Everton's Troubling Transfer Window: Balogun Fallout and Fan Fury
Everton’s transfer window did not simply end badly. It collapsed in public, under floodlights, with the fanbase in open revolt and the club’s hierarchy dragged to the centre of the storm.
At the heart of it sit owners The Friedkin Group and chief executive Angus Kinnear, now facing the kind of scrutiny usually reserved for managers on the brink. The anger has been building all summer. Deadline day turned it volcanic.
Balogun saga tips fans over the edge
The first flashpoint was the proposed sale of home-grown forward Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest. Supporters were incensed that Everton were prepared to cash in on a 19-year-old many see as the club’s most exciting academy product since Wayne Rooney. The backlash was so fierce the board eventually blocked the move.
That alone would have left scars. What followed was worse.
Folarin Balogun’s £40m move from AS Monaco was meant to be the statement signing, the centrepiece of a late push to fix long-standing problems up front. Instead, it descended into farce.
The deal sheet was signed by both clubs and the player before Tuesday’s 23.00 BST deadline, allowing the transfer to be completed afterwards. Everton booked an 8am flight to bring the 25-year-old to Merseyside. He arrived later than planned. The club were also irritated by delays in receiving documentation from Monaco.
Then his medical raised issues. That changed everything.
Everton tried to rework the structure of the deal, reducing the initial fee and building in a series of performance-related payments. Balogun’s personal terms stayed exactly the same. On paper, the transfer was still alive.
In reality, trust was draining away.
As Everton scrambled, they turned to alternatives. Joshua Zirkzee was sounded out over a loan from Manchester United; he was ready to come, but United refused to let him leave. Tammy Abraham was approached at Aston Villa, but he chose to stay at Villa Park. No Plan B, no Plan C.
With the clock ticking towards the extended deadline, Everton and Monaco finally thrashed out a revised agreement. Then came the final twist. Balogun walked away.
The United States international left Finch Farm without signing, with Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro later telling journalists the striker was “not comfortable” with how Everton had treated him during his medical.
Everton insist they supported Balogun throughout, were transparent about the medical concerns and made it clear they would work with Monaco to find a solution that could still complete the move. None of it mattered once the player decided he’d had enough.
The image that lingers is brutal: a £40m striker leaving the training ground unsigned on deadline day, the deal in tatters.
A squad stripped bare
All of this unfolded just hours after Everton had sanctioned Beto’s £15.5m move to Fiorentina. Their only established centre-forward out the door, the marquee replacement gone, the scramble unsuccessful.
At the same time, their most creative player, Iliman Ndiaye, was finalising a £65m move to Manchester City. Goals and invention exiting. Very little coming back in.
Everton can argue Balogun made a personal decision they could not control. The more damning question hangs in the air: why did a club with such obvious, long-term weaknesses leave themselves so exposed on the final day?
Only days earlier, Kinnear had gone on BBC Radio Merseyside and declared the squad “in a good place”. He spoke about the club’s “metric” of having “the absolute best player we can in their position” by the close of the window.
He also relayed the view of the American owners that missing out on Europe last season amounted to “failure”. David Moyes admitted he was surprised to hear it.
Now that word is being thrown back at the boardroom, not the dugout. If this season unravels, the spotlight will not move far from TFG and Kinnear.
The reality Moyes faces is stark. Everton end the window with just one senior striker, the raw Thierno Barry, and only 18 senior outfield players. For a 63-year-old manager who has already hinted at his dissatisfaction with the club’s business, it is a threadbare hand.
There were successes. Jack Grealish returned on loan. Ashley Maitland-Niles arrived from Lyon for £3m, finally offering a solution to a right-back problem that has dogged Everton for years.
Even that was messy. A £9.4m move for Fulham’s Kenny Tete had been lined up, only to be abandoned when the London club could not secure a replacement. Maitland-Niles was then announced just after midnight, another late, reactive deal rather than the product of smooth planning.
The squad now has one recognised right-back in Maitland-Niles, one left-back in Vitaliy Mykolenko, and no obvious cover after youngster Adam Aznou was allowed to join Malaga on loan. One injury in the full-back positions and the patchwork begins.
PR disasters and a furious fanbase
Everton’s hierarchy did at least halt one public relations disaster by pulling the plug on Armstrong’s sale. They walked straight into another with the Balogun debacle and the glaring holes left across the squad.
After the Carabao Cup second-round win at Preston North End, Moyes did not disguise the scale of the task. “I still think we have got a lot of work to do. We need more players. Our squad is not big enough and we need to get more quality in some areas if we can do,” he said.
Those words now feel like an understatement.
Supporters’ groups have moved quickly. A petition calling for Kinnear’s resignation has already been launched. The Everton Fans’ Forum issued a detailed statement accusing the club of leaving the squad “dangerously short” in key positions.
Their message was pointed: this is not about reckless spending or chasing marquee names for show. “We are demanding competence, preparation and accountability,” the statement read. It is a damning verdict on the club’s planning and recruitment.
The 1878s, the volunteer group behind the huge flags, banners and tifos that have transformed atmospheres at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium, responded with their own act of protest. Described as “unbelievable” by Moyes for their work, they announced they are “standing down for the foreseeable future”.
They spelt out why. “Like the rest of our fanbase, we are utterly disappointed and disgusted with how this transfer window has gone, especially the end of it,” they said, adding that regulations prevent them from displaying flags with derogatory wording or images. If they could cover the stands with visible anger, they insisted, they would.
Signings overshadowed by chaos
On paper, Everton did not sit still this summer.
Hayden Hackney, the PFA Championship Player of the Year, arrived from Middlesbrough. Christian Norgaard came in from Arsenal as a replacement for Idrissa Gueye, though the 32-year-old Dane is injured with no return date set.
Deals for promising German midfielder Merlin Rohl and England Under-21 winger Tyrique George, who was on loan last season, were tied up. Brennan Johnson joined from Crystal Palace in a straight swap for Dwight McNeil.
Individually, some of those moves make sense. Collectively, they are drowned out by the way deadline day unfolded and by the structural weaknesses left untouched or even deepened.
Strip it back and the conclusion is harsh but unavoidable: Everton end this transfer window weaker than when it opened.
The club have yet to issue any public statement addressing the Balogun collapse, the Armstrong U-turn, or the fury now directed at TFG and Kinnear. Silence only amplifies the sense of drift.
Many fences now need mending – with the manager, with the dressing room, with a fanbase that has lost faith in the people running their club.
Whether Everton’s hierarchy can repair that damage, or whether this window becomes the moment the relationship breaks beyond fixing, will shape everything that follows this season.
