Everton have confirmed that Sandro Ramirez has joined SD Huesca on a permanent deal. The 25-year-old was signed on a free transfer and has agreed a three-year deal at the Estadio El Alcoraz. The real story is the money lost from our failure to cash in on his signature, however.
Sandro has finally left after three troublesome years
The Spaniard made 16 appearances in his three years at Everton, scoring just one goal, so he won’t be missed. Sandro only amassed 735 minutes of football for us and spent the last two years out on loan, so he’d been surplus to requirements for a while.
We couldn’t find a buyer for Sandro, however, as he failed to score in 18 appearances at Sevilla (January 30, 2018 – June 30, 2018), failed to score in 26 appearances at Real Sociedad (August 30, 2018 – June 30, 2019) and only scored four goals in 26 appearances at Real Valladolid (July 2, 2019 – July 20, 2020).
It looked like we’d struggle to find a suitor, but there was interest from six Spanish clubs this summer. SD Eibar, SD Huesca, Elche CF, Valladolid, SC Braga and Sporting CP were keen, but Huesca managed to bag him without paying a penny. We’ve certainly paid for his failed transfer, however.
How much money did we write off?
We paid £5.4m for Sandro in 2017 and agreed a four-year deal worth £5.2m-a-year/£100k-a-week, so the Spaniard has cost us £16.9m. For one goal. His last appearance came all the way back in August 2018 and he’s since fallen behind Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the pecking order.
Theo Walcott has joined Southampton on a season-long loan and will be out of contract when his stint at St Mary’s finishes, so we’ve also written off £33m in losses there.
Sandro’s departure added on makes it £50m spent without getting our money’s worth in performances. It’s worth noting that we were considering terminating his contract early and paying compensation, so selling him for nothing is an improvement.
His move to Huesca doesn’t cost us extra money and we don’t have to pay his wages for another year. We just won’t see a penny of what was spent three years ago.
In other news, Jordan Pickford’s Everton place is safe despite Robin Olsen’s arrival