Everton had to sell a few players during the summer transfer window in order to comply with the Premier League’s financial fair play regulations.
This saw the likes of Amadou Onana, Lewis Dobbin and Ben Godfrey all leave Goodison Park, allowing Sean Dyche to balance the books.
Onana in particular has been a big miss, particularly with the Belgian beginning to showcase his talents for Aston Villa over the first few months of the season.
Amadou Onana’s stats after leaving Everton
The Belgian has played 14 games for his new club, scoring three goals already, becoming a key member of Unai Emery’s starting XI.
Onana has notably been a shining light in the Champions League, starring on the biggest continental stage of all. As well as scoring once, he has averaged a pass success rate of 95%, winning 65% of his total duels per game and completing 100% of his dribble attempts.
His transition from the Premier League to Europe has been seamless and, despite securing a fee of around £50m, Dyche will regret letting him leave.
|
Onana league stats at Aston Villa |
|
|---|---|
|
Goals |
2 |
|
Big chances created |
0 |
|
Pass success rate per game |
90% |
|
Total duels won per game |
5.4 |
|
Touches per game |
44.1 |
|
Possession lost per game |
4.8 |
|
Via Sofascore |
|
That said, he isn’t the only former Toffee at Villa Park who the Merseyside outfit should regret seeing leave through the exit door.
The Premier League defender Everton must regret selling
The club must also rue selling a defender under Rafa Benitez who is now undergoing a resurgence in recent months – Lucas Digne.
The Frenchman joined the Toffees in 2018, arriving from Barcelona, and over the next three and half seasons, he would go on to make 127 appearances for the club in the process.
In January 2022, however, Benitez was looking to raise some funds for future signings, which meant a player or two had to be sold.
Just days before the manager was sacked, Villa duly spent £25m to sign the French defender nearly three years ago, rescuing him from Benitez. Now, this season, the former Barcelona star has undergone somewhat of a resurgence.
In the Premier League this term for the Midlands side, Digne has not only scored twice but has also created eight big chances, averaging 1.3 key passes per game and averaged 0.5 shots per game, proving his worth going forward.
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Having a left-back Emery can trust has made a huge difference to the Frenchman’s confidence, which has seen his performances improve from those of last term.
He was even called up to the France squad for the latest Nations League matches, playing a starring role against Italy.
The former Everton defender played the entire 90 minutes as he registered two assists, made four tackles, made two key passes and even hit the woodwork during the 3-1 victory over the Italians.
This led to praise from Villa journalist John Townley, who said: “When Unai Emery joined Aston Villa two years ago, he wanted “more in everything” from Digne. Now he’s probably in the form of his life.”
While £25m at the time was a reasonable fee for Digne, Everton must now rue selling the defender who has been excellent for club and country this season.
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