Everton snapped up Yerry Mina from Barcelona last week.
Everton director of football Marcel Brands has told The Telegraph that he took a risk in talks for Barcelona defender Yerry Mina by refusing to change his original offer despite Manchester United links.
The Toffees took a while to get going in the transfer market this summer, but did end up making seven signings to boost Marco Silva’s squad ahead of the deadline last week.
Goalkeeper Joao Virginia, left back Lucas Digne and midfielder Andre Gomes all arrived ahead of Thursday, before the Toffees pounced to add four new faces in the final hours of the transfer window.
Defender Kurt Zouma and playmaker Bernard arrived on loan and on a free transfer respectively, whilst Andre Gomes and Yerry Mina both followed Digne from Barcelona to Merseyside.
Centre back Mina is a major addition, with Everton swooping to land the 6ft 5in defender in a big-money move after he hit three goals in three games for Colombia at this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
Mina, 23, may have struggled with Barcelona following a January move from Palmeiras, but he should be a huge boost to the Everton defence, which had been creaking with Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka.
Mina was linked elsewhere before his £27million move to Everton, with Manchester United strongly touted as a destination, with Everton director of football Marcel Brands telling The Telegraph that he still doesn’t know whether the Red Devils were truly keen.
Brands noted that he didn’t change Everton’s offer once despite Barcelona’s reluctance and the speculation of a rival bid, admitting it was a gamble – but the risk paid off as Mina told him all along that he wanted a move to Everton.
“I put the offer in and Barcelona asked for a totally different amount that we would never have paid. Then they said, ‘Ok, we will wait until the end of the market’. We never changed our offer,” said Brands. “That was a bit of gamble because everyone was writing about Man United (wanting Mina) and Barcelona used that, agents used that, everyone used it. I don’t know exactly if Man United were in. The player said constantly to me, ‘I want to go to Everton’.”
“That was a great thing for us but you never know if Man United comes in and offers an extra £150,000 a week – every player would like to do that. I don’t know exactly the situation with Man United, but of course Barcelona used it. They said to me, ‘Man United are coming in’. I don’t know if they did but I took a bit of a risk with that. That’s why we were also keen on back-ups, you never know, but after the weekend before the market closed I had a confident feeling about it,” he added.
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