Henry Onyekuru has still not kicked a ball for Everton, 18 months after Everton spent £7m to sign him from KAS Eupen.
He probably never will.
Complicated work permit rules mean that Everton have had to send the promising Nigerian youngster on loan to Anderlecht and now Galatasaray.
Everton gambled. The punt backfired.
They’ve been gambling for too long under Farhad Moshiri’s tenure – and the club’s majority shareholder has understandably had enough.
It isn’t just a £7m transfer fee which Everton were forced to write off to experience with Onyekuru. For the remaining three-and-a-half years of the youngster’s Blues deal he is contracted to be paid around £40,000 a week.
Galatasaray will meet some of that sum while he is on loan in Turkey, but not all.
Onyekuru is merely the poster boy for a remarkable summer of spending which is impacting on Marco Silva’s January transfer plans.
Everton need a centre-forward, a striker, a goalscorer as plain as the nose on Silva’s face.
But this week Silva said: “We don’t have the financial conditions to go in the market, is the feedback I have at the moment. I have to find different solutions.”
Of the seven players acquired on Silva’s watch so far, six have all made significant impacts in Everton’s first team squad, six are playing regularly while the one who isn’t, goalkeeper Joao Virginia, is a free transfer for the future.
But Silva is being held back by the excesses of the past.
Last summer’s spending spree was as profligate as it appeared to be reckless.
Ronald Koeman, aided and abetted by Steve Walsh, squandered, £144million in a single summer on FIFTEEN players!
Names like Denis Adeniran, Josh Bowler and Boris Mathis were always earmarked for Under-23 football rather than Ronald Koeman’s squad.
Likewise Lewis Gibson whose advertised transfer fee was £6m.
But others clearly were identified as first team footballers and, just 12 months later, are playing no part at Goodison Park.
That has been a legacy of changing managers so frequently, but equally since Moshiri arrived at Everton the sums of money squandered has been eye-watering.
Morgan Schneiderlin cost £20million and hasn’t started a match since October 2.