Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has had a reputation for overspending on certain players in recent seasons, but no player emphasises his transfer failings more than Alex Iwobi.

The Nigerian joined the Merseyside outfit from boyhood club Arsenal in summer 2019 for a fee believed to be worth up to £34m having scored just 15 goals in 149 games for the Gunners.

Then 23, there was still plenty of potential and excitement around the forward which has since petered out following a largely unsuccessful spell at Goodison Park thus far.

26 in May, Iwobi has made 13 appearances in the Premier League this season, starting seven games whilst scoring once and assisting once.

However, across his whole Toffees career the Nigerian has just six goals and six assists in 81 appearances, a goal contribution of one every 6.75 games which has therefore seen a decline in his market value.

To put that figure into perspective, Andros Townsend (seven), Demarai Gray (six) and Richarlison (five) have near, the same or more goals this campaign than Iwobi has managed to net in his entire Toffees tenure.

When Everton signed the forward, Iwobi’s value was at its peak, with the winger worth £28.8m according to Transfermarkt, a very similar figure to what the Blues eventually paid for his signature.

However, after December 2019, it all went downhill for the 25-year-old.

The pandemic saw his value decline to £22.95m where it stayed until October 2020 before dipping again in March 2021 to £19.8m.

At the end of 2021, Iwobi was valued at £16.2m, less than half what Everton paid to acquire his services just over two years prior.

Back in 2020, the Liverpool Echo’s head of sport David Prentice had some strong words to say about Iwobi after a 2-0 defeat to Southampton, stating: “There was one moment where he actually found some space in the penalty area and Digne made a great run to actually overlap and he just needed to be played in and then he had a cross across the six-yard box, hopefully, for somebody to knock in.

“And he didn’t [cross], he ignored the pass and he checked back.

“It’s only a subtle thing, but if he just made that pass which, probably, Richarlison would have done, it would have been that much more dangerous.

“From that point, it just progressively got worse until there was that embarrassing one where he just missed the ball on the byline entirely. It was an opportunity for him and he didn’t take it.”

Based on how his two-and-a-half-year spell at Goodison Park has gone so far, there is little evidence to suggest that Iwobi will be able to still live up to the transfer fee paid for him.

With a new manager at the helm in Frank Lampard, the Nigerian forward has the opportunity to make an impression and attempt to salvage some of his career back. However, it doesn’t seem likely that the 25-year-old will be able to play his best football for Everton.

In other news: Lampard drops worrying injury update that’ll have Everton fans sweating