....in terms of the players ability, it's interesting. Clearly, so much analysis is undertaken these days into a players detailed statistics, indeed there is a school of thought that statistical analysis actually informs transfer targets. With this in mind, a simple look at Wiki tells me;
- Niasse played in the Senegal league for 6 years, 154 games and 102 goals. That's a very decent return but we don't know the standard and you have to think he wouldn't have been there that long if he was good.
- he went to Brann (Norway) on a 6 month loan but failed to impress, playing only 3 games.
- he moved to a Turkish side, scoring 12 in 45.
- finally ending up at Lokomotive in a 5m Euro deal notching 12 in 28 games.
- 0 goals in 6 games for Senegal U21, 3 in 8 for the full side.
There is nothing in those stats to convince anybody to take a £13m plunge. I wouldn't know what greater detail Everton's analysts had access to but you would have to be convinced via lengthy scouting visits before embarking on such a deal. From what we know, extensive scouting was not undertaken.
As mentioned by others, there's a bad smell about this transfer. It might explain why Niasse has kept his own counsel whilst playing with the youngsters.
