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‘Here We No’: Fabrizio Romano and his increasing list of premature Everton announcements

| 02/07/2025 26comments  |  Jump to last

Fabrizio Romano has contributed to the cultural change of transfer windows. Seemingly long gone are the days when transfers came unexpectedly, the first news coming from official club channels or the previous sacred stamp of validity, Sky Sports’ famous yellow bar.

Now, deals - or rumours -  are drip-fed from ‘in the know’ accounts long before anything actually happens. An excitement sponge, if you like, for what was once a guessing game. Are Romano and the like truly sharing genuine information, or simply mouthpieces for agents looking to engineer deals? The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Romano is perhaps the embodiment of the new era, for some a transfer oracle, his ‘Here We Go’ catchphrase taken as gospel. For Everton, however, it’s not always been the case. 

Kenny Tete’s U-turn on a move to Merseyside is the latest Romano revelation that has failed to come to fruition for the Blues. 

Amid an announcement that a verbal agreement had been reached with the Dutch defender, just days later, Tete put pen to paper on a new contract in West London. It’s not the first miss from Romano, whose reliable reputation does not appear to extend to Everton.

Here are three other Everton ‘announcements’ the transfer guru got wrong:

Luis Diaz

Back in the summer of 2021, Romano reported that Everton were reportedly ‘confident’ of securing a deal for Luis Diaz, with the FC Porto player giving ‘priority’ to the Blues.

The proposal included James Rodriguez heading to Porto in exchange, but was reportedly blocked by Rafa Benitez. 

Everton instead signed Demarai Gray in a cut-price deal, while Diaz started the 2021/22 season on fire. He scored 14 goals in 18 league games for Porto before a move to Merseyside - joining Liverpool in January 2022.

Mohammed Kudus

In August 2022, Romano tweeted that Everton were ‘set to sign’ the then-Ajax star. The deal was described as being at the ‘final stages’ and that it ‘will be completed soon’. Kudus never made the move to Merseyside. 

The transfer was reportedly blocked after Manchester United spent a fortune on Ajax teammate Antony. He later admitted to being ‘disappointed’ that the deal fell through.

A year later, Kudus signed for West Ham in a £38m deal and scored 14 goals in his debut season. The Ghana international is set to be on the move again this summer, with Spurs seeking a transfer worth in excess of £60m. Kudus would certainly have helped fill the current problem position on the right flank.

Arnaut Danjuma

A deal that even had the ‘Here We Go’ seal of approval.

Romano confirmed Arnaut Danjuma’s loan move to Everton as a ‘done deal’ in January 2023, only for Tottenham to hijack the deal and leave the transfer insider red-faced. Spurs stole in to sign Danjuma on loan from Villarreal, but the Dutchman struggled to make an impact in North London.

Six months later, Danjuma did join Everton on a season-long loan deal. It was hardly worth the wait. Another underwhelming period followed with just two goals in 20 appearances.



Reader Comments (26)

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Mike Hayes
1 Posted 02/07/2025 at 12:41:38
Here we no 😵‍💫🤷
Sam Hoare
2 Posted 02/07/2025 at 12:57:56
El Bobble is more reliable and has just said that talks are advancing with Thierno Barry for what it's worth.

I reckon that deal might be done before the week is done. £27M with £4M in add-ons apparently.

Danny O'Neill
3 Posted 02/07/2025 at 13:07:35
The Bobble is the other one I take notice of, Sam. That's pretty much what Romano said, just up to £6M in add-ons.

But they are both saying the same thing.

Frank Crewe
4 Posted 02/07/2025 at 13:25:51
It would appear that Mr Romano figures, if he links Everton with just about every player he can think of, eventually he will be right about one of them actually signing.

Then he can claim some sort of insider information when in fact it was just a lucky guess. Because nobody remembers the 99% of transfer predictions he got wrong.

Neil Copeland
5 Posted 02/07/2025 at 13:31:47
It's a pity Alan Myers leaves Sky this week, he is reliable also.

Alan lives about a mile from me and comes across as a very decent and genuine bloke. I think he is going freelance so hopefully he continues to stay in close contact with the Blues.

Danny O'Neill
6 Posted 02/07/2025 at 13:35:33
Neil, I forgot about Alan Myers.

Yes, a statement said he was going freelance. He's been very good over the years, so, as you say, let's hope he keeps it going, as well as his links to Everton.

Si Pulford
7 Posted 02/07/2025 at 14:10:31
The Bobble has a habit of breaking Everton transfer stories just slightly after others nowadays.

He used to be first in to be fair to him. But not for a while.

Colin Glassar
8 Posted 02/07/2025 at 14:36:47
Frank, I agree.

Romano is rubbish. He comes out with his, “Here we go” crap when a move is official as though he's just had the scoop of the century.

The other Italian (name forgotten) was much better.

Anjishnu Roy
9 Posted 02/07/2025 at 14:56:36
Colin (8),

You're probably thinking of Gianluca Di Marzio.

Si Cooper
10 Posted 02/07/2025 at 15:27:33
It's a strange stick to beat the guy with - Everton's reknowned ability to be gazumped on deals.

He'd only be wrong if we were never actually interested in any of these players, which we clearly were.

The question is whether he is deliberately doing someone other than Everton a favour by making the negotiations known whilst there is still time to interfere, because a verbal agreement isn't binding is it?

Ryan Holroyd
11 Posted 02/07/2025 at 15:36:05
He's an absolute dick.

Just tweets news from anyone else.

Eric Myles
12 Posted 02/07/2025 at 15:36:24
Si, yes, a verbal contract is binding, it's just difficult to enforce.

There's even a famous case of a contract having been made by semaphore signals.

Danny O'Neill
13 Posted 02/07/2025 at 16:24:27
I guess it's down to opinions. Journalists will always try to speculate in the hope of getting one right.

No different from people on here, who speculate often without substantiating their knowledge. Are they dicks, Ryan?

Andrew Ellams
14 Posted 02/07/2025 at 16:24:39
To be fair to call deals from the club responsible for transfer fiascos such as Muller and Manny Fernandes going from "here we go" to "no we don't" in a heartbeat may not be too far from the truth at times.
Frank Crewe
15 Posted 02/07/2025 at 16:42:39
@Danny 13

The difference is ordinary fans don't claim to have any inside information, whereas people like Romano do. They claim to know people "close to the player" or a "source within the club" etc without providing a scrap of evidence to back it up.

Then, when they are once again proven to be wrong, the "sources" they claimed to exist suddenly disappear. The fact is that when it comes to the buying and selling of players, outside of the people directly involved, nobody actually knows what is going on.

Clubs have become very good at keeping this stuff under wraps until they deign to announce it.

Jay Harris
16 Posted 02/07/2025 at 16:53:29
Without the speculation (a lot of it is true but a lot of it is just clickbait) we would have nothing to debate on here nor get excited about.

Some sensible people stay away from it until they are wearing the shirt. Other suckers like me wait with bated breath for the next incoming.

The life of an Evertonian, uh.

Colin Glassar
17 Posted 02/07/2025 at 17:14:26
Cheers, Anjishnu.

NewsNow Everton is more accurate then Romano and they are really crap.

Jerome Shields
18 Posted 02/07/2025 at 17:58:11
Harry, I totally agree. As a matter of fact I still go with the sequence of:

Negotiations with Existing players, maybe the odd young player move, but not in the first team squad.

Players moved on: not offered a new contract or put in the shop.window.

Loans in or Loans out.

Players signed on free contract or bought on a staggered finance basis.

The rest is noise and better to take a holiday during the Summer from all the nonsense spouted from these so-called "in the know" ejitts.

I would go as far to say ignore all the players they mention. I doubt any of them will be playing for Everton. If they do, it will be pure luck rather than being in the know.

Christy Ring
19 Posted 02/07/2025 at 18:22:12
Romano makes so many ridiculous transfer announcements, he eventually has to get a few correct, but paper never refuses ink, keeps him in a job.
Andrew James
21 Posted 02/07/2025 at 20:04:14
I remember the summer, about a decade ago, when a certain Colin Glassar was insistent we would bring in Lukaku on a permanent deal. We did eventually do it and for a big sum but I always believed Colin because it all seemed plausible.

Having insider knowledge beats most other sources but people like Romano imply they are on direct dial to agents etc when they are merely speculating.

Colin Glassar
22 Posted 02/07/2025 at 20:37:08
That was a total one-off, Andrew, because I did have insider info regarding Lukaku. The same as with Deulofeu.

But my contact retired shortly after, though he does remain friendly with people in the game.

Ernie Baywood
23 Posted 02/07/2025 at 20:59:35
I find it interesting listening to Paddy Boyland on the blue room. I get the sense he is genuinely connected to the club and could speculate a lot more. But carefully chooses, according to his journalistic standards, what he communicates.

Fabrizio, on the other hand, is obviously very well connected globally, but I suspect he has lowered his standards in recent years. His word used to mean something but he's become more and more speculative.

And with Everton, we all know how it works: "I won't believe it until he's wearing a shirt and holding a scarf on the pitch."

Joe McMahon
24 Posted 02/07/2025 at 21:02:22
He's saying it's confirmed.

https://x.com/EvertonNewsFeed/status/1940497748530442368

Sam Hoare
25 Posted 02/07/2025 at 21:17:28
I think he's is well connected. Of course footballers may change their mind at the last minute but Romano is one of the more reliable sources and is probably right about 60% of the time which is more than most.

Let's see if he's right about confirming Thierno Barry.

Jamie Sweet
26 Posted 02/07/2025 at 22:04:48
Yes, I remember the summer when Colin Glassar became "The Oracle"!

They were good times.

Derek Thomas
27 Posted 02/07/2025 at 23:06:16
I wish we could return to the days when the first you knew about a transfer was a picture of Harry Catterick and the new player on the back page of the echo or daily post (which used to be a decent paper)

But (digressing slightly) Re. The Catt. there is also a good case to be made that...Tommy Jackson notwithstanding...the last decent signing he made was in 1967 with Kendall - just thought I'd throw that in as a close season pot stirrer.

Edit; if it please M'Lud the prosecution would like to enter exhibits A, B C, D & E. Namely,The Irish Jimmy Hill, Ernie Hunt Henry Newton, David Lawson Mike Bernard...there will no doubt be others I've missed.


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