Everton’s chequered past in the transfer market is an indisputable thing, but there is something to admire about the club’s readiness to cash in on top talents when they no longer want to play under the Goodison Park lights.
This summer, Amadou Onana was sold to Premier League rivals Aston Villa for a £50m fee after a host of top European outfits expressed an interest, and the Toffees cashed in to reinvest elsewhere.
The previous high-priced sale, that of homegrown Anthony Gordon, stung at the time, but it’s not one that fans remain poignant over anymore.
Why Everton sold Anthony Gordon
Everton sold Gordon to Newcastle United in a deal worth £45m in January 2023 after the Scouse-born winger handed in a transfer request and forced himself out of Frank Lampard’s side at the midpoint of the 2022/23 campaign.
There’s been no love lost between the club and their youth product, who is booed upon every return to Goodison Park and is looked back on as a good talent but one who didn’t produce the best results for the club at a time of great need, having posted merely seven goals across 78 senior showings.
It’s a good thing, in hindsight, that the Merseysiders cashed in on the player when he did, for his head was turned and he only earned £10k per week. It was a good situation, and in £15m summer recruit Iliman Ndiaye, Everton might have found their new star wide forward.
Everton’s transfer history over recent years has indeed been chequered, however, with Brazilian midfielder Allan plying his trade with the side at around the same time as Gordon – however, he cost Farhad Moshiri and co far more.
Allan's total cost at Everton
Allan is not the most memorable market blunder across the past several years, but he certainly didn’t produce the desired results and did not arrive on the cheap.
Signed from Napoli for a fee of £22m, Allan arrived with a weight of expectation after drawing praise throughout his years in Italy, namely hailed as a “defender’s dream” by Everton’s Michael Keane, with his energy and tough-tackling nature making for the prototypical number six.
It didn’t work out, though, with broadcaster and Toffees supporter David Downie even labelling the midfielder as an “imposter” after one particularly poor display.
Appearances
57
Goals
0
Assists
3
Yellow cards
14
Red cards
1
Allan would go on to join Al-Wahda in the UAE for an undisclosed fee in September 2022, but it’s fair to say that the damage had already been done, with £29m drained of Everton’s resources when combining the transfer fee paid with the South American’s £70k-per-week salary.
That’s a whopping seven times more than Gordon’s pay packet was during his fledgling phase at Everton, as well as (for further contextualization) double the £35k-per-week wage that Jarrad Branthwaite earns under Sean Dyche’s wing today.
Given that Everton have been plagued by PSR breaches in recent times, this is the exact kind of deal that will be looked back on with regret, for a different track might have yielded far more auspicious results.
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