Everton to ramp up pursuit of star striker

With their plethora of divas to keep happy, Paris St. Germain have a battle on their hands this season and it sounds like Everton will only be too happy to step in and nick a superstar off them to help out.

With the arrival of the world’s most expensive player Neymar as well as potentially the second-most expensive player in Kylian Mbappe, manager Unai Emery is finding himself with an epic challenge on his hands in keeping his current squad happy with enough minutes and distributing the play.

Among the most disgruntled players, it appears star striker Edinson Cavani leads the pack. He’s already had a couple of spats with Neymar, with the Brazilian’s national teammate Dani Alves getting sucked into the argument as well. Despite Cavani being the designated spot kick taker for PSG, Neymar asked to take the penalty this weekend against Lyon. The Uruguayan vehemently refused, then promptly saw his shot saved to fuel that fire.

It got worse though, with claims that the player was basically being ‘bribed’ €1 million to give up his penalty duties to Neymar, as would be expected of the biggest jewel in PSG’s glittering array of stars. Cavani is due a €1 million contractual bonus if he finishes the Ligue 1 top scorer, and penalty duties would certainly boost that.

Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images

Meanwhile, news broke this week that Everton had failed to convince Olivier Giroud (and his wife, mostly) to make a move northwest of London during the summer transfer window. The Toffees then moved their attentions to Diego Costa, throwing an eye-watering sum of £70 million at Chelsea to convince the Spaniard to forget about a return to Atletico Madrid and come to Goodison Instead. That failed to pan out as well.

Now, and take this with a huge pinch of salt, Italian media source Tutto Mercatoweb are claiming that the Blues are ramping up their pursuit of Cavani, with a view to signing him in January transfer window.

Cavani is off to a flying start this season, scoring nine goals and two assists in just eight appearances, granted though that seven of those goals came in seven games in the weaker Ligue 1. The Uruguayan hitman is 30 years old and under contract until 2020, and could cost at least £50 million, which is a ridiculously large sum for someone his age, but Everton’s need is pressing and the club might have to forego reason to salvage a season they have already dropped £150 million without seeing any appreciable improvement.