Everton have been linked with a move for El Bilal Toure but what might the Almeria striker offer the Blues?
Belgian journalist Sacha Tavolieri reports that a number of Premier League clubs are in the market to sign the player who scored six goals in 18 games last season and claims Everton have put €40million (£34.37m) on the table – the figure of Toure's release clause – and offered a five-year deal at €4.3million gross per year while Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest and Fulham keen to join the fight.
However, with Financial Fair Play restrictions still biting after the excesses of Everton’s previous period of profligacy – last summer owner Farhad Moshiri admitted: “We have not always spent significant amounts of money wisely” when issuing an apology to supporters – it remains to be seen whether the Blues are prepared to splash out such an amount on a player who still very much falls into the up-and-coming prospect category. The ECHO understands that doubts over the availability of funds contributed to Everton not signing anyone in the January transfer window despite director of football Kevin Thelwell having been looking to bring in a couple of new attacking players and Anthony Gordon being sold to Newcastle United for £45million.
Not 22 until October, Toure, a team-mate of Blues midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure in the Mali national team, has scored five times in 15 matches for his country but has spent just a single season in Andalusia, helping newly-promoted Almeria to finish 17th – like Everton – narrowly avoiding relegation by a single point. Previously he spent three seasons at Stade de Reims in France’s Ligue 1 but had modest goalscoring returns of three, four and two to finish with nine strikes in 68 matches.
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With Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s fitness remaining an issue – Everton’s first choice striker played in just 17 of their 38 Premier League matches and scored just once from open play – and the 5ft 8in Neal Maupay unable to be anything resembling a like-for-like replacement, bagging a solitary strike in 29 outings in all competitions after a £15million move from Brighton & Hove Albion last August, Dyche was forced to use out-of-favour winger Demarai Gray as a ‘false’ number nine in their survival showdown at home to Bournemouth on the final day despite no goals from open play from him either this calendar year.
How might Toure potentially fit into a Sean Dyche side then? Using Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool, his playing statistics from La Liga in 2022/23 can be measured against strikers already plying their trade in the Premier League.
The Blues are prioritising fresh attacking options this summer and there’s at least one aspect of Toure’s game that might particularly appeal to their gaffer. Toure averages some 0.73 headed shots per 90 minutes, a figure that would put him fifth in the Premier League behind Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic (1.28); Newcastle United’s Callum Wilson (1.02); Bournemouth’s Kieffer Moore (0.94) and Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane (0.79) while tellingly just above Calvert-Lewin and Manchester City’s free-scoring Erling Haaland (0.72).
While he can’t come close to matching Calvert-Lewin’s 13.76 aerial duels competed pair 90 minutes – a figure that puts the Everton striker top of the Premier League – his 7.4 would put him in sixth place and he moves up to fifth for aerial duels won (2.87), a category that Calvert-Lewin is second in (5.43) behind the aforementioned Moore of Bournemouth (5.59). Toure is also the kind of hard-working striker that Dyche might appreciate given that his figures from Spain would put him fourth among Premier League peers for interceptions (2.33) in a field topped by Chelsea’s Kai Havertz (2.56) and he’d be eighth for ball recoveries (3.27) behind category leader Roberto Firmino of Liverpool (4.55).
Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.
