Crystal Palace have swindled Everton

Crystal Palace have somehow convinced Everton to cough up 30 million pounds for attacking winger Yannick Bolasie

Someone at Crystal Palace deserves a raise after convincing Ronald Koeman and Everton to pay 30 million pounds for Yannick Bolasie. He’s a nice player, but at that price, the Eagles have absolutely swindled the Toffees.

Multiple English sources have confirmed the deal, which will make Bolasie the richest transfer signing in Everton history. This deal eclipses the purchase price of Romelu Lukaku by two million pounds.

For the record, I think Bolasie is a decent player who I have enjoyed watching for Palace over the years. With that being said, there’s no way on Earth I’d want my club to pay 30 million pounds for his services. He just isn’t good enough to justify that kind of investment.

Bolasie was a key part of Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace attack last season, but it’s not as if he were some sort of transcendent performer that powered the Eagles to a Premier League title. He was an above average winger who scored a grand total of five Premier League goals during the 2015-16 season. He also managed to chip in three assists in 26 league appearances.

Granted, Palace didn’t exactly play wide open, swashbuckling football last year, but that’s still not a great return for a purely attacking player. If he only manages to contribute those totals for Everton this season, he’ll go down as one of the worst transfers of the summer.

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I suppose I could understand this deal more if Bolasie was a young starlet who had a great deal of career development in front of him. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. He’s already 27-years-old and it’s highly unlikely that he’s going to improve significantly over the next couple of seasons. In fact, it’s much more likely that he will see his performance drop as Father Time robs of him pace.

Proponents of Everton would argue that the Toffees will need dynamic attackers to replace Romelu Lukaku if the Belgian does indeed move to Chelsea. I won’t argue that point for a moment. I will, however, point out that purchasing a slightly above average, out-and-out winger isn’t going to soften the blow of losing a world-class striker very much. If Bolasie is worth 30 million pounds to Everton, I shudder to think what the club will spend on a like-for-like replacement for their prolific goal scorer.

Crystal Palace fans can feel great about what their club have been able to get out of Yannick Bolasie. Losing him will be a blow for the Eagles, but they should certainly be able to replace his production with the financial windfall Everton have provided them.