Money’s not the Mata as it’s one in and one out at United

Ronald Koeman looks set to carry out his first piece of business since taking charge of Everton with Spanish international Juan Mata due to join the club in the next 24 hours. The 28 year old will once again link up with Koeman after previously playing under him at Valencia.

Mata’s days were always going to be numbered once Jose Mourinho was named as the new Manchester United manager. It was The Special One who sold Mata to United back in 2014 and it looks as if lightning will strike twice with the former Chelsea midfielder once again being told to pack his bag.

With the fee reported to be £21m it also signifies the start of the new era at Everton now that new shareholder Farhad Moshiri has promised a sizeable transfer warchest to be spent this Summer. They are already forking out £6m a year for Koeman’s services and the expenditure will not stop there.

What will Mata bring to Goodison Park?, he’ll certainly bring a raft of Premier League experience what with it set to be his third club in England but not only that for £21m you are getting a World Cup and European Championship winner.  This seems to be quite the transfer coup for the Toffees.

Some may say that Mata doesn’t quite have the pace required for life in the English top flight but he has scored 21 goals in 86 league appearances for Manchester United, so with a goal ratio of 1 every 4 games he will still be a very useful addition to nearly any top flight side. Just perhaps not one that Jose Mourinho is in charge of.

Not only that but it looks to be a statement of intent by Everton, after last season’s disappointing campaign they will be looking to bounce back and bounce back quickly. That’s one player nearly through the door but you get the feeling that Koeman will be looking to make many more additions regardless of whether players such as Romelu Lukaku and John Stones walk through the exit door.

Also for Manchester United the departure of Mata will have no doubt been hasted by the imminent arrival of Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund. With the German side accepting an offer it is now just left for a medical and personal terms to be decided.

Once again it’s another player to leave Dortmund with Mats Hummels and Ilkay Gundogan already leaving for Bayern Munich and Manchester City respectively and Neven Subotic announcing his intention to leave the club this Summer.

Once you add Armenian international Mkhitaryan to the mix in terms of player departures then the difficult task of trying to bridge the gap to Bayern Munich has come near impossible for Thomas Teuchel, if you were a Dortmund fan you would almost be asking yourself “what is the point?”

Dortmund were backed into a corner though in terms of the Mkhitaryan deal as his contract was due to expire in 2017 and they would have had then run the very large risk of him leaving the Westfalenstadion next Summer for nothing.

Bad luck for Dortmund but a massive bonus for United. They will now be getting a player who can play on either flank or behind the main striker and his versatility will be a massive boost to what was a somewhat stifled attack line for United last season.

Tottenham fans will be well aware of what he can do after he ran rings around them over both legs of their Europa League Round of 16 tie last season and if he can turn on for United this coming season then it could prove to be a very shrewd piece of business.