No Everton transfer is ever straightforward

Going into Deadline Day it was looking like Davy Klaassen was headed to Napoli (or possibly even Lazio) in Italy on a loan deal, with an option to buy.

However, starting around midday, Everton-related social media started reporting that the transfer could be falling through because of two main issues - something about image rights was mentioned, and then the Naples-based side somehow completely missed the fact that Klaassen was cup-tied having played in the Europa League for the Blues.

Napoli have had issues with transfers in the past as well, most notably Mauro Icardi moving to Naples fell through because of said image rights, which had something to do with the club president Aurelio De Laurentiis being a renowned film producer in Italy who likes to use club footage in all sorts of media.

After tonight’s game, Allardyce shed some light on what went wrong.

“I got the weirdest situation on Klaassen about sporting contracts were the difficulty. I can’t quite expand on that but a sporting contract he has with a sporting company was a part of the reason why it failed.

“God knows why or how. This is one of the best moves he could’ve had in Europe but for whatever reason, and whoever fault it was, it failed.

“We’re disappointed but he should be far more disappointed than us that he’s still here and not playing in Napoli in the Italian league.

“I don’t know why they couldn’t get over the hurdles put in front of them but they didn’t.”

The only think we can think is that Klaassen is hugely popular back in his home country of Holland, and was not willing to give away his image rights without adequate compensation or something of that sort. Who knows.

This is bad news for the midfielder though as he’s unlikely to get any playing time under Allardyce at Everton, and that is no good for anyone in this situation, the club or the player.