Everton seal agreement for £14.9m Youssef Chermiti, medical planned for this week

Everton have agreed a £14.9m deal for Sporting CP striker Youssef Chermiti, with a medical scheduled for later this week according to A Bola.

Writing on their official website (31 July), the Portuguese newspaper report that the Toffees have agreed to pay an initial £12.8m plus £2.1m in add-ons for the 19-year old striker.

According to Sky Sports (1 August) the player will undergo a medical later this week, and could make his Everton debut against his current club Sporting in Saturday’s (5 August) pre-season friendly.

“Youssef Chermiti, a 19-year-old striker, is a small step away from becoming an Everton player in the coming seasons, as Sporting and the English emblem are just finalizing details with a view to completing the deal,” they wrote.

“In this sense, and as has always been the desire of the lions, the player will earn a total of €15M, with the club based in Liverpool paying €12.5M immediately and the remaining €2.5M depending on goals, even so easy to reach.”

Initial talk of a £20m deal seemed like a crazy amount for a player with very little top-flight experience and with no guarantee of actually solving the issues we have.

£15m with an initial £12.5m of that being up front makes a lot more sense for a signing that is clearly being done on his potential, and makes it a little bit easier to swallow.

Everton need a striker and more attacking options this summer despite already having signed Arnaut Danjuma on a season-long loan from Villarreal, and it’s fair to say that Chermiti isn’t likely to solve our problems on his own.

But considering the money in the Premier League and the fact he had a £67.5m release clause means it has been some good negotiations for the club.

Now we need to keep going ahead in the market to ensure that Sean Dyche has got a strong enough squad to move away from a relegation battle and up the table, with just a month to go before the window slams shut.

In other Everton news, forward “small step away” from transfer to Goodison Park.