Everton endured a rough January transfer window, in which they sold their brightest young prospect and brought no one in to bolster the squad.
Earning a £45m sum for Anthony Gordon’s sale, fans were initially jubilant to receive such a hefty fee for a 21-year-old with just seven senior goals for the club.
However, that jovial attitude soon faded following a deadline day in which they seemingly explored every avenue to no avail.
Even since the closure of the transfer window the Toffees have seemingly sought out talent in the free-agent market but have once again been beaten by a lesser side.
Sean Dyche remains staunch in his claim that they would only bring in players that would improve the squad, despite the reports that later emerged linking him with a move for out-of-contract Isco.
Whilst on the surface it might seem like an exciting move to sign the Spaniard, it could once again send the club down another path of financial ruin.
How much would Isco have cost Everton?
When a player agrees to join a club for free, they usually expect to be suitably remunerated in a manner befitting their talent without a transfer fee.
They demand huge wages and a signing-on fee, and although it might save a club on paying a lump sum, they can sit at the club and steal a wage should they not perform.
The best example of this at Goodison Park was Bernard, who was also acquired on a free after his contract at Shakhtar Donetsk had ended.
The highly-rated Brazilian boasted a fine pedigree across Europe, but £130k-per-week and just eight goals in 84 games later outlined their failure. It was one of many high-profile financial blunders from that period that have culminated in their current predicament.
Isco would have offered a similar issue, with the 30-year-old unlikely to want to stray much from the £219k-per-week he earned during his last year at Real Madrid.
That did drop dramatically whilst at Sevilla, but with the well-known money of the Premier League this mercenary would have attempted to take the club for a ride.
Not only that, but in recent seasons he has hardly done enough to warrant such astronomical wages. This campaign saw him go without a league goal and the season before even that he had just three goal contributions for Carlo Ancelotti’s LaLiga and Champions League-winning outfit.
He may have once been “magic“, as his former teammate Sergio Ramos noted on Twitter, but that time has passed.
Dodging this deal is a sign that Everton really are moving on from their past transgressions.
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