Everton’s summer business was largely conducted by Kevin Thelwell, who once again had to operate with one hand tied behind his back.
Forced to sacrifice a few key figures in the name of progress, he was smart and incisive in everything he did over a hectic summer which literally went down until the very final seconds of the window.
After all, for all the business already done, it was their deadline day deal, completed actually after the 11 pm deadline, which shocked most.
Evertonians had woken up to learn that Everton had signed Armando Broja, with the terms of the deal also highly favourable.
How much Everton are paying to loan Armando Broja from Chelsea
Speaking exclusively to Everton.News, football finance expert Adam Williams has combed over the finer details of this Broja deal and how much the Toffees actually serve to save from it.
After all, they have no loan fee to pay, and will only begin paying his wages when he is deemed back from his current injury which keeps him out until mid-October.
He claims: ‘Let’s say Broja is on £40,000 per week.
‘His loan deal started on deadline day and the prognosis for his injury is about six weeks.
‘So Everton have saved £240,000 there upfront.
‘You then have about 30 weeks remaining on his loan deal, so Everton will pay about £1.2m.
‘It’s a crude calculation and we don’t know exactly what his wages are, but it does show that this is a low-risk deal for Everton.
‘Try-before-you-buy is always a favourable approach, especially when there is no loan fee associated with the player.
‘For a club like Everton, who are not out of the woods when it comes to PSR and, perhaps even more pressingly, could have cash flow issues if the takeover situation isn’t resolved in the next few months, you can see why the structure of this deal appeals to Everton.’
Eerie similarities to Romelu Lukaku emerge…
Although it might be something of a stretch, there are eerie similarities between Everton’s deal to sign Broja and the one that saw them first bring Romelu Lukaku to the club.
After all, both were, at their respective times, young strikers struggling to break into the Chelsea first-team.
Chances were limited, so a loan move to Goodison Park made perfect sense to try and kickstart their young careers.
Everyone knows how successful the Belgian went on to be both during that loan spell and beyond, later joining permanently for a fee of just £28m.
If Everton are to acquire Broja permanently, they need only exercise their buy-option which, coincidentally, is just £2m more than that aforementioned fee.
Lukaku went on to become Everton’s all-time leading scorer in the Premier League before leaving for £75m.
If Broja enjoys half of that success, this will be deemed a huge success for Sean Dyche and Thelwell.
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