- Crystal Palace are preparing a £20m bid to leapfrog Everton for Hayden Hackney
- Everton’s two offers of £12m and £15m have both been firmly rejected by Boro
- Is asking familiar and uncomfortable questions about Everton’s recruitment
The Hackney situation is not really about Hayden Hackney. It is about whether Everton have actually changed.
Crystal Palace are preparing a bid close to £20m for the Middlesbrough midfielder, according to the Daily Mail. Everton have tried twice — £12m, then £15m — and been told, politely but firmly, to try harder. Middlesbrough want £25m.
They are entitled to. Hackney was the Championship’s Player of the Season, contributed five goals and seven assists in 39 appearances, and does not run out of contract until 2027. That is not an unreasonable valuation. That is just the market.
And yet Everton have spent the best part of a month offering about half of what the seller wants, and are now watching a rival prepare to walk past them.
If that sounds familiar, it should.
The pattern has been well-established over the years. Everton spot a target. They move first. They make low offers. They wait. They hope the seller blinks. The seller doesn’t blink. Someone else arrives with the actual money. Everton end up either scrambling to catch up or moving on to a compromise signing that nobody was particularly excited about.
This summer was supposed to feel different. The Friedkin Group, the new stadium, the record revenues — there was genuine reason to believe the transfer window would reflect an ambition that had previously been stated rather than demonstrated.
The Hackney saga is the first real test of whether any of that is true.
Why Hackney is worth every penny of Middlesbrough’s £25m asking price
What makes it all the more frustrating is that the argument for signing him is close to unanswerable. He is 23, English, fits precisely what Moyes needs in midfield, and according to The Athletic, Everton remain his preferred destination. The preference is there. The opportunity is there. Middlesbrough are not holding out for a ludicrous fee.
At 23, with Championship Player of the Season to his name, a year remaining on his contract, and Premier League clubs queuing up – £25m is not generosity from Middlesbrough. It is the basic market value. Everton, of all clubs, should understand what happens when you sell a player of that profile for less than he is worth. They have been on the wrong end of that calculation enough times.
Crystal Palace have Europa League football in 2026-27 — and Everton need to respond now
Crystal Palace have Europa League football to offer next season. That is a genuine pull and it would be naive to dismiss it. For a player of Hackney’s age and ambition, the chance to play in Europe is not a minor consideration.
But Hackney wants to come to Everton. That remains the key fact in all of this, and it is a fact that will not survive indefinitely. Palace are close to making a formal approach. Once that happens the dynamic shifts, the player’s head is turned, and Everton find themselves in precisely the reactive scramble they were supposed to have moved beyond.
The question, as so often, is whether they use the initiative they still hold — or wait just long enough to lose it.
