Everton target one of the Manchester City outcasts
Published:Everton may be one of the teams to benefit from Manchester City’s need to sell players as they are weighing up whether to make a swoop for Craig Bellamy.
Manchester City will be looking to trim their squad by about eight players this summer in order to cut their wage bill ahead of the new Premier League season.
However, with the majority of the Manchester City squad being so well paid, this is making life difficult in their quest to sell players as they are often unwilling to take a pay cut to sign for a new club.
One thing that Manchester City could do to build up more interest is to reduce their asking prices for these players, as this may mean that rival clubs could then afford to meet wage demands.
Everton manager David Moyes has already been forced out of a deal for Bellamy once because of salary demands, but retains his interest in the Welsh forward as he searches for a proven Premier League goalscorer.
If the two clubs can agree a deal then Bellamy could finally be the striker that Everton need to fire them into the Champions League qualification places.
Everton have not been short of decent strikers in recent seasons with the likes of Yakubu, James Beattie and Andy Johnson in their ranks, while Jermaine Beckford can be relied upon to score ten goals a season.
They do still have Louis Saha to call upon, but his injury proneness means that he is unlikely to ever score enough goals in a season to help Everton finish in the top four, despite the fact that he clearly has the talent and instinct to do so.
It is 14/1 in the Premier League odds that Everton finish in the top four this season, having finished inside the top eight in each of the last five campaigns.
