By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
Deadline day has a way of turning sure things into nothing at all. Just ask Everton.
Folarin Balogun's £40 million ($54m) move from AS Monaco to Everton collapsed after the American striker pulled the plug on the deal following the transfer deadline, according to multiple reports, including sources who spoke to ESPN. The move had gone on-again, off-again for hours before finally dying without Balogun making the switch to the Premier League.
What exactly changed Balogun's mind isn't fully clear from what's been reported — only that after a deal appeared close enough to call done, the USMNT forward walked away from it. For a player who has spent recent seasons searching for the right club to reestablish himself after a difficult stretch, the collapse leaves him back at square one, and Everton without the attacking reinforcement they'd been chasing.
Everton had been searching for firepower up front, and Balogun, capped for the United States and once one of Europe's most talked-about young strikers on loan spells, looked like exactly the kind of gamble worth taking. Now the Toffees head into the new season still searching, and Balogun's next move is anyone's guess.
Transfer sagas like this one rarely have tidy endings — a deal is either done or it isn't, and deadline day has no patience for anything in between. This one isn't done. Everyone involved will have to live with that.
Final score's the last thing that mattered here.
— Compiled from reporting by ESPN.
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