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During the winter transfer window, Ishak Belfodil should have moved to Everton. There were very strong claims of an agreed fee, even Belfodil’s Standard Liege teammates were joking about it to the media, and it seemed a question of when rather than if.

Then, just as quickly as it had come from nowhere, the whole thing fell to pieces. There were several conflicting reasons thrown around: There’d been problems with too many agents getting involved, Ronald Koeman didn’t like the player, Everton had tried to move the goalposts late on, Belfodil had a special clause allowing a much cheaper Standard exit.

The fallout at Standard was far bigger than at Everton, which may suggest where the fault was. As Everton got on with everything as usual, Standard parted company with advisor Daniel van Buyten and accusations were thrown around the Belgian media.

Speaking about it after a calming down period, Standard sporting director Olivier Renard is still none the wiser. Voetbal Nieuws quote him as saying: “Belfodil and Everton, it hit like a bomb. There are many versions about the breakdown of the transfer. So much so that we do not even understand it all at Standard.”

What a mess.