Everton Sign Hayden Hackney as Spurs Break Transfer Record for Mateus Fernandes
Everton and Tottenham moved aggressively in the market on the same day, one club betting big on Championship pedigree, the other smashing its transfer record for a midfielder built for high-tempo, high-risk football.
At Goodison, the story is Hayden Hackney. At Tottenham, it’s Mateus Fernandes. Two very different stages of their careers, one shared expectation: transform the midfield.
Everton get their man after long chase
Everton have finally completed the signing of Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough in a deal that could reach £25m, ending weeks of haggling and rejected bids.
Hackney, the Championship’s player of the year last season, has signed a five-year contract on Merseyside. He becomes a central piece of David Moyes’s rebuild, and a symbol of Everton’s attempt to grow rather than simply survive.
Middlesbrough drove a hard bargain. With only 12 months left on the 24-year-old’s contract, Everton tested their resolve repeatedly, only to be knocked back as Boro held firm to their £25m valuation. Interest from Crystal Palace strengthened their hand, yet the player’s mind was made up.
“As soon as I spoke to the manager, as soon as I knew Everton were interested, it was always going to be Everton,” Hackney said after the move was confirmed.
He spoke of the “big club”, the lure of the new stadium and a project he wanted to “be part of”, and highlighted Moyes’s history of turning Championship talent into established Premier League players. “Hopefully I can be the next one to do it successfully for Everton,” he added.
Everton will pay an initial £16.5m, with the fee potentially rising to £25m through add-ons, including clauses linked to Hackney playing for England. It is a calculated gamble on upside: domestic, hungry, and with his best years in front of him.
Hackney described himself as a midfielder who can “do a bit of everything” – carrying the ball, arriving late in the box, contributing both ways. He admitted the Premier League will be a step up, but made it clear he expects to “kick on” once he adjusts.
Moyes has wanted him for some time. The Everton manager tried to sign Hackney last summer before turning to other areas of the squad. Now he has his man, an England Under-21 European champion from 2025 who fits the manager’s preferred profile: technically capable, tactically disciplined, and with room to grow.
“Hayden is a promising young player who we’ve been tracking for some time, and I’m looking forward to working with him,” Moyes said.
He pointed to Everton’s “track record” of picking out Championship players who develop into major assets, and framed Hackney as the next in that line. Crucially, Moyes stressed the increased “competition in midfield” he wanted before the new season.
The move drops into a broader summer plan. Everton are also close to signing winger Tyrique George from Chelsea, another young, high-ceiling addition aimed at reshaping the squad’s core rather than papering over cracks.
Spurs go all-in on Mateus Fernandes
While Everton pushed a mid-range deal to its limit, Tottenham went to a different financial stratosphere.
Spurs have completed the signing of Mateus Fernandes from West Ham in an £85m transfer, a club-record outlay for a 21-year-old Portugal international who fits Roberto De Zerbi’s footballing vision almost perfectly.
This is not a punt. De Zerbi has tracked Fernandes for a long time. The midfielder came through at Sporting, spent the 2024–25 season at Southampton, then joined West Ham last August, where he proved he could handle the Premier League’s pace and physicality.
“I’ve admired Mateus for a long time because he combines quality on the ball with the intensity and intelligence that are so important in the way we want to play,” De Zerbi said.
That line matters. Spurs are paying for a system player as much as a star name.
Fernandes already knows the league, already knows the grind. At 21, he has banked meaningful minutes in England and for Portugal, and has shown he can deliver “quality and consistency at this level”, as his new head coach put it.
For the player, the pull was clear. “Spurs is a massive club and the head coach was a key part of why I have decided to join,” Fernandes said.
Their conversation, he explained, felt “very special”, built on a shared view of football: go onto the pitch as a strong, aggressive team, full of “fight and energy”, and try to win every game. It is pure De Zerbi.
He spoke like someone already impatient for the next step. “I can’t wait to get started, to meet the fans, to meet everyone, and give everything for the club,” he said.
De Zerbi, never shy about the technical demands he places on his midfielders, spelled out exactly what he sees. Fernandes, he said, is “comfortable under pressure”, can “progress the ball”, “works hard for the team” and has “the courage to make things happen in difficult moments”. Those are the traits De Zerbi builds his teams around. For £85m, they had better be.
The Italian believes Spurs offer “the ideal environment” for Fernandes to continue his development. In reality, the environment will now bend around him. Record signings don’t hide in systems; they define them.
Two clubs, two midfields, two very different cheques. Everton are backing Hackney to grow into the Premier League and drive a new era from the centre of the pitch. Tottenham are betting that Fernandes is ready right now to carry the weight of a record fee and a manager’s philosophy.
When the season settles into its rhythm, we will find out which gamble really changes the game.
