Everton boss Roberto Martinez will have to pay £5million UP FRONT to be reunited with want-away Wigan striker Arouna Kone accordng to the Daily Star
Martinez has met the trigger figure placed on Ivory Cost international Kone by the club he quit for Goodison last month as he sets about tweaking the squad he’s inherited from David Moyes.
However, Latics are demanding the money in one payment – cash that will be needed for a massive post-relegation rebuilding job by the Spaniard’s replacement as manager, Owen Coyle.
Martinez wants to spread the fee over time, but Wigan supremo Dave Whelan is in no mood to to help his old manager.
Kone has made it clear that he is looking to follow Martinez to Merseyside, and that puts Wigan on the spot.
But they will stick to the letter of the clause in his contract and ask for the cash immediately.
Martinez and the Toffees’ chairman Bill Kenwright will have to come with the cash in one ‘hit’ and are trying to raise those funds.
Everton may offer Wigan a player in exchange as a sweetener, as Coyle is an admirer of some of their fringe performers.
But the most likely outcome is that they come up with the full £5m when they have those funds cleared.
Meanwhile, Everton reserve-team boss Andy Holden has been sacked – the first major casualty of the new manager’s reign.
Holden, 50, who has been at Goodison for almost 20 years, got the chop as Martinez started shaping his own staff, making way for new arrivals such as his old Wigan assistant, Graeme Jones.
There will be plenty of room for newcomers, as Moyes is taking Everton back-room staff Steve Round, Chris Woods and Jimmy Lumsden with him to Old Trafford.
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