How Everton can begin to change the transfer narrative with £5.9m bargain signing

Everton’s spending under Farhad Moshiri has been heavily criticised but having been linked with a £5.9m signing this summer in attack, it is the type of deal that could help to change the narrative around their transfer business.

Signing the right players certainly hasn’t been Everton’s strength across the past eight years. Over £500m has been spent in the Moshiri-era, in a time where Everton were expected to kick on and return to European football - but that hasn’t been the case. Expensive deals for average players have scuppered their progress and now they are limited in the business they can do.

Recent targets have shown that they are looking to do smarter deals. The likes of Wilfred Ndidi, who is out of contract this summer, and under-the-radar signings such as AZ Alkmaar’s Yukinari Sugawara, Fortuna Dusseldorf’s Ao Tanaka, Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips, Che Adams and Maxime Esteve are all available for under £20m or on a temporary deal, according to reports.

That’s why the latest news linking them with Heidenheim attacker Jan-Niklas Beste is so refreshing. Sky Sports reporter Florian Plettenburg claims  Everton have held discussions about signing the German this summer and while his club would like to receive over €10million (£8.5million), a realistic selling price is between €5-7million (£4.2million-£5.9million). The report also states that Villarreal, Fiorentina, Genoa and Galatasaray are also named as other potential suitors but at this stage the 25-year-old is understood to prefer to move within Germany.

While there is stiff competition, he would be guaranteed a starting place in Everton’s line-up as they are desperately in need of some creative ingenuity in their side and Beste’s eight goals and 14 assists in all competitions are hugely impressive numbers in his first full season in the Bundesliga.

Not only can he create, he works extremely hard off the ball, ranking in the 93rd-98th percentiles for clearances, blocks and tackles, and he would no doubt be at home under Sean Dyche. This is exactly the type of low-cost, high-reward deal that Everton need to work hard to secure this summer due to their limited finances. If they do it correctly, they could give Dyche the players he needs to help force them up the table and hopefully make sustainable progress and prove to the fans they are a club capable of making the right decisions.