Former Sheffield United and Everton player and now coach, David Unsworth, has claimed that the Toffees paid significantly less for Dominic Calvert-Lewin than has been reported.
It was widely-accepted at the time of his sale that United had agreed to a deal in the region of £1.5m for Calvert-Lewin, a fee that looks like peanuts given his status in the game now.
However, Unsworth, who spent time with United and helped the Blades into the Premier League back in 2006, has told Sky Sports that the Everton number nine cost even less than we’re led to believe.
“I can assure you it was nowhere near the amount of money that people mentioned at the time. I won’t say the exact fee but it was a lot less than what you just quoted,” Unsworth said when pressed on the £1.5m reports.
“I still smile when I think about how we managed to prise him away. It was all about timing and Sheffield United were in League One and had just got a new manager. Dominic wasn’t going to play a big part in trying to get them out of League One”.
MORE UNITED STORIES
Calvert-Lewin has gone on flourish under the management of Carlo Ancelotti. He has already scored seven goals this season in the Premier League, putting him joint top of the scoring charts.
Necessity
As Unsworth touched on, it was a matter of timing from Everton with the United striker and looking back, it had to be done by Chris Wilder really.
We wouldn’t be where we are now without that sale and although hindsight is a wonderful thing, sometimes these sort of decisions need to be made.
We’re all pleased for ‘DCL’ anyway and hope he continues on his current upward trend.