Everton facing competition in El Bilal Toure pursuit?

The 21-year-old is said to have a release clause of €40m (£34m) in his contract with the La Liga club, and Almeria are hoping to hold out for it to be met.

In his first season at the club, Toure scored seven goals in 21 La Liga games during 2022/23 as Almeria narrowly avoided relegation, finishing one point above the drop zone in 17th.

Toure came into form during the second half of the season after arriving from Reims last summer, scoring the winner at home to eventual champions Barcelona and the equaliser against Atletico Madrid which ultimately earned them a draw.

The Guardian claims that both Everton and Fulham are showing interest in the player, but Fulham's pursuit may depend on the future of Aleksandar Mitrovic.

This has been backed up by Almeria's CEO Mohamed El Assy, who has come out and said Everton are in for the player during an interview with local outlet Diario de Almeria.

El Assy did reveal that it is not only Everton who are pursuing Toure though, as he was quoted as saying: "It's not just Everton. Officially there are three clubs interested in El Bilal with formal offers on the table. Two of them are Italian and one is English."

Toure's price tag may be a stumbling block for the Toffees who are once again under tight financial restraints.

The club are still yet to make any money from sales this summer after the likes of Tom Davies, Yerry Mina, Andros Townsend and Lewis Gibson all departed on free transfers.

Some money has been recouped thanks to clauses in the loan contracts of Moise Kean and Niels Nkounkou who have now moved on permanently, but Everton's lack of transfer activity is largely accredited to the fact they have not yet made any sales.

The Athletic claims that Everton did not take up the £4.5m option-to-buy clause in Conor Coady's deal due to financial problems, illustrating the issues facing Everton in the transfer market.

Coady has since joined Leicester City so Everton face further problems at centre-back, given the departure of Mina alongside him, leaving only James Tarkowski and Michael Keane at the club who featured regularly last season.

Reports last week stated that Everton are willing to let both Neal Maupay and Ellis Simms leave, as Sean Dyche hopes to bring in attacking reinforcements after the injury problems surrounding Dominic Calvert-Lewin for the past two seasons.

Even if they should both leave though, they will not generate enough to fund a move for Toure, so a deal in instalments is likely to be the only way Everton can strike a deal.

However, should Everton agree to pay the €40m (£34m) release clause in whatever capacity, it would set a new record as Almeria's record sale, after Benfica paid €34m (£29m) for Darwin Nunez in 2020, a player who has since moved to the Toffees' local rivals Liverpool.