As most of their fans will openly attest, Everton have not always been the most shrewd of operators when it comes to the transfer market.
The Toffees have built up something of a reputation in recent years for spending significant sums of money on players who simply aren’t good enough, be that the £30m on Beto last year or the £27m they spent on Turkish forward Cenk Tosun in January 2018.
What made that second deal so much worse was that the fee paid likely came from the £47m profit they made on one of the club’s best sales, which, given how poorly Tosun turned out, was ultimately money wasted.
With that said, who was this star player who earned Everton so much money?
Everton's significant sales
So, before we get to the pricey player in question, let’s look at a couple of other significant sales Everton have made in recent years, starting with Amadou Onana.
The Belgian international joined the Toffees for around £33m in August 2022 and would go on to score four goals and provide three assists in 72 appearances in Blue.
However, while undeniably talented, the former LOSC Lille ace wasn’t undroppable under Dyche last season, starting just 23 Premier League games, so when Aston Villa came knocking with a £50m offer in the summer, selling him felt like a win for all involved.
Before the 23-year-old midfielder, the last player to be sold for £50m or more was Brazilian forward Richarlison, who joined Tottenham Hotspur for about £60m in July 2022, and unlike the Belgian, losing the former Watford dynamo was a far more significant blow.
For example, in his 152 appearances for the team, the 27-year-old marksman racked up a seriously impressive tally of 53 goals and 13 assists, equating to an average of a goal involvement every 2.30 games.
However, if we go back even further, back to the summer of 2017, we get to Everton’s record sale: Romelu Lukaku.
The sale of Romelu Lukaku
Yes, the star in question is none other than goalscoring extraordinaire Lukaku, who joined Everton under the guidance of Roberto Martinez for a then-club-record fee of around £28m in the summer of 2014 after impressing on loan the season prior.
During his time on Merseyside, the former Chelsea ace was utterly sensational. When you include his year on loan, the Belgian “phenomenon”, as Sky Sports presenter Dougie Critchley dubbed him, racked up an outrageous tally of 87 goals and 27 assists in just 166 games, meaning he averaged a goal involvement every 1.45 games for a team outside the traditional ‘big six.’
Unsurprisingly, such incredible and sustained form led to interest from outside parties, and in the summer of 2017, Manchester United agreed to pay a staggering £75m for the then 24-year-old, and while the fans would have probably rather kept the player, £47m profit is hard to turn down.
In the years since, the 119-capped international has endured a career full of ups and downs, as while he’s won league titles in Italy, he failed to live up to expectations at Old Trafford and utterly flopped following his £97.5m move back to Chelsea in 2021.
However, to his credit, the Antwerpen-born goal machine has been in fine form over the last two years, racking up 25 goals and assists in 47 appearances for AS Roma last season and already scoring three goals and providing five assists in eight appearances for Antonio Conte’s Napoli this year.
Everton
166
87
27
Inter Milan
132
78
23
RSC Anderlecht
98
41
17
Manchester United
96
42
12
Chelsea
59
15
2
AS Roma
47
21
4
West Bromwich Albion
38
17
4
Napoli
8
3
5
Ultimately, while he could have become a true Everton great had he stayed, the club did very well to make so much money off his sale in 2017, although the less said about the decision to then spend a good portion of that on Tosun a few months later the better.
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