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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Dave Powell

Why Everton have spent £33.5m on Amadou Onana

Everton Amadou Onana EPL James Tarkowski Dwight McNeil Frank Lampard Cenk Tosun Conor Coady Denise BarrettBaxendale Gylfi Sigurdsson

The Amadou Onana deal was one that not many outside the confines of Goodison Park and Finch Farm would have anticipated too long ago.

Everton, a club whose financial struggles and issues in making sure they fly underneath the Premier League's profit and sustainability regulations have been well documented, weren't hotly tipped to make too much of a splash in the transfer market this summer.

The early addition of James Tarkowski on a free transfer from relegated Burnley was seen as a good piece of business, the kind of transfer that the Toffees were anticipated to engage in more of as they sought to reduce their spend and wage bill following the exits of Richarlison to Tottenham Hotspur in a £60m deal and the release of big earners such as Fabian Delph, Cenk Tosun and Gylfi Sigurdsson at the end of their deals.

But in order to ensure that the club doesn't struggle in the same manner as last season, boss Frank Lampard had to be afforded some room for manoeuvre in the market. After all, relegation from the Premier League would cost the club a heck of a lot more financially than any summer investment.

There has had to be an element of pragmatism. Tarkowski is an assured performer at Premier League level who improves Everton, while Idrissa Gana Gueye's impending return at 32, and the addition of Wolverhampton Wanderers' Conor Coady at 29, give Lampard some security over recruits who can solve shorter term issues and raise the chances of stability this season considerably. And that is what Everton need, stability. They have to be a part of the Premier League machine year after year to make sure that they are driving revenues forward to fully recover from their issues and go into a new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock with the chance to truly maximise the revenue potential that will exist.

Short-termism is needed in some aspects of the club's recruitment, but in the addition of Onana for £33.5m from French side Lille feeds into a plan that they have to continue to push ahead with to aid their financial recovery.

Tarkowski, Coady and Gueye would offer little in real resale value for the club in the future. That's fine, though, not every signing arrives with the idea being to balloon their value and realise the profit further down the line. Some additions arrive to improve the team in the short to medium term, their value is in the here, now and not too distant future as opposed to several seasons down the line.

Richarlison was a deal that Everton reluctantly had to accept. The 25-year-old Brazilian was signed in a deal worth up to £50m from Watford and the Toffees will likely feel aggrieved that given the buoyancy of the market this summer, seen in the £60m signing by Chelsea of Brighton & Hove Albion full back Marc Cucurella, that they didn't get more for their most prized attacking asset.

The club have remained robust in their approach when dealing with interest in younger winger Anthony Gordon. He is a player who holds significant value in the future and who will be a key asset for the club this coming season.

Significant write downs in values from such deals as Sigurdsson, Tosun, Morgan Scheiderlin, Yannick Bolasie, Theo Walcott and Davy Klaassen in recent years have had a financial impact, and from an Everton perspective one thing they have to try and find a delicate balance with when recruiting in the circumstances in which they presently find themselves is making sure that there is the potential for future resale profit as well as the security that comes with signing older and more experienced campaigners.

Onana is 20, has one season of top flight football to his name in France, although he did have a campaign with Hamburg in Germany's second tier, and will arrive into the Premier League very much a rookie. There can be no certainty over how he will take to the top tier of English football but that will be reflected in the price. While £33.5m for a player who has played 31 league games in total in a top European league may seem high, Everton will be looking at the player he can be and whether he can grow into an established elite campaigner. His youth and potential drives the price, as does his now Premier League status, and if he impresses and drives Everton forward he will have suitors. That is an unavoidable consequence of signing young talent and not being part of the closed off European giants. But if and when that happens in the future it is important to ensure that Everton are able to command the biggest fee they can. Onana being a Belgian international already aids matters too.

Dwight McNeil, at 22, still falls into that category. As Burnley slumped, so did McNeil's form, but looking back to 2020 and his form at the time he was doing enough to be heavily linked with a £50m move to Manchester United. As opposed to when the club spent £20m on 28-year-old Theo Walcott, whose chances of rising value had diminished considerably, adding McNeil is a calculated risk. If he can't regain his form the club will be reasonably confident of achieving a similar resale value, but having had the bar as high as £50m two years ago he does retain the potential to see that climb once again.

It is the challenge that Lampard faces in building an Everton team on a budget that can not only compete right now, but that can grow into something more than a side treading water in mid-table in the future.

The deals all make sense. There has to be an element of reliability to the recruitment, but there also has to be the risk attached to some of the deals when it comes to how they thrive at Goodison Park. What had started out as a window that promised very little could end up defining what Everton in the next three, four or five years looks like.

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