Martinez mitigated Henen risk with deadline-day deal

Except it wasnÂ’t. Anderlecht tried to screw us over. They believe the Premier League is the honey pot for transfers (borne out by the EPL accounting for more in transfer fees this summer than Germany, Spain and France combined). Except this is Everton, and weÂ’re not flush.

So he was sold to Olympiakos (his agent has good links there, and did the Mirallas deal) and we will sign him in the summer for half a million Euros (not pounds, Greg - although they may be the same figure if Scotland gets the Yes vote and devalues the pound further).

Not even OFM would’ve taken 2 months to assess a yoof player for a £300k punt.

I fully support checking him out on loan first, anything else would be waste of money.

I have a fear about our scouts not being good enough.

Losing our former head scout to Moyes was a huge blow which looks to have impacted the quality of incoming players.

I know that Martinez is trying to fill in the gap himself, but I think we need to hire top notch scouts if we are to compete at the top.

After all of these manic goings on regarding David Henen, he had better be pretty good – that’s all I can say..

I agree that the scouting network is the crucial issue.

However, Roberto has achieved the best compromise in a complicated situation. And well done to him for sticking to his guns.

They couldnÂ’t agree a fee. Martinez didnÂ’t want to pay over the odds so they took this route.

1) He was involved in a third-party ownership deal which is against Premier League rules; that was what made the sale complicated in the first place; and

2) He is a bit of a "bigtime Charlie". So Bobby wants him to prove how much he is willing to give to the cause, to in essence show that he has the desire and effort to go with his "undoubted" ability.

Sounds like a very sensible deal which protects our interests and allows us to sign him cheaply if he proves himself worthy, and dump him if he isnÂ’t. Clever business all round.

DonÂ’t forget, with Moyes, for every Coleman, there was a shite signing too. In view of this, I donÂ’t see why you should have any rational fear about anything, with Martinez in charge.

That said, IÂ’m only just about recovering from the dire quality of players like McCarthy, Barry, Lukaku, EtoÂ’o and Besic... and before anyone says anything, Besic will come good after his shocking debut. WeÂ’ve seen enough in pre-season to see the lad has real quality.

Back on track, now the dust has settled on the Henen deal and it’s clear what Martinez and the club have done, I think some people need to be eating some humble pie. BK and Martinez were given a lot of shit on here by some saying that we couldn’t even afford £1M, or were so incompetent we couldn’t complete a signing in 2 months.

Well, IÂ’m glad BK and Martinez are in charge of the clubs cash, and not some of the ToffeeWeb posters, who clearly are happy for the club to get shafted in the transfer market, paying more than we need to for players who may not ever measure up.

But, Ernie, the piece says "Roberto Martinez decided he needed more time to assess the 18-year-old before he was willing to shell out any money."

So RobertoÂ’s public statement (not necessarily the true picture) is not saying it was the FEE but TIME to assess the player before paying the fee. Not the same thing.

A loan, followed by a cheap purchase if we want him to stay, sounds eminently preferable to paying £1.5M up front for someone we’d hardly seen and who may never make the grade.

I just canÂ’t see anything wrong with this deal. ItÂ’s a win win deal isnÂ’t it?

Any idea what the lad did to be accused of going off the rails or is it just him thinking heÂ’s Billy big bollocks?

We (can) get him for less than the original fee, less than the higher fee that Anderlecht tried to stiff us with and get rid of any third part ownership issues.

The same people decrying the club above would have been the same people slaughtering the club if we had signed him for £1.5M (or £3M) and then it later transpired that we could have got the deal we do have.

What's the better deal for the club?

In this case I believe we've already agreed the deal, Henen will sign for us at the end of the season, without having ever set foot in the Olympiakos offices or training ground. I wouldn't be surprised if we already paid the fee so Olympiakos aren't out of pocket for any period. I don't think it was to do with 3rd party ownership; I believe it was just about getting a better deal.

It's a lot less shady than a lot of what goes on in football. It's really akin to going to the shop when you were a kid for your lazy neighbour, and getting 20p for your trouble.

Maybe he'd be good enough for Olympiakos, but not us?

Maybe some cash has changed hands between Olympiakos and us?

Maybe Henen wasn't prepared to go to Olympiakos as a straight transfer, but would be prepared to if he can't make the grade with us.

I've got to say Its a shrewd bit of business and I can understand we've offset any risk with this deal if Anderlecht wanted to screw us over, on the assumption we'd blink first and overpay with the TV money burning a hole in our pockets.

I was pretty excited about this signing but you've got to wonder how good the kid is if Anderlecht sold him to Olympikiaos for £300k. I can understand on the basis he's lost his way, believing his own hype but "£300k", It's peanuts!? His he a bit of Jose Baxter?! I've not seen any clips of him playing for Anderlecht but on the bits playing for the Belgium national team the Ronaldo comparisons seemed kinda apt. Unlike Baxter he seems blessed with a good physicality and he a seems pretty personable kid from the little I've seen in the media.

But well played Roberto. I'm excited about seeing how the likes of Henen, Galloway and Byrne will progress this season.

1) Anderlecht wanted £3M from us.

2) A third party ownership was involved.

3) Henen's agent has a relationship with Olympiakos.

4) On deadline day, Henen and his agent got fed up with the impasse with Everton and ripped up his contract with Anderlecht and signed with Olympiakos.

5) Olympiakos have signed Henen for €300k (or pounds?) from Anderlecht and lent him to us and we will pay them £500k (or euros) in a year's time if he is any good.

Now my questions are:

1) Why would Anderlecht sell him for €300k, if his contract was any good and they had kept him then even if he turned out to be average he would be worth say €5-10M in the future, just look at what average players are going for today.

2) If he did sign for Olympiakos for €300k and even if we pay €500k for him in a years time, what sort of return are Olympiakos, Henen's agent, and the reported third party going to get from this sort of deal? Very little cash to go around!

All this seems like a good deal for Everton but what about Anderlecht, Olympiakos, the agent and the reported third party?

The only scenario that makes any sense to me is that firstly the contract that Henen had with Anderlecht was easily broken and so Anderlecht took whatever they could get, that the third party/agent (and the third party might actually be the agent) paid Olympiakos either all or a percentage of the reported signing fee to sign the player (not legal in the UK but who knows what is allowed with third party deals in Europe). Olympiakos then would get some fee if we sign him or anyone else signs him for that matter. If we sign him after a year it appears we are getting him for €500k and everyone thinks we are getting a bargain.

However, you can bet your bottom dollar that the agent will be getting a fat commission from Everton which will be split between him and the third party or kept by him if he is both. Everton end up getting him for a lot less than the £3M we would have paid Anderlecht plus agent commission. So you might ask what if we don't sign him? Well someone else will and the agent/third party will get the pay-off one way or another.

The agent/third party must think that they have a winner otherwise why bother? Let's hope we also have a winner.

Olympiakos win because they are either getting a decent player (if not quite good enough for EPL) for 300k OR they get 200k profit for the cost of a few faxes. Have to laugh at people here saying "why bother for 200k" but you'd pick up a pound coin at the bus stop and call it a win wouldn't you?

Hopefully Henen burns a flaming streak through the U21s and we've got a great deal and if he doesn't, then no harm done to the transfer kitty.

Essentially, Olympiakos are taking a bet on him improving and making a profit.

I don't agree that we've already paid the fee. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the whole complicated deal?

As an aside, Kenwright is dead shady isn't he? On this occasion it's for the good of the club but, when he comes to sell, it will be for the good of his personal bank account.