Everton transfer news: Sam Allardyce laughs off rumours Toffees will move for Sunderland’s Lamine Kone

SAM ALLARDYCE has laughed off suggestions he is set to launch a move to bring his former Sunderland defender Lamine Kone to Everton.

The new Blues chief brought the Ivory Coast defender to England back in January 2016 while in charge of the Black Cats.

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Kone, 28, produced a number of outstanding displays to help Big Sam keep Sunderland in the top-flight.

But since then his, and the North East side's, form has dropped dramatically and following relegation last season they now find themselves in the lower reaches of the Championship.

Despite that fact, Everton have still been linked with the centre-half, but Allardyce dismissed those rumours this afternoon.

He said: "What a shock that one is. I didn't think that one would come up. Did you?

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"There's no truth in it at the moment.

"Lamine was one of the outstanding defenders who produced a remarkable run of performances when he first arrived at Sunderland to help us stay in the Premier League but since then I'm not quite sure what's happened to his career.

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"It's obviously slipped way down from where he was when he performed with me so that puts a doubt about his ability to sustain that level of performance.

"So I'm not sure whether I'd be interested or not to be honest.

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"But I found him to be not only a fantastic footballer but a fantastic lad when he was playing with me in that period of time."

The Toffees almost completed a £19m deal to sign Kone from Sunderland before it broke down at the last minute, leaving the African devastated.

Speaking over the collapse of that transfer, Kone said: "Everton, they are not a small club.

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"There were other clubs interested too. But it was not concrete like Everton.

"It was a very good opportunity for me. A golden opportunity. They are playing for the top positions. They could be in Europe.

"So it was an interesting challenge for me. At the time, I was disappointed."