Sean Dyche explains thinking in allowing Neal Maupay to leave Everton for Brentford
Sean Dyche has revealed the thinking behind allowing Neal Maupay to join Brentford on loan on deadline day without Everton bringing anyone in.
The French striker re-joined his former club on a season-long loan deal on deadline day, having found himself out of Dyche’s plans at Goodison Park for the upcoming season.
And Dyche, who also lost Alex Iwobi, Tom Cannon and Demarai Gray in the final days of the window, has revealed the process the club went through before authorising the deal on short notice.
“I can assure there are lots of players we’ve not wanted to lose in my time,” he said, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo (23 September).
“Business is business. I have to make really tough decisions, do we keep that player, can we keep that player. Some are on big contracts. If we do that, we need to do that.
“Bodies against performance against production against wages against someone else coming in. These all have to be factored in.
“It obviously gets tough. We are having to let players go first and then let’s see. It was the reverse of being proactive. We brought in a lot of money but it was very late in the window and couldn’t do anything with it. That was the challenge and he was part of that thinking.
“Productivity, game time, wages, performances against someone else coming in. That has to balance. The financial balance to make it work. It has been a tough window, trust me.”
No worries
For once, Everton aren’t particularly short in attacking areas even despite the late exits in the transfer window.
Dyche brought in all of Arnaut Danjuma, Jack Harrison, Youssef Chermiti and Beto during the summer, while Dwight McNeil and Ashley Young are also capable of playing in those positions.
The deal for Iwobi to leave made sense as he was in the final year of his deal, while Gray had made it clear that he didn’t want to be here and getting £7m for Cannon made a lot of sense too considering he was way down the pecking order.
Maupay was likely on pretty decent wages and with him also struggling to get regular minutes letting him leave makes sense, although obviously an injury crisis could see it come back to bite us.
But nobody was blaming the club for letting him go and everyone was pretty happy to get him out for the coming season, so Dyche and the board made the right call.
In other Everton news, Toffees make contact with Champions League winger with club open to January exit.