Everton have suffered some howlers over the years, but the Friedkin Group’s forthcoming club takeover will hopefully signal a new era and indeed a fresh take on transfer activity.

It sure is needed, with Farhad Moshiri failing to match the fanbase’s expectations with the performances on the pitch – indeed, the Toffees have been stuck in a bog of struggle for the past several years, and though results have recently improved under Sean Dyche, big change is needed to sculpt a future of promise in the Premier League.

The strategy needs changing, to be sure. Let’s take a look at some of the worst signings since Moshiri took the head seat back in 2016, and remind ourselves why.

Everton's decline under Farhad Moshiri

Iranian businessman Moshiri acquired a 49.9% stake in Everton back in February 2016, having previously owned a minority slice in fellow Premier League club Arsenal.

The deal was soon ratified, and the 69-year-old’s role as principal shareholder was projected as a watershed moment for Roberto Martinez’s side, which had found comparative success over the years but wanted to ascend to a regular position in and around the Champions League spaces.

What happened was the inverse. Slowly, Everton’s lifeblood has trickled away, with the success of recent years merely that of preserving top-flight status, pitted against the relegation fodder.

There have been some pretty notable howlers. Cenk Tosun joined in a £27m deal after Romelu Lukaku was sold for what is still a club record, but flattered to deceive and scored just seven times across his two full seasons at the club – having promised so much upon his January 2018 arrival, notching four Premier League goals from his opening 14 fixtures.

Davy Klaassen’s another, moving from Ajax for £24m in 2017, billed as one of the most talented midfielders in the Netherlands. He failed to adapt and started just seven league games before fleeing to Germany and joining Werder Bremen after one lonely year.

Chuck in Sandro Ramirez, Salomon Rondon, Yannick Bolasie and more. If TFG can succeed in purchasing Moshiri’s majority stake, getting the venture over the line, then there’s every chance that the slate will have been wiped clean and Everton can begin anew.

There are too many blunders to count with two hands, but undoubtedly the deal at the nadir of Moshiri’s transfer failures is that of Jean-Philippe Gbamin, who endured a wretched spell at Goodison Park.

Jean-Philippe Gbamin's cost to Everton

Later down the line, Gbamin’s agent would describe his client’s time at Everton as a “nightmare”, which is probably an apt summation of a wholly forgettable time for all parties involved.

Alex Iwobi

Arsenal

£35m

Moise Kean

Juventus

£25m

Jean-Philippe Gbamin

Mainz

£25m

Andre Gomes

Barcelona

£22m

Fabian Delph

Man City

£9m

Dijibril Sibide

AS Monaco

Loan

Jonas Lossl

Huddersfield

£0

Branded “the worst signing of the Moshiri era” by journalist Paul Brown, the Ivorian midfielder was purchased from German club Mainz for a £25m fee, with the whole ordeal at least financially mitigated by Idrissa Gueye – who he was replacing – transferring to Paris Saint-Germain in a £30m deal.

Gbamin had certainly made a good impression with Mainz, featuring 95 times for the Bundesliga outfit and leading the club’s sporting director Rouven Schröder to declare that the centrepiece was totally unsellable, such was his importance.

Earning a reported wage of £75k per week, Gbamin was supposed to bring steel and dynamism to the centre of the park, but his catastrophic injury failure led to the most miserable of fringe roles, scarcely showing his face on the Premier League pitch at all before seeing his contract cut short in 2023, then joining French Ligue 2 club Dunkerque later that year until the end of the campaign.

Gbamin had reportedly attracted interest from Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the lead-up to Everton’s acquisition, illustrating the calibre of prospect that Marco Silva had attracted to his project.

But he didn’t so much fall as was thrown with force to the wayside, shockingly featuring just six times for the Premier League side.

Though he sought to bring himself back from the ditch, the Argentina-born midfielder was simply unable to meet the rigours of the Premier League, beset by injuries that prevented him from finding his feet across two loan spells while at Everton too – with Russian side CSKA Moskow and Trazbonspor in Turkey.

Indeed, it proved to be a total calamity. When considering the now 29-year-old Gbamin’s wages, alongside that lofty transfer fee, it can be seen that he drained Everton of £33m, something that really puts into perspective how dreadful Moshiri’s deal was – claiming around £4m from the Merseysiders for each appearance made.

It’s somewhat ironic that Everton re-signed Gueye in a £2m transfer in 2022, something that proved a good financial venture but contextualises the gravity of the whole thing – Moshiri effectively swallowing his pride and moving back to his erstwhile number six, who had by that point turned 32.

Fans don’t mind running the gamut of emotions. Football is like that, cyclical, up and down. But Everton need to reach a level beyond that which has been provided to them over the past several years; it’s not befitting of the raucous Goodison Park crowd.

Blundered transfer moves like that of Gbamin must not be repeated. A little more due diligence would be good, with a revised take allowing the Blues to sign players who will actually raise the bar on the blue side of the River Mersey.

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