Last summer, Everton had a well-documented pursuit of then-Southampton winger Tyler Dibling. The youngster did eventually end up signing for the Toffees, but the act of getting him to Merseyside often felt like a farce.
Enter this season's obsession, Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney, whom the Blues are said to be angling to add to the squad, and are reportedly in discussions with Boro over.
On the surface, that's all well and good. Everton should be in the business of buying younger players on the rise, increasing their value, and either selling them for massive fees or allowing them to be part of the club's (hopefully bright) future.
Reports by Ben Jacobs at GiveMeSport indicate that Everton are already preparing a third bid for the player, with the Toffees hoping to pay somewhere around £20 million for his services. That figure may be a few million short of what Boro are hoping to get.
The issue here is less about the player himself, although some may quibble with whether he fills a need for the club, and more about what this dogged pursuit of a single man looked like last summer and how it played out over the course of the season.
To be fair, Tyler Dibling and Hayden Hackney are different people, so this isn't to say that Hackney would come in and have the same impact that Dibling did, which was notably none whatsoever.
But, strangely, David Moyes continues to talk about the need for "Premier League experience" when he talks about his players, something Dibling had, albeit just slightly less than a single season's worth, and Hackney does not.
And yet we're supposed to believe that Moyes will bring Hackney into the fold and actually use him? It's a concern, to say the least, and one that's difficult to shake when looking at young players joining Everton from other clubs.
Because it wasn't just Dibling who suffered this fate. It was Adam Aznou to the extreme. It was Merlin Rohl to some extent, and Charly Alcaraz as well. Tyrique George only joined in January, and he nearly eclipsed Dibling's appearances and minutes.
Once again, this is no judgement on the type of player Hayden Hackney could be if he ultimately joins Everton. The worry is that he'll join and he won't be given a fair shake because he's too young (although he's older than Harrison Armstrong, Aznou, and Dibling) and lacks the experience.
If Everton have real dreams of European competitions in the near future, this can't be the game they play. Sign good players and play them. Not this nonsense again.
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