Amadou Onana will complete his move to Aston Villa this week, offering Everton an insurance policy that will help them keep Jarrad Branthwaite and further ammunition for what insiders are hailing as a “dynamic, front foot” recruitment strategy.
Onana has now agreed personal terms over a £50m move to Villa Park, with the rest of the formalities expected to be completed by Friday.
It’s a transfer that makes sense: the hugely talented Onana gets to fulfil his ambition to play in the Champions League while Everton make a sizeable profit on a player who at times looked like a slightly uneasy fit for Sean Dyche’s preferred midfield model.
The money recouped also reaffirms Everton’s stance on Branthwaite, who has been the subject of two offers from Manchester United that fell well below their £80m valuation.
The Red Devils are poised to sign defender Leny Yoro from Lille in a £52m deal but retain their interest in Branthwaite – although their strange negotiating stance is understood to have irked some at Everton.
Indeed as i revealed a month ago there is increasing confidence at Goodison Park that the England centre-back will stay this summer, which has been aided by some smart work on outgoing transfers by director of football Kevin Thelwell.
Branthwaite is viewed as “central” to Everton’s plans for next season and – as has been emphasised since the start of the close season – there is no pressing financial need to sell him.
Instead the focus is on reinvesting the Onana money, with a central midfielder to replace the Belgium international and another winger on Everton’s radar.
It’s understood that Leeds United’s Wilfried Gnonto is one of Everton’s targets, although the belief is that could be a tricky deal to do. Napoli’s Denmark international Jesper Lindstrom has also been linked.
Whoever joins, it’s expected Everton will stick to a transfer policy which has seen them prioritise younger, quicker and more dynamic players who will give Dyche the chance to add a different dimension to his team next season.
There is noticeably more cohesion to Everton’s work this summer, with the chase for Hull City’s Jaden Philogene a case in point. The Toffees were understood to have brokered an agreement with the Tigers for the exciting winger but walked away when the valuation increased, having baulked at the prospect of a bidding war.
Everton are currently in the Republic of Ireland ahead of a pre-season game against Sligo Rovers with signs of positivity around the club. There is the possibility of new owners who would invest substantially in the club over the coming months.
i has been told the Friedkin Group’s prospective purchase of Everton remains “on track” as advisors for the Texan bidder wade through what is described as a “very complicated” picture.
The club’s debt structure is difficult to unpick – which is why those close to the deal continue to say there are “no guarantees” it will complete – but nothing has been discovered in the process so far that has altered the huge enthusiasm the group has for taking over Everton.
“There’s a huge upside to the deal,” one source close to the group told i. But given the turbulence at Goodison Park over recent months, it should be read as a good thing that they are undergoing detailed due diligence.
Representatives of the Friedkin Group were on Merseyside earlier this month for talks around the deal but sources stress a deal is not imminent. Indeed there remains no timescale and the Premier League’s Owners and Directors’ Test by itself could take several weeks.
That is part of the reason why Everton’s approach in the transfer market – no longer kicking the can down the road on incomings or outgoings, waiting for new ownership – feels so much more encouraging.