Everton are eager to sell Demarai Gray to Fulham in order to raise funds for Sean Dyche in the final weeks of the summer transfer window, according to the Sun on Sunday.
The Jamaican international, who is in the final year of his contract, is keen on making the move to Craven Cottage and has not been training at Finch Farm in the past few days. The Cottagers are confident of matching the 27 year-old’s wage demands but the sticking point remains the fee for the former Birmingham City and Leicester City winger – with the Toffees previously demanding £10m.
Fulham are unwilling to offer than much for a player they could potentially sign for fee at the end of his contract and have had two bids rejected by Everton. Sun correspondent Alan Nixon reports today that Everton want to offload their wantaway winger – and the fee will be reinvested in Dyche’s playing squad. Negotiations between the two clubs, who play each other in the opening round of Premier League fixtures at Goodison Park on Saturday are continuing, and all parties are confident of a deal being struck. It is unlikely that the transfer will go through until after Fulham’s trip to Merseyside – but Everton have lowered their asking price following discussions over the last week.
Gray, who scored four goals and assisted an assist in 27 appearances as the Toffees beat the drop on the final day of last season, is seen Marco Silva as a proven Premier League player who can add another dimension to Fulham’s forward line. The Birmingham-born winger, who has scored twelve goals in 76 games for Everton, helped Leicester City win the Premier League title in 2016 and has scored twice in five senior appearances for Jamaica since assisting the Reggae Boys’ goal in a 1-1 against the United States at the Gold Cup on his debut this summer. He scored his first international goals in the quarter-final demolition of Guatemala and was named in CONCACAF’s team of the tournament.
There’s a key aspect to this that none of the reporting is picking up on: Dwight McNeil. The reason Gray is surplus to requirements, and was last year too, is Dyche for right or wrong will always pick McNeil over him. Except McNeil picked up an ankle injury in a friendly recently that will mean he misses an unknown number of games of the new season. They need to sign cover, and until they do, they’ll have to keep Gray.
I’d expect him to start against us on Saturday at this rate, and we probably won’t get him until deadline day.
i can see an agreement for the transfer after our league match with them next Saturday with Gray not playing in that match. A good addition but not worth paying over the odds
I agree with John W Everton will not release him until after we play them next Saturday. 7 million seems a fair price for a player with one year left on his contact especially as he was not a regular first team player for them last season