El Bilal Toure appears to confirm Almeria goodbye online amid Everton vs Atalanta transfer race
El Bilal Touré appears to have confirmed his Almeria exit with a goodbye post on social media as Everton and Atalanta battled to sign him for the new season.
The 21-year-old striker has emerged as a key target for the Toffees as they look to finally provide answers for Sean Dyche at the position where he has been left lacking amid repeated injuries to Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Sky Sports’ Alan Myers had reported late on Monday (24 July) that a deal had been agreed with La Liga’s Almeria and it was up to Touré to decide, shortly after the former Stade de Reims man looked to have confirmed he was leaving the Spanish club.
The Mali international posted on his Instagram stories on Monday night (24 July) a photo of himself with “my brothers”, the Almeria CEO Mohamed El Assy and team manager Mohamed Adel Seddik, apparently ahead of his departure.
And it appears that Atalanta were able to tip the balance with a final late bid the same night [Fabrizio Romano, 24 July], with the Italian side reported to have come out on top at club level, and on the player’s side.
The 15-cap international would have been an encouraging target to land in terms of potential, but until he has more production on his CV he might be seen as a gamble at Goodison.
Links to Everton are close to a year old, and his trajectory certainly appears to be heading in the right direction so if, as it seems, the club have missed out on his signature it is going to be a disappointment.
But the Toffees should by now be relatively well versed moving on from unsuccessful transfer pursuits, and will need to do so quickly to focus on the contingency plan.
There feels like an element of the Mohammed Kudus race last summer to this, with Everton coming very close to landing the Ghanaian from Ajax before his exit was blocked amid other sales.
The 22-year-old went on to prove his quality throughout last season and is currently interesting Chelsea, after links to other European giants.
Touré may prove to be another one that got away in the same mould, but there is no time for Everton to dwell on that when more work is needed.
Arnaut Danjuma’s loan arrival is a positive but it is still striker that is the key position above all, so if it isn’t to be the exit-bound Almeria man it will need to be someone else sooner rather than later.
