Quick introduction. I'm a Swansea fan myself, but my uncle is a long-time Everton fan who goes up to Goodison a couple of times a season, so I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Everton because of that.
I've been monitoring the Gylfi Sigurdsson story for a while now after hearing that the player was interested in a move (although nothing public yet). What I will say is that, in a market where Keane and Pickford are bought for fees worth up to £30m, we don't want to let go of our most valuable asset and one of the best number 10s in the league for peanuts. Gylfi covers a hell of a lot of distance (6th in the league last season), is far and away the best set-piece taker in the league, has three years remaining on his contract and qualifies as home-grown. You could argue that some of his creative stats aren't as great Barkley's, but the stats are skewed by, A) The fact he was playing out of his favoured position for most of the season (on the wing, as a false nine) and, B) The sheer amount of tracking he did negatively impacted on his decision-making in the final third. I don't think you'll pay £50m for him, but it needs to be a fair bit more than the £32m previously offered. Anything upwards of £40m and I think our board will be quite happy to accept it.
Either way, good luck for the coming season. I think Koeman is building a good project and it would be nice to see Everton challenge for the Champions League places.
You seem a lot more respectful than our last Swansea fan on here; mr @BrianSwan was a grade A bell
Good post and good luck