Everton transfer news: Swansea offer Joel Piroe in swap deal for Ellis Simms amid talks

Swansea have offered Everton Joel Piroe as part of a swap deal that would see Ellis Simms go the other way, according to the Daily Mail.

The Welsh side are one of four in the race for the Toffees forward, with Ipswich also having made an offer for the 22-year-old ahead of Stoke City and Coventry.

Everton are in the market for forwards and with the Sky Blues’ Swedish ace Viktor Gyokeres now looking likely to head to Portugal with Sporting Lisbon it is the Swans who are in possession of another of the club’s attacking targets, with Wales Online reporting on 29 June that inquiries had been made over a deal to sign Piroe.

Forwards are a priority during the transfer window but Sean Dyche is ready to let Simms leave, despite the Englishman scoring his first senior goal for the club under him, with an asking price of up to £10million [Times, 2 July].

So with both Everton and Swansea after each other’s strikers a swap move may be on the cards, and has already been discussed.

It might seem sensible to keep hold of Simms and add to the attacking positions around him but if Dyche doesn’t have big plans for him when he has a year left on his contract it looks logical that the one-in one-out move could happen.

Piroe has scored 44 goals for the Championship side in all competitions over the past two seasons after arriving from PSV Eindhoven so he has proven he knows how to find the net.

And while he hasn’t got experience in the Premier League so far Everton are going to have to think outside the box considering they don’t have a major transfer budget to spend.

Therefore they need to use what they have at their disposal and when they are thought to need to sell in order to buy it would cut out the middle man to trade directly.

Simms showed some encouraging signs in the second half of last season, and the past two campaigns have shown that the Toffees need multiple options, but if Dyche believes he could get more from Dutchman Piroe, 23, then he may see him as an upgrade.

Sourcing goal scorers from the second tier can be a risk, but the likes of Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney have come up from the lower leagues in recent years and become leading top flight strikers so in the Toffees’ position it makes as much sense as anywhere.