Everton were involved in a flurry of deals throughout and particularly towards the end of the recent transfer window.
In addition to seeing new players coming to the club such as James Garner and Amadou Onana, the Toffees also saw the likes of Richarlison, Fabian Delph and Cenk Tosun exiting Goodison Park.
One player with whom the Merseyside club were linked but ultimately didn’t make a move to Everton, and who we feel the Toffees and Kevin Thelwell were better off swerving, is Hwang Hee-chan.
Even though Everton also missed out on another Premier League striker over the summer in the shape of Armando Broja, who is currently a bit-part player at Chelsea, we feel that the club and the fans should be more thankful that the Wolves attacker ended up staying at Molineux.
After becoming a permanent Wolves player in January for a fee of £14m, having initially joined on loan, the South Korean has not had the best of starts to the current campaign.
With five league appearances to his name, the 26-year-old has only started twice, which suggests that he is not seen as a crucial starter for Bruno Lage.
In fact, his performances in those five appearances have seen Hwang tally a rather disappointing overall early season rating of 6.27/10, making him the lowest-rated Wolves player to start more than one league game according to WhoScored.
To put it into context, that would only leave five Everton players with lower ratings than him, all of whom have started two league matches or fewer.
Things were similar for him throughout his debut Premier League season in the Midlands as, despite scoring five goals, the attacker’s overall performances would not have made him a smart signing for Everton in our view, once again racking up one of the lowest season ratings at Wolves (6.53/10) among players to start more than one league game.
Having been criticised for his “poor” efforts on the pitch by journalist Liam Keen, it’s hard to see how the Wolves forward would have greatly improved Frank Lampard’s side, even though they are yet to win a league game this season.
Everton should thank their lucky stars that a deal for Hwang didn’t materialise, and they should forget about potentially making a future move to sign him unless his form rapidly escalates over the coming months.
