Everton’s incredible transfer window has seen £90m spent and bids for Smalling, Zaha, Iwobi and Doucoure as ambition to crack top four goes into overdrive – The Sun
EVERTON are flexing their financial muscle to bolster their squad ahead of Thursday's transfer deadline.
The Toffees are ready to continue their huge outlay in order to build a squad capable of squeezing into the top four.
Boss Marco Silva has already spent around £90million in bringing through a wealth of talent to Goodison Park.
And they're not ready to rest on their laurels with speculation that they are in the market for four more players.
It could top their spending to over £200m if they manage to land their targets – more than any of their Premier League rivals.
Who have they signed so far?
Silva pulled off the smart acquisition of former Manchester City man Fabian Delph for a fee worth up top £10million.
The England international will bring a wealth of experience to the squad and is versatile to play at left-back or in midfield.
Andre Gomes, who impressed on loan last season, arrives from Barcelona on a permanent deal for £22m.
And he will have serious competition with fellow new arrival Jean-Philippe Gbamin in midfield.
The no-nonsense defensive enforcer arrives for a fee in the region of £22.5m and will bring bags of energy in the middle of the park.
Everton also boast the exciting signing of winger Moise Kean from Juventus.
He's highly-talented but still raw and may need getting used to the Premier League before seeing his true potential.
Who are they trying to sign?
Wilfried Zaha is still at the top of the bill but Crystal Palace are standing firm in their asking price.
A bid north of £80million could tempt the London club to cash in despite the player's reluctance to stay at the club.
Everton are also willing to pay him a whopping £200,000-a-week to sign on the dotted line.
Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure is also in his sights having had two bids rejected.
The latest, thought to be around £37m, has not convinced the Hornets to sell particularly with so little time to find a replacement.
Interestingly, a centre-back also remains in the offering. They had a loan move rejected for Man United's Chris Smalling while David Luiz also remains a shock option.
Chelsea are in the midst of a transfer ban and again a deal would be difficult to get over the line.
Finally they made a late attempt to sign Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi.
The Gunners rejected a £30m offer and want a deal closer to £40m before letting him leave.
Where is the money coming from?
Everton's current majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri is worth £1.64bn and he pumps money into signing the players.
But there's another name who is funding the Toffees – and he's worth even more than Moshiri.
Alisher Usmanov is the owner of USM Holdings who have commercial deals with Everton.
Usmanov, who is worth a staggering £10bn and used to be a major shareholder at Arsenal, is a close mate of Moshiri's and his company sponsor the Finch Farm academy.
They are also Everton's "official matchday presenting partner."
Everton's future projects
Funded by majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, he confirmed he would be putting more of his cash into funding a new £500million stadium.
The stunning new waterfront stadium is expected to be ready for the 2023/24 season.
Everton are planning to build the new ground on the unused Bramley-Moore Dock site in north Liverpool.
In December they also won plans to develop their Finch Farm training academy.
They are going to build a new indoor pitch including changing rooms, climate control systems and rehabilitation spaces.
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