Why it's the right time to cash in on Tim Iroegbunam

While there has understandably been plenty of focus on incomings at Everton this summer, it’s vitally important that the club manage to change up their squad and cycle out those players deemed to either be on the fringes, or surplus to requirement.

However, that had proved easier said than done, and until last week, there had been very little interest of real substance in Dwight McNeil, Carlos Alcaraz, Nathan Patterson — bar an enquiry from Eintracht Frankfurt — and Tim Iroegbunam.

While other players could of course leave, it is those four that were widely expected to be, essentially, up for sale if the price was right.

However, in the space of a week, McNeil has left, in a lesser-seen swap deal with Crystal Palace for Brennan Johnson, and it looks like Iroegbunam could well follow.

There has been some tentative interest in Iroegbunam from the newly promoted Premier League clubs all summer, but it is Hull City who have pushed the button on making a move and formalising their interest.

Hull and Everton are, at the time of writing, in talks over a deal worth an approximate £16M, with that figure coming from The Bobble on the A View From The Bullens podcast. However, negotiations are under way as to the structure of the deal.

The Tigers’ boss, Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside earlier this week that Hull were interested in Iroegbunam, and it does seem all parties are working actively towards striking an agreement.

The news has somewhat split opinion, with some Evertonians coming down on the side of it being an excellent sale to make, and others reluctant to see Iroegbunam go.

But in this writer’s view, it’s absolutely the right time to move him on.

That is not because Iroegbunam is not a decent player. He has just turned 23, and he had a solid enough campaign last season. He made 29 Premier League appearances, with 17 of those being starts, while he tallied up an impressive number of successful tackles (45 won from 68 attempts).

Yet with Hayden Hackney and Christian Nørgaard coming in, and Harrison Armstrong’s continued development, Everton are simply too stocked in midfield, and someone has to make way.

Throw in that Iroegbunam only has a year left to run on the deal he signed in 2024, albeit Everton do have an option to extend it, then it makes sense to cash in, especially for an offer of £15M or over.

It is that kind of smart trading that Everton haven’t been able to do enough of in recent years, either because their fringe players were on high money and were not wanted elsewhere, or because they simply couldn’t afford to trim the squad any further. Indeed, it was more often than not key first teamers, such as Alex Iwobi and Amadou Onana, who were making way as the Toffees tussled with their financial nightmare.

Iroegbunam came in as part of Everton’s attempts to tackle their PSR issues, with Lewis Dobbin heading the other way to Aston Villa in what was essentially a swap deal, albeit one that went down as separate transactions for accounting purposes.

He has certainly performed well at times, and there should never have been any pressure on him to become a key player. 

But, should this deal go ahead, then Everton will be booking a tidy profit for a young player who has helped the team, helped himself in developing and was brought in, essentially, for that very purpose.

Should it all go ahead as planned, then Everton will have recouped some cash for the first time this summer, given, reportedly, no money changed hands for McNeil and Johnson. 

There are others in the squad that will almost certainly be circulated, too, as the window draws to a close, and expect more wheeling and dealing in the coming weeks.

 

 

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