Swap deals that don’t make much footballing sense are becoming part and parcel of the Premier League when summer rolls around.
We’ve seen a number of strange cases over the past year or so. The exchanging of academy products Tim Iroegbunam and Lewis Dobbin in separate deals between Everton and Aston Villa, each for a reported £9m, raised some eyebrows last June - with the selling of youth players injecting clubs with “pure profit” in their accounts. A couple of months later, dealings between Nottingham Forest and Newcastle saw rising midfield star Elliot Anderson move to the City Ground for £35m, while Forest’s backup Odysseas Vlachodimos, 30, joined the Magpies for £20m as part of the package - a baffling price that effectively meant Anderson joined for £15m and indicated that there were other factors at play.
