Why Everton should cash in on Cenk Tosun amidst Besiktas links

According to the North Wales Live, Turkish giants Besiktas are willing to open talks with Everton over a potential loan deal for out-of-favour striker Cenk Tosun, who is unhappy with his bit-part role at Goodison Park under Marco Silva. 

The report adds that Besiktas’ officials will fly to Merseyside in the near future to hold talks with the 28-year-old, who is apparently keen to complete a move back to his homeland in a bid to get his career back on track.

Tosun left Besiktas to join Everton for a staggering £27million back in January 2018 but his failure to deliver the goods in front of goal at Merseyside has put him to the verge of a return to his former club, who are looking to re-sign the 28-year-old on a loan deal during the mid-season trading period. 

The Turkish star racked up impressive returns of 64 goals in 142 appearances for Besiktas earlier in his career but he has suffered a drastic fall in grace over the past 18 months ever since his move to the Premier League. 

Despite making a bright start to life with 5 goals in 14 Premier League appearances towards the latter half of the 2017-18 campaign, Tosun has faded away since the arrival of Marco Silva last summer, with the Turk finding the net on just 4 occasions in 31 outings. 

Those certainly do not make for good readings and Everton have been left red-faced, having spent a massive amount to bring him to the club in 2018. Truth be told, it is largely down to his lacklustre performances that the Toffees have struggled to rack up enough goals to mount a serious top-six challenge in the Premier League. 

Having failed to show any significant signs of improvement in pre-season following a dismal run in the previous campaign, Tosun has slipped way down the pecking order at Everton and is yet to start a game in the Premier League this term.  

The 28-year-old’s involvement has been limited to only a single cameo from the bench so far, which came in a 2-0 defeat against Sheffield United last month.

Silva has lost trust in his abilities to such an extent that he wasn’t even handed a start in the League Cup tie against Lincoln City, with the manager choosing to hand the younger players a chance to prove their worth instead.

Such has been the extent of his failure at Goodison Park that Silva has been forced to turn to other less-fancied options in a bid to solve the team’s centre-forward woes.

Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin were asked to shoulder the responsibility of spearheading the attack last season before youngster Moise Kean was brought in from Juventus this summer to add more firepower to the attack. 

With Everton managing to find the net only eight times in their first nine league games, Silva could be forced to dip into the market once again for a proven goalscorer, an immediate game-changer to spearhead their top-six challenge. 

To that end, offloading a flop like Cenk Tosun in January would definitely make a lot of sense and hardly anyone at the club would be left to rue his departure, given that he only seems to be making up the numbers in Silva’s matchday squads. 

Verdict

Ideally, Everton should look to negotiate a loan deal with an obligation/ option to buy at the end of the season, with Tosun still having plenty of time remaining on his contract. 

The 45-cap Turkish international is already 28 and the Toffees should look to cut all ties with him at the earliest, as keeping him on the books for much longer is only going to make it harder for the club to recoup a sizable fraction of the money that they had spent on him 18 months back.

Indeed, that would facilitate some much-needed reinvestment to improve the club’s strike force in the upcoming transfer windows, whilst a new centre-back is also likely to be a priority for Silva given the team’s situation. 

Everton need to clear the deadwood in their ranks to accommodate new players looking at the future and Cenk Tosun is someone who clearly doesn’t have a big role to play at Goodison Park.

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However, a loan deal away from the club would also be in the best interests of all parties involved. Everton need to free up some valuable funds to initiate a contract renewal drive at the club and allowing Tosun to leave in January might well be the way to do so.

All in all, Everton parting ways with Cenk Tosun should be an absolute no-brainer.