Everton are putting business before pleasure by offloading Ademola Lookman to RB Leipzig.
According to the Daily Mail, the winger is due to hold a medical with the Bundesliga side imminently ahead of his return to the German outfit where he spent the latter half of the 2017/18 season on loan.
It is understood the fee agreed is the speculated £18million with a further £4.5million tied up in various add-ons, which is believed to have already been designated to help fund a move for Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha.
Leipzig attempted to retain Lookman’s services following his loan-spell last summer, but their advances fell on deaf ears as our board held firm on a higher asking price than the Red Bull Arena outfit were willing to pay.
But Marco Silva rarely turned to the 21-year-old during his debut season at the helm, with Lookman awarded just 830 minutes of football across all competitions last season.
The London-born attacker signed in 2017 is expected to put pen to paper on a five-year deal with Leipzig following his medical, marking the end to a Blues career many hoped would flourish under an attacking manager like Silva.
Silva’s lack of willingness to rely on Lookman’s skill was often a cause for debate amongst the Goodison Park faithful, though, with fans split over whether the club should part ways with the Charlton product this summer, send him out on loan again, or if they made a mistake by not cashing in a year ago.
By now cashing in on the former England U21 international, the club are clearly putting business before pleasure, knowing that another year on the fringes would further reduce his market value, with Lookman pointlessly eating into a £23,000-a-week contract that runs until the summer of 2021.
The board slapped a £28million plus add-ons asking price on the forward last summer to get the best price they could out of Leipzig, but the Bundesliga outfit refused to stretch any higher than £25m plus add-ons.
That decision has cost the club at least £4,081,000, and in return saw one goal and two assists in all competitions – meaning Lookman earnt £360,333 for every strike he was involved in last season, a financial trend the board had to stop.