Anyone who knows anything about Everton’s transfer business over the last decade knows it’s mostly been an unmitigated disaster.
The Blues’ business in the market has been nothing short of ridiculous over the years, with them happily spending Farhad Moshiri’s money on players that simply haven’t worked out.
It’s something that is still plaguing the club to this day, with director of football Kevin Thelwell continuing the work of his predecessor, Marcel Brands, in clearing out the poor purchases made across several seasons.
Most of those arrived during Ronald Koeman’s ill-fated spell in charge, when he and then director of football Steve Walsh decided to go on a summer spending spree that simply didn’t work out.
While Walsh aimed for a very British approach to things, his manager was extremely focused on bringing in players from his own country, with Davy Klaassen the standout example.
The less said about that move the better but it seems Koeman was also working on bringing in another Dutchman, none other than Memphis Depay.
Koeman has sat down for an interview with Voetbal International about the forward today, detailing how his opinion changed on him thanks to their time together with the Netherlands and then Barcelona.
The newspaper explains that their relationship was truly built on in Catalonia but Koeman actually ‘got to know’ the player earlier in his career when he ‘tried to bring’ him from Manchester United to Everton.
“During that conversation, I noticed what a good boy he is,” he told the newspaper, relayed by Voetbal Primeur.
“And that feeling was only strengthened when I later started working with him at Oranje and Barcelona. Memphis is a fantastic guy and a great professional. Everything he does is all about being as fit and as good as possible.”
Now, Koeman doesn’t detail the nature of the ‘conversation’ he had with Depay about Everton, just that there was one.
That at least confirms the longstanding rumour that he did indeed try to get the player to move to Merseyside and opens up all manner of ‘what might have been scenarios’ to boot.
Given how badly the rest of his and Steve Walsh’s signings went perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that it never happened, although we’re sure Everton fans wouldn’t have minded had Koeman pulled this one off at the time.
