In a difficult transfer market where clubs are being more mindful of how they spend their funds after the seismic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Everton have found a way to do some key business.
While transfer deadline day inevitably focuses on who comes through the door as opposed to who leaves, for Everton, a club who are having to be mindful of breaching Financial Fair Play regulations owing to their successive loss making seasons, making sure that they balance the books and give Rafa Benitez some room to manoeuvre next summer is key.
When Italian Moise Kean arrived at Everton back in 2019 from Juventus for an initial fee of £25m it was seen as a moment when the Blues were really declaring their intention to make a mark, landing one of European football's most sought after teenagers.
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It was a deal that didn't work out as hoped for Evertonians, with Kean failing to deliver the kind of performances he had been doing in Turin and struggling to adapt to life in the Premier League. A record of two goals in 32 Premier League games wasn't the kind of return that had been hoped for or envisaged.
But Everton were wise to act early and send Kean out on loan last season to avoid his value dipping by simply kicking his heels on the fringes at Goodison Park, and getting him in at Paris Saint-Germain has enabled them to secure an important financial deal.
His form at PSG was solid but, given the summer business that the French side did with the likes of Lionel Messi it seemed increasingly unlikely that they would make that deal permanent, there wasn't really the need.
The issue Everton faced was that without PSG interest, and with them being one of very few European teams that have been happy to spend freely, that there were fewer options available for moving Kean on. With him not really being a part of the thinking moving forward for Benitez it would have meant another season of being on the fringes or being placed on loan somewhere else, his value potentially diminishing.
The problem with the market hasn't been with the very biggest deals. The clubs who can afford to take the financial strain of the pandemic have continued to be active in the market. It is the drop off in deals worth the £25-£40m mark, deals that have become increasingly common in recent years.
But Everton have managed to get around that and given themselves some financial security over the Kean deal moving forward.
Juventus put out a statement detailing a two-year loan deal for Kean with an obligation to buy at the end of it.
The statement read: "Juventus Football Club announces that an agreement with Everton Football Club for the temporary acquisition, until 30 June 2023, of the registration rights of the player Moise Bioty Kean has been finalised for a consideration of €7m, of which €3m for sporting season 2021/2022 and €4m for sporting season 2022/2023.
"The agreement entails the obligation for Juventus to definitely acquire the player’s registrations rights, subject to the achievement of certain given sporting objectives by the end of the season 2022/2023.
"The agreed consideration for the definitive acquisition is €28m, payable in three years.
"Furthermore, a maximum of €3m of cumulative bonuses are envisaged upon achievement of further sporting performance objectives."
Provided Kean meets these 'sporting objectives' then Juventus, a side who have been struck particularly hard by the pandemic financially, will fork out more than they received for the 19-year-old despite him having underachieved at Everton since his move and clearly deemed surplus to requirements.
For the Italian side it is a deal that works. They pay just £6m over the next two seasons through a loan fee and £24m at the end of it, by which time they will hope to be in ruder financial health and able to absorb those kind of costs more freely. For Everton it will be a £5m mark up on a player who cost £12.5m per Premier League goal.
Then there is the lightening of the load on the payroll.
Benitez has already had to be savvy and look to cheaper options to add to his squad, with both Demarai Gray and Andros Townsend enjoying good starts to their Toffees careers and costing, in terms of transfer fee, a combined £1.5m. Gray has already matched Kean's goal total for Everton.
For Everton owner Farhad Moshiri it represents a good piece of business and has seen the club show a strong arm in the transfer market, something that will be important for them moving forward as Benitez looks to try and shape his own side and build the kind of success that Moshiri wants to see for his investment.
On the balance sheet it will provide cash boosts for both the 2022 and 2023 accounts, while it will also remove the amortisation charge per year, which is around £5m, from when the deal is made permanent.
The 2020 accounts for Everton showed that the club made a loss of £139.9m. Among the negative impacts on the balance sheet was a £26.3m impairment charge for 2020, where the contraction of the transfer market during the onset of the pandemic meant that the was carrying the registration rights for some players on the balance sheet at a greater amount that would have been recoverable in the transfer market. It is possible that Kean would have formed part of that impairment charge.
For the likes of Manchester City and PSG, the decision by UEFA to allow for two years to be rolled into one when accounting for FFP has allowed for them to take the opportunity to add big names while the many others have been counting the cost.
For Everton the approach to the extended reporting period will allow them to get themselves back on track financially and place them in a far better position to attack the market from next summer. Kean's departure is the first step towards doing that.
