Farhad Moshiri finances Everton deal for Amadou Onana as Bill Kenwright vital in ‘huge coup’
Bill Kenwright and Kevin Thelwell worked closely together for Everton to sign Amadou Onana from Lille in a deal worth £33million, according to The Times journalist Paul Joyce.
He reported on the newspaper’s website on Tuesday (9 August) that the deal for Onana, 20, feels like a “huge coup” at Goodison Park with the Belgium midfielder finding himself compared to Patrick Vieira and ex-Blue Marouane Fellaini.
It is understood that under-fire chairman Kenwright was vital in getting the deal done while majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri financially supported the transfer after the club satisfied the Premier League they would not be violating any Financial Fair Play rules.
Will it work?
We’re excited by the arrival of Onana.
He’s a Belgium international coming to Everton from high-flying Ligue 1 side Lille and should plug a massive hole that needs filling in Frank Lampard’s midfield.
Hopefully he can be a terrific addition for the Blues and perform well for years to come.
Unfortunately, we’ve had so many big-money flops under Moshiri’s reign that it’s hard to shake that nagging voice at the back of our head that tells us to calm down and not expect too much from Onana.
It’ll take time for him to settle in and we won’t be drawn into making any conclusions about the Senegal-born defensive midfielder too soon.
But let’s face it, he cannot be worse than some of the midfield options Lampard already has at Goodison Park.
Onana is bound to be better than Andre Gomes, Tom Davies and even Allan so we’re hoping to see him in Lampard’s stating line-up as soon as possible.
He should make a big impact if he performs as well as he did at Lille.
However, as we said, it’s just hard to shake that one dissenting voice in our head.