Sturaro and Zapata still being linked with Everton

After Steve Walsh’s trip to Italy earlier this week, the rumours that resulted from that action are still swirling strong. The latest players being linked with Everton are Napoli striker Duvan Zapata and Juventus midfielder Stefano Sturaro.

Take this one for what it’s worth - Italian football journo Alfredo Pedullà has said that the Toffees have contacted Napoli about the availability of striker Zapata. The Colombian spent last season at Udinese, featuring in every Serie A game and picked up 11 goals and 5 assists in 39 appearances.

Everton have signed Sandro Ramirez presumably to be lead striker next season with Romelu Lukaku expected to leave the club. There is still a vacancy for the backup role after Enner Valencia returned to West Ham United.

The Naples side are reportedly asking for €20 million for the stocky physical specimen who has a similar playing style to Lukaku. There is interest from Torino and possibly Udinese as well, but it’s expected any offer from the Toffees will exceed those.

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In addition, the Blues were mentioned as a possible destination for Juve’s Lemina, though those reports have also been variously refuted. Now it appears Everton have asked about the availability of Stefano Sturaro instead.

Juventus are apparently not interested in letting the Italian international go, who has been used as a box-to-box midfielder as well as out on the left wing. The Bianconeri are planning to bring in Steven N’Zonzi as a midfield strongman and would rather offload Lemina than Sturaro.

It is a bit of an odd choice for Everton, considering they are loaded at midfield. However, there has been interest in James McCarthy so the links make sense with that in mind.