Everton are reportedly keen on striker Artem Dzyuba.
Everton boss Marco Silva continues to claim that the club don’t have the ‘financial conditions’ to make moves this month, but they continue to be linked with new signings.
A striker should still on the Newcastle radar, given that Richarlison’s goals have dried up lately and Cenk Tosun doesn’t appear to be the answer in attack either.
A bizarre link emerged this week though, as RT in Russia reported that Everton are keen to sign Zenit St Petersburg attacker Artem Dzyuba before next week’s deadline.
A part-exchange deal is mentioned in the article, with Everton thought to have held an interest in Dzyuba since his exploits for Russia at the World Cup last summer.
The 30-year-old has scored five goals in 16 league games for Zenit this season, and would provide something different to the Everton attack given his huge 6ft 5in frame and superb aerial ability.
Yet if recent history is anything to go by, Everton fans will be very, very nervous about the prospect of signing another player from the Russian Premier League.
Everton have signed a number of players from Russia’s top flight in recent years. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov joined from Lokomotiv Moscow for £10million in 2009 (Daily Mail), Aiden McGeady arrived from Spartak Moscow in 2014 for £1.5million (Express) and Oumar Niasse left Lokomotiv for Everton in a £13.5million deal in 2016 (BBC).
That’s £25million spent on three players who, combined tallied just 19 goals in 159 games for Everton, with all of them proving to be flops during their time at Goodison Park.
Bringing in another player from Russia may leave some Everton fails in a cold sweat after previous deals, and they must hope Dzyuba bucks the trend if he does arrive this month.
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