Given that Lucas Digne’s Goodison Park exit appears to be an increasing inevitability, Evertonians will be hoping that their club at least gets a ‘good sale’ with the left-back’s departure.
At 28, Digne should be at the peak of his powers.
He’s a current international for reigning world champions France and only penned a new bumper long-term contract with Everton less than a year ago to supposedly ward off interest from the likes of Manchester City.
Such a combination, under normal circumstances at least, would surely ensure a fee north of £30million would be coming the Blues’ way this month for a player who cost an initial £18million back in 2018.
However, following what’s been a clear fall-out between Digne and his Everton manager Rafa Benitez – who hasn’t picked him since the 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool back on December 1 and claims that the former Paris Saint-Germain, Roma and Barcelona man no longer wants to play for the club – there must be fears that the amount received could be compromised.
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Everton might have hoped that nouveau riche Newcastle United’s interest might have helped push up Digne’s price but it seems in the wake of Kieran Trippier’s nightmare debut against Cambridge United when the League One side stunned a 51,395 crowd at St James’ Park to dump Eddie Howe’s side out of the FA Cup, Digne seems less enthusiastic at the prospect of joining his fellow full-back in the North East for the relegation battle ahead.
Instead Digne is reportedly in ‘advanced talks’ with Aston Villa over what arguably looks to be a sideways step for him.
The Midlanders obviously banked big money last summer when Jack Grealish became British football’s first internal nine-figure transfer with his £100million move to Manchester City but they’ve already reinvested a considerable chunk of that on Emiliano Buendia (£38million); Leon Bailey (£25million); Danny Ings (£25millon) and on-loan Philippe Coutinho even if they’re having to pay less than half of the former Liverpool man’s Barcelona wages.
While Evertonians – like all football fans – don’t like their team to be considered a selling club and high-profile exits such as Romelu Lukaku and John Stones proved painful, at least those departures brought in what were considered substantial fees at the time.
The truth is that the Blues haven’t brought in anything like big money in the transfer market since the summer of 2019 now when they raised £29million from the sale of Idrissia Gueye to petrodollar-fuelled Paris Saint-Germain and £22.5million from Ademola Lookman going to RB Leipzig with both players being moved on at a tidy profit.
Incredibly, in the subsequent two-and-a-half years, the £1.8million paid by Stade de Reims for Fraser Hornby, a player whose first team experience amounted to 82 minutes in a Europa League dead rubber at Apollon Limassol, remains Everton’s most-lucrative sale.
In that same period, the Blues are understood to have received a similar amount from Nice for Morgan Schneiderlin, another France international who came in from Manchester United for £20million in January 2017.
Both exited in the summer of 2020 in the same window that Oumar Niasse, a £13.5million purchase from Lokomotiv Moscow in January 2016 – making him the third most-expensive purchase in the club’s history at the time, finally exited on a free transfer after his contract expired.
Sandro Ramirez, another striker who flopped on Merseyside, suffered a similar fate in October 2020 when into the final season of his Everton contract, he was granted a free transfer move to Huesca.
Although James Rodriguez and Bernard both came to the Blues on free transfers, the South American pair departed to the Middle East for modest fees in 2021 with Qataris Al-Rayyan paying an undisclosed amount for the Colombian and United Arab Emirates outfit Sharjah paying a reported £700,000 for the Brazilian.
Everton will also have to wait to get their bulk of their money back on Moise Kean after he returned to Juventus last summer.
The Serie A side have an obligation to pay around £23million plus potential add-ons for the Italian international in the summer of 2023 but for now a two-year loan fee of less than £6million must suffice.
The prospect of replacing Digne and his hefty wages with two much younger full-backs in the shape of Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson who have already arrived this month might seem astute business.
And Digne's exit is ultimately far more palatable than other saleable assets likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Jordan Pickford.
However, with the Blues already feeling the pinch with Financial Fair Play regulations, they’re having to lean valuable lessons not only in terms of expensive acquisitions but ensuring they get value for money with those players departing Goodison Park.
