilal Touré,” they wrote (11 July).

“So much so that he signed up in England that they would face the €40 million (£34m) of his termination clause. Although with the particularity of wanting to pay them in four installments.

“One aspect that Almería would value if the first was in the middle. Something that, it seems, will not be so.

“As much as, yesterday, it was noted in the British media that Everton had requested the transfer with a mandatory purchase option for the following year. Almería does not value this possibility because it would not allow them to raise their salary limit and they would be the big loser in this operation.

Deal to be done

There is clearly a deal there to be done for Everton to sign Toure if that is the man who Sean Dyche wants to be leading his forward line next season.

A new striker is absolutely necessary with Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s injury troubles, Neal Maupay’s horror-show of a debut season and Ellis Simms leaving permanently to join Coventry.

But £34m is a lot of money for Everton at this moment in time, so if they can find a way to split the payments out then it could be a shrewd bit of business.

Almeria can’t be blamed if a deal doesn’t get done at this point considering they are being quite lenient with how they want a deal to be structured, and it’s just down to the Toffees to find a way to get it done.

They’ll have to do it quickly considering there are other clubs showing an interest, such as Atalanta, and there is clearly scope for it to happen. We’ll only have ourselves to blame if he doesn’t end up wearing our shirt next season.

In other Everton news, absence explained as first-team ace misses pre-season in Switzerland.