Confirmation of Armando Broja’s season-long loan move from Chelsea arrived nearly three hours after Friday’s 11pm transfer window deadline, via a club statement at 1.55am the following morning.
It was a dramatic late move, but one two years in the making. The English-born Albania international striker was a key target under Frank Lampard, Everton’s manager at the time, in summer 2022 and had remained on the radar of the club’s recruitment team.
This was a deal that very nearly did not happen, and one final unexpected twist in another eventful window for Everton, one riddled with ownership uncertainty, financial concerns, profit and sustainability rules (PSR) complications and talk of high-profile departures.
Everton had shown interest in Broja earlier in the window as a potential replacement for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is now into the final year of his contract. There were times when a move for the 22-year-old seemed contingent on Calvert-Lewin departing, while Premier League new boys Ipswich Town came close to sealing a deal for Broja before complications surrounding the striker’s foot injury saw them walk away.
At various stages on deadline day, particularly after confirmation of midfielder Orel Mangala’s season-long loan from French side Lyon, Everton were not expecting to do any more business. But the collapse of Broja’s move to Ipswich presented them with a late opportunity to sign a top target on favourable terms.
With the player currently injured — Broja is not expected back until October — Everton will pay no loan fee and are only liable to start picking up his wages when he returns to the pitch. As Calvert-Lewin is probably in his final season at the club, the coming months will be Broja’s audition to be his long-term successor — a try-before-you-buy, with Everton having the option of making the transfer permanent for around £30million ($39.4m) next summer.
Broja, right, has joined on an initial loan (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
There was a race against time to get the transfer over the line. Everton submitted the dealsheet, granting them a further two hours after the 11pm deadline to complete all paperwork, not long before the cut-off. Even at that stage, it was considered to be touch and go if they would get it done by 1am Saturday.
Yet the window officially ended with Broja as Everton’s eighth summer 2024 signing — and one of four loan additions as the recruitment team again attempted to make a limited budget stretch as far as possible.
Around £42million was spent in total, with Iliman Ndiaye (£15m), Jake O’Brien (£17m) and Tim Iroegbunam (£9m) the most significant. Of those four loanees, only Jesper Lindstrom (€2m — £1.7m/$2.2m) commanded a fee.
Iroegbunam moved to Everton from Villa (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
Everton had to cut their cloth accordingly.
Outgoings totalled £70million, as Amadou Onana (£50m), Ben Godfrey (£11m) and Lewis Dobbin (£9m) all departed. Neal Maupay’s season-long loan move to Marseille will eventually yield an initial €6m (£5m), plus a potential €4m more in bonuses, once the French club activate their mandatory purchase option next summer.
This was another window where financial viability was a significant consideration for Everton’s small interim board and recruitment personnel.
With The Friedkin Group’s takeover bid having collapsed in mid-July, efforts were made to recoup significant sums of money and avoid big down-payments on transfers.
Although another American investor, John Textor, is in talks with Everton owner Farhad Moshiri about a takeover, staff have had to work on the basis that the club will need to plot their own way through at least the early part of this season. Potentially, even, for longer.
There was always a sense that there would be at least one high-profile exit from Everton this summer.
Some clubs were willing to test just how desperate the financial situation at Goodison Park had become.
Interest was anticipated in defender Jarrad Branthwaite, but eyebrows were raised when an initial £35million offer was submitted by Manchester United. His suitors were well aware Everton’s valuation of Branthwaite was around double that amount, but United returned in early July with another offer — this time, an initial £45m — which was again well below what the club felt the 22-year-old was worth.
One common theory was United had been working off the mistaken assumption that Everton had to sell quickly — and big — to achieve PSR compliance.
Branthwaite, who is injured, has been sorely missed at the start of the season (James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
They had retained an interest on June 30, PSR deadline day, with figures close to £40million mooted, but were informed the sales of Dobbin and Godfrey to Aston Villa and Italy’s Atalanta respectively had plugged the shortfall. Dobbin had been close to extending his Goodison deal before being informed of Villa’s interest.
Another theory was that the new regime at Old Trafford, led by part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, was keen to show that the days of United over-spending on transfers were over. But their public pursuit of Branthwaite left a sour taste.
Some of those with knowledge of the process, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, felt a bid of around £60million, plus other achievable add-ons, might at least give Everton pause for thought, but their resolve was never truly tested. The £45m offer in early July was final, and United moved on, signing other central defenders in Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt for a combined £90m.
Everton were happy to keep Branthwaite. Offers around their valuation would have almost certainly forced their hand, but their preference was to retain the player for a further season.
Midfielder Onana, by contrast, had been informed heading into the summer that a move would be sanctioned should the right offer materialise. The eventual fee from Villa was lower than Everton anticipated this time last year, when the market was full of clubs going big on central midfielders, but still considered a reasonable figure. Such is their financial predicament, Everton know a sustainable model probably involves them making one big sale each summer.
Onana’s departure solved one problem — it gave Everton a much-needed buffer heading into the new season and freed up a small amount of money that could be used to fund new additions. A deal for Lyon centre-back O’Brien was only executed once confirmation of the Belgium international’s move to Villa came through.
The exits of Godfrey and Dobbin were designed to solve another issue.
Everton had started the summer aware there was a PSR hole to fill. They were one of at least five Premier League sides — Villa, Chelsea, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest included — who worked collaboratively in an attempt to achieve compliance. The Premier League warned all clubs it would check whether deals were artificially inflated to circumvent financial rules, but no complaints have yet been raised in public.
One deal that did not come off during those late June talks was a move that would have seen Calvert-Lewin join Newcastle, with highly-rated winger Yankuba Minteh heading the other way. The striker and his representatives, though, were unable to agree terms and both mooted transfers collapsed. Without Calvert-Lewin’s sale, the finances simply were not there to challenge Brighton’s £30million offer for Minteh, even with the Gambian said to have been keen on a switch to Goodison.
Minteh, who is viewed as a potential future star at Goodison, joins previous targets Mohammed Kudus, Morgan Gibbs-White, Nicolas Jackson and Brennan Johnson as another frustrating near-miss for director of football Kevin Thelwell and his recruitment team.
Calvert-Lewin’s contractual situation remains a live problem. He has shown no willingness when it comes to signing a new deal and late-summer interest never materialised in the way he or Everton anticipated.
Calvert-Lewin scores against Bournemouth but his long-term future remains unclear (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Everton’s valuation, of around £30million, was seen as prohibitive. Intermediaries proposed a potential swap involving Chelsea’s David Datro Fofana but Everton were not interested in the 21-year-old Ivory Coast striker. Manchester United monitored the situation but went elsewhere, signing Netherlands international Joshua Zirkzee from Italy’s Bologna.
The club are likely to make renewed attempts to convince Calvert-Lewin to agree a new deal but the chances of the 27-year-old signing a January pre-contract elsewhere and making a free-agent exit at the end of the season have risen significantly.
Everton’s focus in terms of incomings was on adding productivity and threat in the positions behind their striker.
They spoke to Championship side Leeds United, for the second successive summer, about Wilfried Gnonto but walked away from talks when it became apparent a deal would not be easy. Jaden Philogene, another target who had initially made positive noises about joining, chose to return to Villa from Hull City, another team in England’s second tier. The promising Amario Cozier-Duberry, a 19-year-old seen as one for the future after leaving Arsenal’s academy, chose Brighton.
With money tight, they took Lindstrom on loan from 2022-23 Serie A champions Napoli. The Denmark winger had been on Everton’s radar since his time at Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany (2021-23) and that existing relationship gave them an edge when the now 24-year-old was picking between them and a host of clubs in England and across Europe.
The same was true of the arrival of O’Brien, who had interest from England and Italy. The Republic of Ireland international compensates for the loss of Godfrey in the short-term and is seen as a potential solution should Branthwaite eventually depart. Club captain and international team-mate Seamus Coleman recommended him and spoke positively to the 23-year-old about Everton during their trips away with Ireland.
Ndiaye, another long-term target, was seen as a versatile, dynamic option for any of the positions behind the striker, and a potential No 10 solution.
The Ndiaye and O’Brien transfers continued the trend, born from necessity, of deferring deals and making minimal down-payments. Not every club would do deals with Everton on such terms, limiting the pool of players available to them.
Ndiaye has made an impressive start to life at Goodison (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Midfield was another key consideration after Onana’s exit.
Wilfred Ndidi’s wage demands were deemed too expensive and he instead re-signed with Leicester City. Everton looked at a loan move for Sander Berge but Burnley wanted a permanent transfer and he has instead joined Fulham. Kalvin Phillips of Manchester City was admired but a £6million package was too costly and he went to Ipswich. Eventually, would-be Everton owner Textor’s presence at Lyon, and willingness to do a deal, saw them pick up former Forest midfielder Mangala, without a loan fee, on deadline day.
Everton assessed options in wide positions right up to Friday’s deadline, largely due to concerns that have been raised in the early part of the new season at full-back. Deals for Lyon winger Ernest Nuamah and Newcastle’s former England full-back Kieran Trippier were too expensive, while there was uncertainty as to whether the latter would push to leave St James’ Park.
That proved to be one of the recurring themes of the window for penny-pinching Everton, now the only Premier League side with a positive transfer balance over the past five years.
There was always a feeling, with the ownership situation, that they were unlikely to be able to resolve all of their issues in this window. The club remains in stasis, awaiting whatever comes next and kicking the can down the road each summer until clarity comes.
That can only happen for so long.
As it stands, there are just 12 senior players contracted to the club beyond this season. Significant sums of money will likely be needed to make Everton competitive in the Premier League again.
After another challenging window, Everton — last relegated from the English top flight in 1951 — will hope this season isn’t the one where years of poor decision-making and off-field turmoil catch up with them.
GO DEEPER
Analysing the Premier League’s 2024 summer transfer window
(Top photos: Mangala, left, and Ndiaye; Getty Images)
