Bayer Leverkusen’s Bundesliga star Leon Bailey could be Premier League bound – but he might be too expensive for Everton.
Leon Bailey is not even the most exciting young attacker at Bayer Leverkusen these days.
That honour, as you might have guessed, goes to Kai Havertz, the ‘new Ozil/new Ballack’ who is rapidly leaving those comparisons by the wayside as he grows into his own imitable style.
But while Bailey has found life rather tough since the emergence of his 20-year-old team-mate, making just seven Bundesliga starts all season under Peter Bosz, reports suggest that the Jamaican winger could follow Havertz out the door this summer – for a rather sizeable fee too.
And while Bailey is likely to fall short of the £100 million fee quoted for Germany’s new superstar, an £85 million price-tag promises to still make the former Genk star one of world football’s most expensive players.
Chelsea are giving serious consideration to paying such an extraordinary fee for this big-game specialist with an eye for the spectacular, according to The Express, while Arsenal may be forced to sell Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to raise funds for his arrival.
But while Farhad Moshiri has given Everton the kind of financial freedom they could only dream of during the shoestring days of Bill Kenwright, don’t expect to see the Toffees join the race for Bailey any time soon.
They could, and perhaps should, have snapped up the 22-year-old when he was still dizzying and dazzling full-backs at Genk. Everton were interested, The Mail reports, only for Bailey to join Bayer Leverkusen for £13 million instead.
Three years on, while his performances have flitted from the exceptional to the anonymous, his price-tag has soared by £72 million.
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