Besiktas are working hard sign Cenk Tosun from Everton, but his wages at Goodison Park are a major stumbling block.
The Blues striker opened the door to a return to his former club yesterday, stating publicly that he wants to return to Turkey if they can find an agreement with Everton.
It was explained that he had already met with Besiktas’ management to discuss a move and they were now trying to negotiate some sort of deal with the Toffees after struggling to finance a move for Hulk.
Whether they can do so remains to be seen, but according to Haber Turk, they have ‘focused’ their efforts on Tosun and offered to cover half of his €4m a year wages at Everton.
They face competition from CSKA Moscow, who are willing to pay a fee for the half-season loan, but the ‘mind of the player’ is at his former club and Besiktas ‘work hard’ to persuade Everton to sanction a transfer.
This is backed up by TRT Haber who say that after getting something of a negative response from Hulk, Besiktas have turned their attention to Tosun.
It’s believed they ‘could attack’ a deal in the last days of the transfer window and want to hire the Turkey international.
The issue that is causing their management to pause for thought is Tosun’s ‘high salary’, but if Everton are willing to cover some of it, the chances of a deal being done may increase.
There’s no mention of Tosun’s mindset here, but it is stated he has ‘serious offers’ from Spain, Germany and Russia.
Two of those are already known, with CSKA and Celta Vigo having been mentioned already, but the Germany option is new, and it will be interesting to see if that becomes something more prominent as the end of the window nears.