Sam Allardyce has refused to rule out Everton signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Aubameyang emerged as a surprise January target for the Blues earlier this week with the attacker’s future at Borussia Dortmund appearing increasingly ominous.
The Gabon international failed to seal a move away from Dortmund last summer but remains in prolific form with 19 goals in his previous 20 Bundesliga games.
Everton’s failure to replace Romelu Lukaku is set to see them target a striker in the transfer window, and Allardyce refused to discount Aubameyang among them.
Asked whether the one-time Liverpool target would fit the bill as a successor to Lukaku, he replied: “Possibly.
“It is the hardest thing to recruit today; a centre-forward who scores goals and is the right type of centre-forward who scores goals for you.
“That’s the most expensive area on the pitch today.
“We’ve had a number of players here who have reasonably good goalscoring records [but] who haven’t settled in.
“Niasse, when he came from Russia, but has scored a few this year, and Sandro who hasn’t quite settled yet but scored lots of goals at Malaga last year.
“There are people who have scored goals here but if there’s one out there that’s ready and ready-made it would be, 1) expensive and 2) you have to ask, ‘is it the right one?’
“It’s my opinion that my first signing has to be correct; has to be the right signing for Everton and for my future, because if you make bad signings, you get the sack.
“If you make good signings, you become a better manager.”