Everton may well have found their new talisman as Sean Dyche looks to finalise his summer transfer activity, with one journalist stating the club are homing in on a former Premier League star.
What's the latest on Che Adams to Everton?
Indeed, according to The Athletic's Jacob Tanswell, Southampton striker Che Adams is close to a move to Everton after the club submitted a £12m offer for the 27-year-old striker, bypassing interest from AFC Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest.
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The Scotland international suffered relegation from the top-flight with Saints this year, but the figure of just £12m could lead it to be quite an astute purchase.
The Toffees have already signed Arnaut Danuma and Jack Harrison on loan, whilst also completing the £15m signing of teenage striker Youssef Chermiti.
How good is Che Adams?
When the rejoicing simmered down following Everton's 1-0 victory over Bournemouth on the final day of the 2022/23 season, Dyche will have hoped to swiftly make the requisite moves to effectively bolster the frontline.
Everton concluded the previous term as the division's second-lowest goalscorers, and with Dominic Calvert-Lewin spending large portions of the season out injured and Neal Maupay, who joined from Brighton & Hove Albion for £15m last summer, yielding just one goal for the Goodison Park side.
While Adams is not a marquee name, he is a solid and dependable striker and, at £12m, could very well be a shrewd signing for a team looking to restore their attacking impetus, once praised as "fantastic" by former manager Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Having scored 33 goals and supplied 15 assists from 148 outings for Southampton, Adams is definitely not the most prolific of forwards but he is a "clever" attacking outlet – as called by pundit Ally McCoist – and could improve the increased dynamism that stems from acquisitions of Harrison and Danjuma.
Despite Saints' woes last season, Adams plundered five goals and three assists from just 23 league starts, taking 1.7 shots and creating 0.9 key passes per game, very much the "focal point" – according to former Southampton midfielder Jo Tessem – that Everton need.
For a striker, 0.9 key passes is not half bad, with Calvert-Lewin averaging 0.5 and Maupay averaging 0.3, for example.
By introducing such a selfless, multi-faceted talisman, the goalscoring fortunes of Harrison and Danjuma would improve, but perhaps more integrally, it could be a sure-fire way of ensuring Dwight McNeil continues his Midas touch in front of goal.
Signing from Burnley for £20m in 2021 upon the Clarets' relegation from the Premier League, McNeil started slowly but finished the term with seven goals and three assists – Everton's top scorer in the division, somewhat alarmingly.
The £25k-per-week winger also created 11 big chances and averaged 1.4 key passes per outing, and his varied approach could set him up to blend seamlessly with Adams, who could offer something different to the Toffees attack.
Hailed as "magnificent" by scout Ryan Williams for his purple patch at the end of the previous campaign, scoring five goals and supplying one assist across the final 12 league matches, McNeil shone despite the discord plaguing the Everton attack.
But with the 27-year-old Saints striker entering the fold, Dyche could be making a move that, while it might go under the radar, would bolster the squad and increase the fluidity and harmony on Merseyside, pushing the club one step further toward security away from the pit of the Premier League table.