Ronald Koeman blunder exposed as Everton decided against game-changing £40m deal in 2017

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When Leicester City won the Premier League title in 2016, many of their players were hot property and wanted by most of Europe.

In fact, not just the players, but also the staff behind the scenes, especially in the recruitment department, who assembled such a talented and resilient group with very little funds.

That said, Everton managed to convince their head of recruitment Steve Walsh to make the switch to Merseyside.

Walsh had a big say on the forthcoming recruits at Goodison Park, however, his tenure was largely unsuccessful.

Everton signed a number of expensive flops and even missed out on some future world-beaters, like Riyad Mahrez in 2017.

• READ MORE: Everton said no to signing him for £16m in 2019, now he’s worth £100m and wanted by Arsenal

Everton tried to sign Riyad Mahrez in 2017

According to the Daily Mail, back in 2017, Everton were interested in signing Leicester City playmaker Riyad Mahrez.

The Toffees were battling Arsenal and Roma for the signing of the Algeria international, however, they were put off by his then £40m valuation.

Everton boss Ronald Koeman and head of recruitment Steve Walsh, who signed Mahrez at Leicester, were clearly not convinced by the conditions of the deal.

The skilful wide player ended up staying put and ultimately moved to Manchester City in a £60m just 12 months later.

Everton must rue not paying £40m for Mahrez

Everton must really rue not meeting Leicester’s £40m valuation for Mahrez that summer as he’d go on to become a genuine world-class player at City, where he won multiple Premier League titles and the Champions League.

The left-footed attacker netted 78 goals whilst laying on 56 assists across 236 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side.

How different could Everton’s recent history have been if they signed Mahrez in 2017 instead of blowing £77m on Gylfi Sigurdsson, Davy Klassen, Nikola Vlasic and Henry Onyekuru that summer.

That poor recruitment is ultimately what led to a number of PSR issues later down the line.