Everton have confirmed that young forward Anthony Gordon has left the club and joined Premier league rivals Newcastle United for a fee of around £45 million.
There will probably be mixed feelings amongst Everton supporters at this news. For some it might be disappointment that a young talent who emerged through the ranks at the club has departed.
However, for my part and I suspect many other Blues’ fans too, his recent behaviour and poor performances make his departure something I’m pretty comfortable with.
Things seemed to change last summer when Chelsea’s alledged interest in him became known and he seemed to let it all go to his head a bit.
At any rate, it’s become clear in the last few days that he obviously didn’t any longer want to stay at Goodison Park.
I would though have ideally liked the Toffees’ to get more for the player and had Chelsea’s interest been genuine last summer (which is not certain) the club could have got another £20 million for him.
There are reports that Gordon didn’t want to travel to London to face West Ham in the side’s last Premier League game as he had already decided he finally wanted to leave.
Whatever the truth of that, Gordon has now gone and Everton have a little extra cash in the kitty that wasn’t neccesarily expected.
One thing that is a little concerning when looking at this transfer is that it is one of the more talented assets who has left the club and of course he’s a forward too.
It does give the impression a little of a sinking ship with the better or more attractive players to other clubs, all departing one by one.
Gordon has joined Richarlison who departed last summer for Spurs’ and leaves the Blues’ even more short of attacking options than before.
Going into this transfer window it was critical that the Toffees’ brought in at least two new forwards and I think three, as a minimum. Now that need is even greater of course.
We are still waiting for confirmation that Sean Dyche is actually to succeed Frank Lampard and become the club’s eighth manager during Farhad Moshiri’s time as owner.
Along with that uncertainty, not a single player has yet been added to bolster the squad that the former Burnley boss will be taking charge of.
He will have to work minor miracles to get more out of these players, so many of whom have been so consistently poor. Fresh talent is essential.
It’s such a mess as usual with this club. And, with the days and hours left in the transfer window counting down it’s going to be a real challenge for Dyche to bring in the players he so desperately needs to keep his new team up.
As so often there are endless reports of this or that player being targeted by Everton and yet none of these stories seem truly concrete and so we continue to wait and wait.