The Rumour Mill
Fabrizio Romano has contributed to the cultural change of transfer windows. Seemingly long gone are the days when transfers came unexpectedly, the first news coming from official club channels or the previous sacred stamp of validity, Sky Sports’ famous yellow bar.
Now, deals - or rumours - are drip-fed from ‘in the know’ accounts long before anything actually happens. An excitement sponge, if you like, for what was once a guessing game. Are Romano and the like truly sharing genuine information, or simply mouthpieces for agents looking to engineer deals? The truth is probably somewhere in between.
Romano is perhaps the embodiment of the new era, for some a transfer oracle, his ‘Here We Go’ catchphrase taken as gospel. For Everton, however, it’s not always been the case.
Kenny Tete’s U-turn on a move to Merseyside is the latest Romano revelation that has failed to come to fruition for the Blues.
Amid an announcement that a verbal agreement had been reached with the Dutch defender, just days later, Tete put pen to paper on a new contract in West London. It’s not the first miss from Romano, whose reliable reputation does not appear to extend to Everton.
Here are three other Everton ‘announcements’ the transfer guru got wrong:
Luis Diaz
Back in the summer of 2021, Romano reported that Everton were reportedly ‘confident’ of securing a deal for Luis Diaz, with the FC Porto player giving ‘priority’ to the Blues.
The proposal included James Rodriguez heading to Porto in exchange, but was reportedly blocked by Rafa Benitez.
Everton instead signed Demarai Gray in a cut-price deal, while Diaz started the 2021/22 season on fire. He scored 14 goals in 18 league games for Porto before a move to Merseyside - joining Liverpool in January 2022.
Mohammed Kudus
In August 2022, Romano tweeted that Everton were ‘set to sign’ the then-Ajax star. The deal was described as being at the ‘final stages’ and that it ‘will be completed soon’. Kudus never made the move to Merseyside.
The transfer was reportedly blocked after Manchester United spent a fortune on Ajax teammate Antony. He later admitted to being ‘disappointed’ that the deal fell through.
A year later, Kudus signed for West Ham in a £38m deal and scored 14 goals in his debut season. The Ghana international is set to be on the move again this summer, with Spurs seeking a transfer worth in excess of £60m. Kudus would certainly have helped fill the current problem position on the right flank.
Arnaut Danjuma
A deal that even had the ‘Here We Go’ seal of approval.
Romano confirmed Arnaut Danjuma’s loan move to Everton as a ‘done deal’ in January 2023, only for Tottenham to hijack the deal and leave the transfer insider red-faced. Spurs stole in to sign Danjuma on loan from Villarreal, but the Dutchman struggled to make an impact in North London.
Six months later, Danjuma did join Everton on a season-long loan deal. It was hardly worth the wait. Another underwhelming period followed with just two goals in 20 appearances.
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