Five Liam Delap alternatives that Everton could target

A balls-to-the-wall attacker like Beto. Hard to take your eyes off him. Only 22.

Hang on a minute! What if there is no wall? :-)

Or are we all resigned to only ever playing one man up front?

Getting him out of Villarreal would be the trickier part after Champions League qualification!

As I live in Spain and watch a fair few games, Barry was very raw and may not even make the grade in a competitive Premier League.

Villarreal are owned by the local Ceramica Company and don't need to sell. Unless someone comes in with a silly bid.

I think Moyes could improve him. I have seen him play several times, and have been impressed.

I'd look at Ivanovic from Millwall. 12 goals in 37 games, 20, Serbian, 6ft-2in, first season in England. That's pretty promising for a young lad. Somebody will probably buy him, send him on loan, and then trouser a nice profit.

Players out of contract next summer:– Mateta, Wissa, Embolo, Muniz, Mbeumo, Cherki, Bakayoko. If there's no option, some of these are going cheap this summer.

I'd happily loan him back to do that job, but we'd still need a No 9.

Chermiti was reportedly impressing Dyche's coaching staff pre-season before he unfortunately got injured. Admittedly, we haven't seen enough of him to conclude if the long injury lay off has seen his skills wane.

A run of games with more than 5 minutes of ‘grass' time will probably enable him to kick on, but not sure if Moyes will be patient with him.

Josh Sargent is a decent player but no way do I see him cutting it at the top level. He didn't even make the latest USA national team squad. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I'd be sorely disappointed with that signing at any price.

We have three strikers at the club better than him already.

Demirovic: very average and not cheap.

Lucca: very tall and not that good. Disaster in only other spell outside of Italy for Ajax.

Richarlison: very injured.

Woltemade: very strange player. Ridiculously tall dribbler. I think he'd be a terrible fit for us - like Scammaca was at West Ham - despite being a good player. Not dynamic enough for our purposes.

Sergeant: very Championship

Barry: Beto but younger? Bit like Bonny at Parma? Possibly flattered by physical attributes but not sure whether he's that good.

I don't think any would improve on Beto or DCL and most are worse. Abline or Barry might come good if they kick on markedly from where they are now. Could take a while.

For me the stand out candidate by a mile is Santiago Castro of Bologna.

Re Castro, everybody seems to agree he has tremendous potential -- Italy's trying to lure him away from Argentina -- but you're not gonna ask an undersized 20-year-old with one top-level season (8 goals) to lead the line in the Prem. He could be a great young buy, but doesn't seem like a Delap alternative to me.

Agreed on Sargent. Fierce competitor who has become a quality finisher, but absent great pace or explosiveness. He's fringe in the US picture for a reason.

Retain Beto and buy for potential, for example Santiago Castro as Robert says. £30M plus but Italian clubs will usually sell if the price is right.

I'd be looking at keeping Beto around the squad and then looking for a slightly different profile type.

Obviously we still don't know what's happening with DCL, but the fact that he still hasn't signed a new contract with days remaining tells me that he doesn't see his future here and frankly I still think we'd be mad now offering him a new one albeit it would be greatly reduced wages.

I don't discount some of what Calvert-Lewin has done for us over the years but I can't ignore that he's the worst natural finisher I have seen leading the line in the last two decades either, coupled with the injury record.

I still think we need two strikers in this summer.

I love Richarlison but unless it was a loan deal I wouldn't be revisiting that one if it meant having to pay millions out.

Looks similar to me to Igor Jesus and the other Brazillian lad Alberto, arguably less of a risk though? I think we will get a statement about Dom this week and will know one way or another.

Yes he was poor in the Premier League last time – but so were Norwich – and he was stuck out on left wing.

I still think he could be a Moyes style signing.

Igor Jesus seems more like a wing forward / second striker than a main striker. Yuri Alberto is more of a target man style striker but also a very good footballer. I think Castro is better than both of them – albeit he's 4 years younger too so could take longer to settle in.

Santiago Castro looks a talent though I wonder if he's not a great fit for the PL? He has some great technical skills but is not the fastest or strongest (though not weak or slow by any stretch). Would he do better in a posession based team perhaps but I wonder if he's a good fit for a counter attacking team? Has Aguero/Lautaro vibes and could certainly be a great player but just wonder if he suits Moyes?

Someone like Barry (or Bonny) has those physical attributes but as Robert suggested may not be an improvement on Beto. Though could outstrip him in time.

Ultimately I suppose we are unlikely to be able to afford an improvement on Beto currently. So taking a punt on someone with potential is probably our best move. My bet would still be Evan Guessand who is fast and technical enough to play on the RW while he adapts to the league and managed 12 goals and 8 assists last season. 20 G+A at 23 years old in Ligue 1 is a good achievement and shows he should be ready to impact straight away in the PL. Brighton are looking at him apparently which is always a good sign.

Price will no doubt be an issue, which is why Delap at £30M was appealing. difficult to guage prices for strikers and depends on competing interest. Castro for example I've seen valuation ranging from £25M to £40M. The reality is we are not going to beat the likes of Spurs, Newcastle, Inter, Atletico etc to players and so may have to either think outside the box or wait for some more dominos to fall as lots of big teams want a new striker.

It's a shame we can't buy both!

There's a few interesting players who are a little down on their luck and could be available on favourable loan deals:

Evan Ferguson

Alexandr Mitrovic

Tammy Abraham

Youssoufa Moukoko

Datro Fofana

Brian Brobbey

El Bilal Toure

I remember being really keen on Bilal Toure who then immediately got a bad injury and is now finding his way back to some form. He's only 23 and is probably surplus to requirements at Atalanta. Maybe a loan with a £16/17m option?

Also like the idea of a punt of Promise David from Belgian. Raw but rapid and huge!

Wheres Straquilarsi?

What about Karim Konate from Salzburg? Has just come back from an ACL injury but surely the kind of quick footed quality finisher we should be after?

Also, just seen links to him from AS Roma? Let them buy him and loan to us!

Loan with obligation to buy might work for both clubs.

If the aim is to find a player to out-score Beto next season, then the chances are very low.

We're probably just naming players who are of the same similar standard to the likes of Onuachu of Saints and Daka of Leicester here.

I'm alwats happy to take a punt on a player like that to see if he can rediscover his form and grow on potential but doubt he'd be ready to replace Beto and he'd probably be best served going somewhere he'd get more game time.