Except for Yannick Bolasie and Cuco Martina having their loans at Aston Villa and Stoke City cut short only to respectively be sent to Anderlecht and Feyenoord on transfer deadline day, Thursday was a fairly quiet affair in terms of first-team movements.
The Toffees, despite him travelling to Paris, also managed to keep Idrissa Gueye away from Paris Saint-Germain, meaning they can now start planning for the future i.e. next summer.
According to L’Equipe on Friday, one player they are looking at is FC Sochaux-Montbéliard’s Lucien Agoumé, who became the Ligue 2 side’s youngest ever first-team player to feature in a league game in October at the age of 16 years, eight months and ten days.
The young midfielder has played another seven times since, six of which were in the league, and his precocious talent has not gone unnoticed, already captaining France U17s a number of times.
Eric Abidal has already put in some extra effort by contacting both the player’s entourage and the Ligue 2 club, while other clubs have made offers of around €2m, but the Toffees remain in the top two for now.
The decision is now entirely up to him.
On a youth contract until 2020, the player can either sign a professional deal and be transferred in the summer for €4m (which is the amount Sochaux need to pass their financial check) or he could run down his deal and leave in two summers time on a free with his next club paying a mere €300k in development fees.
Nothing to get excited about just yet, but it’s one we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on over the coming months.