Good news;Everton are bringing him finally..

Notebook: Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas offers his verdict on the sale of an immense talent that may leave all involved better off

The business that has taken Amadou Onana to Aston Villa feels like that rarest of things in the transfer market – a good deal for everyone. For the player – one who has spoken openly about his desire to keep challenging himself at a higher level – it represents the opportunity to play Champions League football and be part of the Unai Emery rebuild that appears to be taking place at Villa Park.

A consistent theme of the upstart clubs that have broken the stranglehold on the top four by a select group of teams has been the failure to hold onto a place in Europe’s elite. Newcastle United failed to do this last season and now it is Villa’s turn to try. Onana looks set to be integral to that and becoming central to his manager’s plans will be an additional boost for the 22-year-old.

That is because he was not quite at the heart of Sean Dyche’s approach. Signed during the club’s only summer under Frank Lampard, it felt like Onana was brought to Merseyside for a vision that had to be sacrificed in order for Dyche to keep the club in the Premier League and then seek progress with limited resources. Onana started Dyche’s first game in charge – his performance in the win over Arsenal was, in my view, his best in Royal Blue. The sight of him sprinting beyond Martin Odegaard down the touchline was one of his highlights in a display that lit the touchpaper on Arsenal interest that would continue to this summer, when the club enquired about the Belgian international last month.

But while no-one will doubt his talent, Onana leaves having produced fewer of those standout performances than supporters would have hoped for.