Everton may be able to offload fringe forward Neal Maupay to Brentford after the London club suffered a nightmare injury in pre-season.
Maupay, 27, has entered the final year of his deal at the club and it looks unlikely that he will earn much game time under Sean Dyche. Last season saw him spend the year on loan at Brentford, his former club, as they looked to fill the hole left by Ivan Toney’s suspension from professional football.
And now a similar issue has arisen again. The Bees’ £30m signing Igor Thiago, signed to help compensate for the seemingly inevitable exit of Toney, has suffered a meniscus injury during his first start in pre-season. Unfortunately, the signing from Club Brugge will be out of action for an extended period of time and it leaves them with a hole in their attack. To make matters worse, he had netted twice during the game and managed 29 goals in total last season.
If they need to bring in an attacker to help bridge the gap before Thiago can regain his full fitness, then Maupay should be an easy deal to make. The Frenchman returned to form last season managing eight goals and four assists in all competitions. That followed a dismal spell under Frank Lampard and Sean Dyche when he managed just one goal in 29 games.
With his deal up next summer, he could be available at a very low price – as Transfermarkt has his value estimated at around £10m. Everton would be welcome to parting ways given they have Beto, Youssouf Chermiti and Dominic Calvert-Lewin and they will hope to lean on the relationship they have with Brentford after already conducting business last summer. Granted, there is some speculation over whether Calvert-Lewin will remain at the club as he has also entered the final year of his deal but raising the necessary funds will help their ongoing financial situation and may even be reinvested into other problem areas in the squad.
FOR MORE NEWS CLICK HERE
