Yerry Mina chose Everton over Manchester United and Lyon

Everton Director of Football Marcel Brands has been talking to various media outlets today about the summer transfer window for the Toffees.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the Dutchman was asked how the Blues ended up having such a busy Deadline Day that saw four players added, with three (Yerry Mina, Andre Gomes [loan] and Kurt Zouma [loan]) joining the club in the last hour before the 5pm deadline. Mina in particular was being pursued by Manchester United and Olympique Lyonnais as well.

“That was mainly because of Mina of course, because there were a lot of rumours also about other clubs in the Premier League - so Barcelona waited.

“We didn’t change the offer, so that was a little bit of a gamble, but it worked in the end.

“The boy was clear, he wanted to play for Everton, so that helps a lot, of course.”

This was the first year the Premier League had a different closing date to the transfer window from the rest of Europe, and it changed how clubs acted.

“From the other side, the new market was closing earlier and the other countries waited until the end, because they know what Premier League clubs can do - so that did not help me.

“In the end it went the right direction, but I was a little bit unsure what would happen in the last days.”

This was Brands’ first summer with the club, and he was also asked how he dealt with the hectic pace, especially leading up to the window closing.

“For me (it was) special, my first time in the UK and a very special last day. I was lucky that I had a lot of support on my side, people from legal, people from finance, the chairman of course.

“It was a quite a busy day. I was confident things would get done but the days before were a bit stressful!”