Goodison News View: Everton learning from their own mistakes at last
Each and every Everton supporter can admit that the club’s recruitment in recent years simply hasn’t been good enough, not by a long shot.
Their transfer business in the 2017/18 season can be pinpointed as the moment where it all went badly wrong for the Toffees.
That was the summer, you’ll recall, that they sold Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United for mega money -and promptly wasted the proceeds.
The failure of that window, and many transfer windows since, is why Wednesday’s big Goodison Park-based transfer news was such a breath of fresh air for Blues fans.
Sky Sports News reported that the club have turned down a colossal £85million offer from Spanish champions Barcelona for influential forward Richarlison.
The report states that the Merseyside outfit made the decision because they were determined to strengthen their squad rather than weaken it, while it was a recognition that the Brazilian international is arguably the finest player at the club at this moment in time.
What their refusal to deal with Barca demonstrates, though, is that the Toffees have finally learned from their mistakes, specifically the errors they made in the summer of 2017.
That window they spent over £100million on Gylfi Sigurdsson, Michael Keane, Jordan Pickford and Davy Klaassen.
None of those have been an unequivocal success. Klaassen was quickly shipped off, while Keane is now warming the bench. Sigurdsson is seemingly on his way out in the near future, while Pickford hasn’t fully convinced either.
So the decision-makers at Goodison have seemingly realised two things from that awful summer. Firstly, that it’s never good to sell your best player. And secondly, that they can’t be trusted to spend big money.
In other Everton news, the club’s director of football Marcel Brands has reportedly opened contract talks with a key player.