Everton have been on the end of some infamous transfer failures in recent years, but more for who they have brought in than who they haven’t.
Lucrative failures have consistently come through the Goodison Park door only to offer little and leave for nothing, exacerbating the financial issues that already plagued them.
This all culminated in their recent points deduction, of which player transfers made up a huge chunk of their losses that saw them punished.
Having not won a trophy since 1995, and rarely threatened the top four since 2005, Farhad Moshiri’s misguided effort to return them to the top has arguably regressed the Toffees.
However, it could have been all different, had they succeeded in their 2012 venture to acquire Eden Hazard from LOSC Lille, just before he would make his £32m move to Chelsea.
The Belgian went on to become an icon not just at Stamford Bridge, but of the entire Premier League, defining an era will his trickery and end product.
David Moyes admitted how close they came to a signing that could have changed the course of the club: ‘We knew all about Hazard because of Marouane Fellaini and the Belgium boys.
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‘But it was always going to be biggish cash for us – and we’ve had a few like that, I can tell you!’
How good was Eden Hazard?
Having moved to England as a 21-year-old, expectations were hardly sky-high for the Belgian international who had shone in Ligue 1.
However, the impact he went on to have was mind-blowing, with Jamie Carragher even noting in 2018: ‘”I said on commentary that he is the best player in the Premier League. It’s not because he scored that goal, I believe it. I think he should have been named the best player of the World Cup also. He is an absolute superstar.’
Scoring 110 and assisting 92 in 352 appearances for the Blues barely scratches the surface of his impact on English football, as a wizard who claimed two Premier League titles among numerous other honours.
Had he moved to Merseyside instead, perhaps it could have been Everton blessed with such success.
Not only did he enjoy a fine seven years in West London, but Hazard would then command a fee rising to £150m when he completed his 2019 move to Real Madrid.
Although things did not work out for him there, the service he gave to Chelsea and the subsequent fee received upon his exit is up there with some of the best business the division has ever seen.
Moyes, for all the success he enjoyed at Goodison Park, got it all wrong with this one.
