Goodison Insight: Everton Starter Likely to Depart Next Season Following Friedkin Takeover Announcement.
Everton's Late Signing of Orel Mangala Tied to Takeover, with His Departure Now Likely for the Same Reason.
The Belgian midfielder’s late loan transfer on Deadline Day had clear involvement from John Textor, arriving at a point when Everton’s transfer activity seemed to have concluded.
Textor, at the time, was leading negotiations to buy the club from Farhad Moshiri.
The acquisition of a midfielder from his Ligue 1 team, Lyon, following Sean Dyche’s failure to secure Kalvin Phillips and others, seemed like Textor offering support ahead of his takeover.
However, Roma owner Dan Friedkin has reemerged, finalizing his own bid to buy Everton, with the deal announced on September 23 and pending regulatory approval. It is reportedly “99% done” [Giulia Bould, 23 September].
Textor was ultimately beaten to the Everton takeover by Friedkin, who is expected to have no issues securing Premier League approval within the next two to three months [Ben Jacobs, 23 September].
Mangala’s long-term future at Everton, already uncertain, now seems even more so with Textor’s exit from the equation.
Reports suggest that the 26-year-old midfielder wasn’t entirely sold on the move to Everton initially, as his agents had arranged a deal with Fiorentina [Gianluca Di Marzio, 29 August].
However, Lyon’s management favored the Everton move, indicating Textor’s significant influence [Di Marzio, 29 August].
Fiorentina had a deal in place for Mangala, and one of the intermediaries involved, Giovanni Bia, has already suggested that talks with the Serie A club are likely to resume in the summer [TuttoMercatoWeb, 19 September].
With Friedkin now leading the club’s takeover, Mangala’s chances of staying with Everton appear minimal.
Despite this, Everton hasn’t lost a match in which Mangala has started and played the full 90 minutes, which could spark some interest in making his deal permanent.
However, Mangala had already agreed to join Fiorentina, and with Textor no longer involved to facilitate negotiations between Everton and Lyon, it seems likely that Mangala’s return to the Premier League, following his stint with Nottingham Forest, will be short-lived, lasting only this season.
