Fiorentina should target a move for Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the January transfer window, to act as a deputy to Moise Kean.
That’s according to agent Eugenio Ascari, via Firenze Viola, who believes the Everton striker could be available on loan with an option to buy.
Kean has been shining at Fiorentina since joining from Juventus in a €13m deal in the summer transfer window.
He’s very much first-choice at the Italian club and proving worthy of that position but lacks a back up as Albert Gudmundsson is currently out injured with a hamstring injury.
Ascari believes the Italian club need to enter the January window to find someone to fill that gap and named Everton’s Calvert-Lewin as the ideal option.
“It’s a machine that goes at a thousand, it shouldn’t need any adjustments,” he said on Radio Firenze Viola’s Pallo al Centro.
“However, the absence of deputy Kean is quite evident, perhaps it’s the only urgent need. Then, perhaps, the defensive sector can be strengthened.
“I would choose a middle way, I would repeat the Bove, Cataldi, Adli operations. That is, those who are not satisfied with their position and want to relaunch themselves. Djuric has never scored more than seven goals in Serie A, so he doesn’t convince me.
“I would take the twenty-seven-year-old Everton player Calvert-Lewin, a player of great value. It could be on loan with an option or obligation to buy.”
Whether Fiorentina would accept such an operation is up for debate given Calvert-Lewin is out of contract at Everton in the summer. That means he’s free to negotiate with clubs in Europe from 1 January over a pre-contract agreement.
It would make little sense for Fiorentina to agree a mandatory purchase in a loan, which Everton would surely want, unless it was for a significantly reduced fee.
If that was the case, then Everton would presumably question whether it would make sense for them given losing Calvert-Lewin midway through the season would have more of an impact than a failure to bring in a low fee for him would.
Ascari sees the benefits, though, and it would not be surprising if he’s not the last to mention Calvert-Lewin in Italy in the run up to January.