“Everton’s Unwanted Star Could Solve Brentfor’s £30m Conundrum”

Everton may be able to offload fringe forward Neal Maupay to Brentford after the London club suffered a nightmare injury in pre-season.

Maupay, 27, has entered the final year of his deal at the club and it looks unlikely that he will earn much game time under Sean Dyche. Last season saw him spend the year on loan at Brentford, his former club, as they looked to fill the hole left by Ivan Toney’s suspension from professional football.

And now a similar issue has arisen again. The Bees’ £30m signing Igor Thiago, signed to help compensate for the seemingly inevitable exit of Toney, has suffered a meniscus injury during his first start in pre-season. Unfortunately, the signing from Club Brugge will be out of action for an extended period of time and it leaves them with a hole in their attack. To make matters worse, he had netted twice during the game and managed 29 goals in total last season.

If they need to bring in an attacker to help bridge the gap before Thiago can regain his full fitness, then Maupay should be an easy deal to make. The Frenchman returned to form last season managing eight goals and four assists in all competitions. That followed a dismal spell under Frank Lampard and Sean Dyche when he managed just one goal in 29 games.