Everton receive transfer offers from Ipswich and Swansea with Coventry and Stoke in race for £10m Ellis Simms

Everton have already received offers from both Ipswich and Swansea as the race hots up to sign striker Ellis Simms, the Daily Mail reports.

The forward was called back from his loan at Sunderland in January last season amid a dearth of forward options at Goodison Park, and scored his first goal for the club in the 2-2 draw at Chelsea under Sean Dyche.

But the Toffees boss doesn’t appear to see him as a genuine option for next season and The Times have reported that he has an asking price of up to £10million to leave this summer (2 July).

To that end there is no shortage of interest in the 22-year-old, with both Stoke City and Coventry City also after him during the transfer window.

Ipswich are thought to “have money” for a deal, while Coventry look set to get it when they sell star striker and former Everton target Viktor Gyokeres, who is thought to be on his way to Sporting Lisbon.

While the wisdom of letting one of the few current striking options at the club leave without replacements already lined up has to be questioned it appears Simms is indeed now likely to move on.

The Toffees need cash and £10million would help Dyche fund some low-value deals as he looks to augment a squad that only escaped relegation on the final day.

But given the premium that is attached to strikers it is hard to escape the conclusion that Everton might be about to lose another valuable asset for a reduced price, thanks to the fact that he has a year left on his contract.

He may only have one Premier League goal but he scored seven times on loan with Hearts two seasons ago, and netted seven in the second tier in the first half of the past campaign so he knows where the goal is.

And when Gyokeres is set to go for ” close to £18.5m” [Daily Mail, 2 July], and another Toffees target, Sheffield United’s Iliman Ndaiye, proved out of reach for £20m in January, Everton could perhaps get more.

But, with four teams after Simms the possibility that a bidding war pushes the price up to a more satisfactory level would appear relatively strong if he isn’t long for Goodison Park.