Oumar Niasse linked to move away

I love Oumar Niasse so I’m probably not entirely objective here. But news that Galatasaray wants to buy Niasse from Everton are particularly upsetting to me. According to our friends at Turkish Football, there will be meetings between the two clubs on a proposed move this week.

The Turkish side appear to be going big this summer, starting with trying to appoint former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger as they look to strengthen for the Champions League following their Super Lig win this season.

Look, Oumar isn’t going to be the starter at our club. That’s Cenk Tosun for good reason. The club also anticipates Dominic Calvert-Lewin continuing to grow and becoming a good striker. But two first team #9’s is a little thin at the level Everton wants to be at, and having a player like Oumar as your second/third option is a huge asset.

When you look at Niasse’s numbers in the league, he has 22 appearances and 8 goals. Not inspiring, right? But then you realize that those 22 appearances were only 1083 minutes total for the season, and those 8 goals (or a goal every 135 minutes) look pretty good. He only played more than half a match 8 times this season.

Look at the company he is keeping with those stats! Niasse was also very unfortunate to not be part of Senegal’s squad to the World Cup this summer, a move the African nation may yet still regret seeing their scoring woes in this weekend’s friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina.

What Niasse has battled back from is something all Everton fans have rallied around. He wasn’t just out of favor, he didn’t have a locker. Ronald Koeman treated him terribly, and yet he fought back and salvaged us a win against AFC Bournemouth, and then helped save a point each against Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion. Niasse made a big contribution to this team as a guy who just outworked defenders to come up with big goals, and has proved to be very popular among the rest of the squad too.

I don’t think the time is right to sell him. If we sold Niasse we would have to find a third striker and hope that DCL shoots straighter than he did this season. With Niasse we’ve got a backup striker that we know can go find goals. I like him, I’d like to see him stay at Goodison.