Everton Sign Championship Star Hayden Hackney as Spurs Break Record for Fernandes
Everton’s summer rebuild has its midfield cornerstone, and Tottenham have just fired a shot across the Premier League’s bow.
On Merseyside, Hayden Hackney is in the door at last. In north London, Mateus Fernandes has arrived with an £85m price tag and the expectation that comes with it.
Everton finally get their man
This is a deal Everton have been grinding away at for weeks. Middlesbrough said no, then no again, holding firm to a £25m valuation despite Hackney having only a year left on his contract. Everton kept coming back. Crystal Palace circled, strengthening Boro’s hand. The player’s mind, though, was already made up.
Hackney, the Championship’s player of the year last season, has signed a five-year contract after Everton agreed an initial £16.5m fee, potentially rising to £25m with add-ons that include clauses related to him playing for England. For a club that has lived on the edge financially and emotionally in recent seasons, it is a bold investment in a 24-year-old who has yet to play a Premier League minute.
“As soon as I spoke to the manager, as soon as I knew Everton were interested, it was always going to be Everton,” Hackney said after the move was confirmed. He spoke about the size of the club, the lure of the new stadium and the sense of direction that, for once, feels tangible at Goodison’s soon-to-be successor. Crucially, he pointed to David Moyes’s record of elevating Championship players into Premier League regulars. He wants to be the next name on that list.
Hackney’s self-assessment was as confident as his decision-making on the pitch. He promised “a bit of everything” – work without the ball, composure with it, the ability to carry play forward and arrive late in the box. Goals, he hopes, will follow. The Premier League is a step up, he admitted, but one he expects to grow into quickly.
For Moyes, who wanted Hackney as far back as last summer before other priorities took over, it is the completion of a long pursuit. “Hayden is a promising young player who we’ve been tracking for some time,” the Everton manager said. He referenced that familiar theme again – finding value in the Championship, developing it, and watching it flourish at the top level. Everton have done it before. They are betting big that Hackney will be the next success story.
His pedigree is not just domestic. Hackney was part of the England side that lifted the European Under-21 Championship in 2025, a sign that his rise has been steady rather than sudden. At Everton, he will be asked to turn promise into authority, adding competition and energy to a midfield Moyes wanted to refresh before the new season.
The club are also closing in on winger Tyrique George from Chelsea, another nod to a strategy built around younger, hungry talent. For a fanbase used to fire-fighting and fraught run-ins, this feels different: a plan, not a panic.
Spurs go all in on Fernandes
While Everton move smartly in the £20m bracket, Tottenham have crashed through a very different ceiling. Mateus Fernandes has joined from West Ham in a deal worth £85m, a club-record fee and a statement that fits neatly with Roberto De Zerbi’s ambitious, front-foot vision.
Fernandes is only 21, but his path has already taken him from Sporting to Southampton, then to West Ham last summer. One season at the London Stadium was enough for Spurs to decide he was worth building a midfield around.
De Zerbi has long admired him, and he did not hide it. For the Italian, Fernandes ticks the boxes that matter most: quality on the ball, intensity without it, and the tactical intelligence to handle the demands of his high-tempo, possession-heavy game. The Spurs head coach highlighted the Portuguese international’s Premier League experience, still brief but already convincing in its consistency.
Fernandes spoke like a player who knows exactly what he is stepping into. Spurs, he said, are a “massive club”, and De Zerbi’s role in the move was decisive. Their conversations, he described as “very special”. They see football the same way: go onto the pitch as an aggressive, united side, full of fight and energy, and try to win every match. No half-measures there.
He talked about meeting the fans, meeting the staff, and giving everything. For £85m, Spurs will expect nothing less. The fee alone changes the conversation. This is no squad option, no slow-burn project. Fernandes arrives as the midfielder around whom De Zerbi can build patterns, tempo and, ultimately, a new identity.
De Zerbi’s assessment of his new signing was revealing. He praised Fernandes’s composure under pressure, his ability to progress the ball, his work rate and, perhaps most importantly, his courage to try things when the game tightens and nerves fray. Those are the moments that define seasons and careers. Spurs believe they have found someone who will demand the ball rather than hide from it.
The Italian also called Tottenham the “ideal environment” for Fernandes to continue his development. The fee suggests Spurs see much more than development; they see a player ready to drive them towards the level they have been chasing since the Mauricio Pochettino era faded.
Two midfielders, two very different price tags, one clear theme: clubs are no longer dabbling around the edges in this window. Everton are staking their future on a Championship standout with international pedigree. Tottenham are wagering a record sum on a 21-year-old they believe can shape their football for years.
Now comes the hard part: proving on the pitch that these are not just expensive statements, but turning points.
