Jean-Philippe Gbamin’s agent explains why Everton found it difficult to sell him

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Midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin departed Everton in the summer and will go down as one of the worst transfers made by the club in recent years.

Everton have struggled to find value in the transfer market, and expensive mistakes have proven costly as the club suffers both on and off the pitch.

Gbamin joined Everton for £25m in 2019, as a highly-rated midfielder from Bundesliga club FC Mainz, and four years later, he slipped out the back door as the club terminated his contract a year early.

His agent, Bernard Collignon, has now explained why Everton ran into trouble when trying to sell him.

Everton struggled to sell Gbamin

Collignon explained to The Guardian that Gbamin gave up part of a substantial payoff to help facilitate his exit.

“It was not easy to cancel the contract with Everton,” Collignon stated.

“JP left a one-year salary on the table, worth £5m. He didn’t take any money. The club had to wait until the end of the window to see if there was a club who wanted to buy him, but nobody wanted to pay Everton’s price, especially for a player that can sign [a pre-contract agreement] for free in January.”

Gbamin’s Everton nightmare

The midfielder made just eight appearances for the club in the four years since his arrival at Goodison Park, and the deal has been branded a “disaster.”

Injuries prevented Gbamin from ever having the chance to prove himself at Everton, and at 28, he is now a free agent.

Everton spent a significant sum to bring him in to initially replace Idrissa Gana Gueye. Four years later, Gueye is back at the club, and Gbamin is without one.

This deal could end up being even more costly than it has already been, as Everton have now learned that they could be facing a points deduction as a result of improper financial conduct.

Whilst the failure of his transfer is not solely Gbamin’s fault, it is arguably the worst of a very long list of poor transfers made by Everton in recent years, and the loss made on the Ivorian midfielder sums up the mess when it comes to decision making at the top level within the club.