Everton have turned a proverbial page since Christmas, with new owners, The Friedkin Group, dismissing Sean Dyche after the resilient manager conceded that he had taken the Toffees as far as he could.
Then came David Moyes. The Scottish tactician had won the Conference League with West Ham United – in the second of three successive European campaigns – but left at the end of the 2023/24 season. He took a sabbatical of sorts, but the pull of Goodison Park at its swansong was too much to resist.
Moyes had already led Everton across 11 seasons and 518 matches before taking the plunge as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Old Trafford in 2013.
Everton have turned a page, ending Farhad Moshiri‘s dysfunctional ownership. It had been a long time coming, with Everton languishing beneath their pedigree for so many years. Plenty went wrong on the transfer front, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
The better sales under Farhad Moshiri
Moshiri’s reign was branded with the frustration of numerous botched incomings, the likes of Cenk Tosun, Moise Kean and Yerry Mina (among more) arriving on big fees but failing to provide.
However, looking at it from the other end of the lens, the Blues did bank some large fees for players that have since proved overpayment from the suitors in question.
Richarlison, for example, thrived on Merseyside and earned a whopping £60m transfer to Tottenham Hotspur in 2022. It’s been tough for the forward since, struggles for form and fitness inhibiting his career.
Selling Idrissa Gueye to Paris Saint-Germain for £30m before re-signing the combative midfielder in a £2m deal was also a shrewd piece of business, albeit one that came as a result of Jean-Philippe Gbamin falling by the wayside.
Another departure that perhaps flies under the radar is the package put together for Nikola Vlasic‘s sale. Somehow, Moshiri turned a profit on the Croatian winger.
Everton struck gold selling this flop
In September 2017, Everton signed Vlasic from Hajduk Split for about £8m, with the 19-year-old forward touted for big things.
Vlasic’s ball-carrying ability and skilful style suggested that he could have been a divisional star, but he only played 12 top-flight fixtures under Ronald Koeman, with both his goals for Everton coming against Cypriot side Apollon Limassol in the Europa League.
He didn’t settle in Liverpool, for the young star moved to Russian side CSKA Moskow on loan for the 2018/19 season before the move was made permanent in 2019 for a reported £14m fee. The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland had said that it was “baffling” that Vlasic couldn’t even make the first-team bench at times, but his swift exit spoke clearly of an unhappy marriage in new surroundings.
The fact that Everton turned a £6m profit on a player who offered very little is a testament to Moshiri and former sporting director Marcel Brand’s negotiating powers, however, the sheer number of failures does suggest that this and the few other deals mentioned above were outliers in the grand scheme.
That said, Vlasic’s career hasn’t exactly taken off since. While the 27-year-old has enjoyed comparative success in Italy with Torino, he’s only notched 23 goal contributions across all competitions. Looking at that alongside his overall career prolificness, you’d have to say that Everton cashed in at the perfect time.
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Nikola Vlasic – Career Statistics |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Club |
Apps |
Goals |
Assists |
|
Hajduk Split |
120 |
13 |
20 |
|
CSKA Moscow |
108 |
33 |
21 |
|
Torino |
90 |
10 |
13 |
|
West Ham |
31 |
1 |
2 |
|
Everton |
19 |
2 |
1 |
|
Stats via Transfermarkt |
|||
Oh, he returned to the Premier League with West Ham – who, curiously, were led by Moyes at the time – for a £26m fee, but he failed to inspire in England once more and left with his tail between his legs.
Still in the thick of his supposedly prime years, Transfermarkt record Vlasic to bear a £6m market value, which is even lower than the 32-year-old Abdoulaye Doucoure (about £7m), who is out of contract at the end of the current campaign.
Doucoure, a hot topic at present after his part in igniting the denouement of the Merseyside derby, is a seasoned Premier League star, sure, but this only goes to show that Vlasic’s natural ability wasn’t able to translate to success within the rigorous Premier League.
Everton did well cashing in when they did, but such a deal sits on the fringe of a detrimental period in the club’s history that, finally, has been put to bed.
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