Quasi-swap deal back on as Everton come back to Newcastle to revive £37m deal

Earlier this week talks between Everton and Newcastle United broke down over a mutually beneficial swap deal that would see both clubs move out from under the dark shadow of PSR sanctions.

Both clubs need to find money to bring their budgets under the three-year loss limit allowed by the Premier League's despised Profitability and Sustainability Rules before the end of the day on Sunday.

A way in which clubs running close to or over their limits have found to exploit a loophole is to "swap" players, but with both clubs paying cash for the other player with a similar amount. That way both clubs receive an incoming fee which hits their bottom line, while the outgoing fee is amortised over the length of the player's contract meaning only a portion affects the current budget.

That agreement was close to being struck with Everton allowing Dominic Calvert-Lewin to join Newcastle with youngster Yankuba Minteh going the other way.

Getty Images

The Toffees will need to reduce their valuation of Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Unfortunately, Everton's valuation of Calvert-Lewin was greater than that of Newcastle's with the Toffees refusing to budge, so the Magpies walked away.

We suspected that the closer we got to the PSR reporting deadline, the more likely this deal would be resurrected and here we are with The Chronicle reporting that Everton have returned to the table to try again.

Everton now seem likely to reduce their £37m asking price for Calvert-Lewin to get the deal back on track.

Minteh is keen to join Everton this summer

Meanwhile, Yankuba Minteh has expressed his desire to remain in the Premier League and is quite keen to join Everton after refusing to enter talks with Lyon despite the clubs agreeing a £40million fee.

The fact that we are close to losing a bright prospect so soon after buying him and without him even kicking a ball for the club has riled some fans, which is understandable, but turning down such an enormous profit on a player who hasn't proven he can handle the Premier League is actually a good move by the club.

Only time will tell if it turns out to be a mistake, but if Everton continue to struggle at the arse end of the table, we doubt we'll see much greatness from Minteh while he's there anyway.