Everton let attacking trio Alex Iwobi, Tom Cannon and Neal Maupay leave the club out of necessity in the closing stages of the summer transfer window, sources have told Football Insider.
A well-placed source has told Football Insider that the Toffees needed to bring money in on deadline day due to their struggles with Financial Fair Play rules.
Everton have been the subject of well-documented financial restrictions in recent years following lavish spending in the past.
The Merseysiders have even been threatened with legal action from the likes of Leicester, Leeds, Southampton and Burnley following their breaches of financial rules.
As per the BBC (15 June), Everton’s alleged breach of the FFP rules will go before an independent commission on 25 October.
The club have made a cumulative loss of more than £430million over the past five years.
And in an attempt to help avoid further problems, Everton needed to sell players on the final day of the window.
Ellis Simms and Neils Nkounkou already left the club earlier in the summer for multi-million-pound transfer fees.
And Iwobi joined the exodus on Friday (1 September), signing for Fulham for a fee of around £22million.
The Nigeria international had less than 12 months left to run on his contract at Goodison Park.
Meanwhile, Cannon joined Championship promotion hopefuls Leicester on a five-year deal in a move worth a reported £7.5million.
And Maupay completed the summer departures by signing for former club Brentford on an initial loan deal, with the Bees given an option to sign him permanently.
Everton sealed five signings during the window, adding Beto, Youssef Chermiti, Arnaut Danjuma, Jack Harrison and Ashley Young to the squad.
In other news, Everton ready to sign free-agent attacker.
