Besiktas are keen to get rid of up to €6.3m off their wage bill in January, which could give them the funds to move for Everton striker Cenk Tosun.
Tosun is widely expected to leave Goodison Park in the January transfer window, with his current contract expiring in the summer and neither party keen on an extension.
Former club Besiktas are big admirers, and several reports in Turkey have stated they would love to bring him back to the club.
The big problem is his wages, with it explained that Besiktas cannot afford the €3.8m Tosun currently earns at Everton and want to offer him a quarter of what he’s currently on.
The Turkish side are severely restricted by financial issues and so have to be careful about their spending, thus being unable to afford a move for Tosun without some sort of help from Everton.
It seems, though, there is a plan to raise funds in January. Milliyet explain that there are currently four ‘foreigners’ in the squad who they’re keen to get rid of if they can.
They are Jeremain Lens, Douglas, Adem Ljajic and Fabrice Nsakala, all of whom aren’t in their plans moving forwards.
Terminating their contracts early would guarantee funds of €6.35m for the rest of the season, with Ljajic earning €3.2m, Lens €1.8m, Douglas €800,000 and Nsakala €500,000.
All their contracts are due to expire in the summer, but Besiktas’ management plan to ‘get serious savings’ by offering the players mutual terminations early.
That, therefore, would leave them with the money to sign Tosun, whose €3.8m would not take up the entirety of the funds they’d rustle up.
Now, there is one spanner in the works in that Milliyet say the club are determined to ‘establish a new future’ by recruiting ‘local and foreign young talents’ and want to use the money they’ll make by releasing the aforementioned four players on those.
Tosun obviously doesn’t fit into that category, but he’s a hero at Besiktas, and their president has even gone on record on more than one occasion, making it clear they’d have him back.
It’s easy to imagine then that they’d do anything to get him, particularly if they have the funds to do so.
