Everton struck gold on “world-class” star who could eclipse the Lukaku sale

To this day, Everton’s £75m sale of Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United remains the biggest in their history.

Comfortably, the Belgian sits in that top spot, even eight years later and just under a month before Neymar joined Paris Saint-Germain and changed the landscape of the transfer market irrevocably.

He was brilliant for Everton, still having played more games for the Toffees than for any other club across his wandering European career.

Everton have made many profitable sales since, selling Amadou Onana and Richarlison for hefty fees, to name a couple, but David Moyes will want to retain his prized players in this current Premier League climate, with the early readings from the current campaign suggesting his side have the capacity to reach heights long unscaled.

The most valuable players in the Everton squad

Everton have spent too long competing against the threat of relegation, and Moyes is intent on changing that. Indeed, four games into the 2025/26 season, the Scot has picked up seven points from 12, and Everton sit sixth in the standings.

They have a squad of new potential and possibilities. Iliman Ndiaye joined from Marseille for just £15m last summer, and yet he looks a top player indeed, the club’s top scorer last term and showing more quality over the opening weeks of the campaign. Perhaps he stands a chance of emulating Lukaku in the final third?

Jarrad Branthwaite has not yet kicked a ball this term due to injury, but has been courted by the Premier League’s top outfits in the past and has been priced at £75m, a fee which would level him with Lukaku.

And how could we forget Jack Grealish? A loanee he may be, the £100m Manchester City man has enjoyed an electric start to his stint on Merseyside, and after claiming August’s Player of the Month, fans clamour for a permanent deal down the line, although it may cost in the region of £40m-£50m to get it done.

However, Everton have another talent who actually has the potential to match Grealish’s one-time price tag, and that would see him topple Lukaku as the record holder.

Everton’s new “world-class talent”

Maybe it would be unfair to speak of Tyler Dibling’s potential for a record sale at this nascent stage of his Everton career. After all, Moyes will hope that the English playmaker remains at the Hill Dickinson Stadium for many years to come.

Hailed as a “world-class talent” by Southampton youth coach Andy Goldie, Dibling is an exciting player indeed, endowed with a strong athletic style and silky dribbling skills, jinking his way past defenders and into the danger area.

Dibling stood out at Southampton last season, and Everton were tenacious in their bid to sign him, winning the tussle and paying a £42m fee.

He only registered seven goal involvements last year, but the 19-year-old’s potential is undeniable, with Saints sources revealing Dibling was valued at a whopping £100m by his former club as interest intensified last year.

Perhaps unrealistic, but at least it stood as a marker of the kid’s potential, so robust and at ease in the top flight despite Southampton’s woes. Indeed, he played more minutes than any other teenager in the Premier League last term, ranking impressively when compared to his younger peers.

His fleet-footedness has seen him play regularly on the right flank, but Dibling also has a skill from the centre, taking on his man and creating and weaving into space. Is it any wonder he’s already been compared to Grealish and Wayne Rooney since trading the south coast for the north west?

The options are many, and Moyes will crack the best method to see the player rise to the fore and perhaps creep closer toward Southampton’s lofty valuation from last season.

Dibling is the real deal, all right, and may well become a Premier League superstar over the coming years. Moyes will want to keep onto the speedy teenager, but if the day comes when Everton cash in, they will receive a paycheck surpassing even that one-time agreement to part with Lukaku.