Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Everton are not actively pursuing a deal for SSC Napoli striker Arkadiusz Milik in the January transfer window.
What’s the word?
While speaking with Give Me Sport, Romano has claimed Napoli are pricing Milik out of a move in the mid-season window as no side is willing to pay what the Serie A outfit are currently demanding.
Milik is yet to kick a ball in any competition this season after seeing a route out of Naples blocked last summer, and had been claimed to be pushing for a move away in January in order to protect his place in the Poland national side for this year’s rearranged Euro 2020.
Everton were believed to be a potential destination for the 26-year-old after failing to seal a deal in the previous transfer window, though they had been expected to face competition from AS Roma after the Giallorossi appeared to seduce Milik.
Romano does not see either side moving to sign the £80,000-per-week forward any time soon, while Napoli’s demands are pricing Olympique de Marseille and Atletico Madrid out of the market.
“[Milik] has been linked because it was true that Everton were interested in Milik before the end of the last window, but Napoli want €15m [£13.5m] to sell Arkadiusz Milik right now. So, Marseille and also Atletico Madrid were interested, but at the moment, the situation is that no one is offering €15m, so the race is open,” Romano told Give Me Sport.
“There is also the possibility that Milik is staying at Napoli, not playing, but joining another club as free agent in the summer. At the moment, from Everton, there is nothing advanced yet, so they are not going for Milik right now.
"Let’s see, in the last days of the window, you know, I expect some surprises just because these players that now are not moving and are not receiving any right bids, in the last week, might receive something interesting and the club need to sell players so they can accept also different conditions.”
Work cut out
Everton’s Director of Football Marcel Brands will have his work cut out, it would seem, should the Dutchman present Goodison Park as a potential destination for Milik later in the January transfer window.
Carlo Ancelotti, who worked with Milik at Napoli, has struggled to see Everton share the burden of scoring so far this season, with top-scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin leading the charts by some margin with 11 goals in 16 Premier League games, eight more than next-best man James Rodriguez and the clutch of players who have scored twice.
Calvert-Lewin is enduring a tricky patch, too, with the 23-year-old failing to find the back of the net in his last six appearances across all competitions and taking just seven shots over his last five top-flight outings.
Cenk Tosun only opened his account for the campaign during Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie with Championship strugglers Rotherham United, too, having failed to score in his previous six appearances.
Ancelotti, then, could seemingly do with a new centre-forward to help carry the load at Goodison Park, but whether Milik – who hit home 14 goals in 35 games last season – is the one for Everton clearly remains to be seen.
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