Leroy Fer was ‘really down’ after missing out on a near £9 million move to Premier League giants Everton in the winter of 2013, former Toffees defender Cuco Martina says via the Liverpool Echo.
Eight years ago, Everton appeared to be within touching distance of a deal that would have seen a twice-capped Netherlands international swap FC Twente for Goodison Park.
That was, of course, until the Merseyside giants got cold feet, pulling out of the transfer at the eleventh hour after growing concerned over a potential knee problem discovered during his medical (BBC).
“He’s a really good player,” then-Everton manager David Moyes explained at the time.
“But it was a situation out of our control. We couldn’t make it work.”
Clearly, Norwich City didn’t share Everton’s concerns.
The Canaries snapped up Fer just a few months after Everton walked away.
Given that he would play 29 Premier League games in his one and only season at Carrow Road – and, no, he didn’t suffer a single knee injury during his time in East Anglia – then it’s worth wondering whether, sometimes, there is smoke without fire.
Did Everton make a mistake turning down Leroy Fer?
“(Fer) came back saying, ‘what a great club’,” explains Martina, the Dutch-born right-back who joined Everton from Southampton six years later.
“(He) was really down because he’d missed the chance to join.”
Now 32 and plying his trade in Turkey with Alanyaspor, Fer admitted that missing out on a move to Everton was the toughest moment of his professional career.
And that’s saying something. The former Feyenoord star suffered relegation on three separate occasions during his time in Britain, at Norwich, Queens Park Rangers and Swansea City.
Martina, meanwhile, is back in the Netherlands, joining Go Ahead Eagles in November after two years out of the game.
“(Carlo) Ancelotti said I could go, see my family and be happy,” Martina adds, explaining how his Everton exit came about.
“I really regret that I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. It would have enabled me to close the book.
“But I loved Everton. It is a big club with really great fans, I played games and did well.”
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
