Soon after Ronald Koeman was installed as then new Everton boss and the promise of an unprecedented summer spending spree at Goodison was announced, an unheralded Senegalese midfielder called Idrissa Gana Gueye was purchased with little or minimal fanfare.

Supporters were hoping to see a big money, marquee signing paraded at Goodison Park. They were hoping to announce to the footballing world that the frugal days of the past at Everton were a long and distant memory. Instead, a relatively small fee of £7.1 million was laid out to acquire an almost ever-present player from one of the worst Premier League teams in living memory. To say this was disappointing would be an understatement.

However, in the first few weeks of the new Premier League season the young midfielder – who cut his teeth in France’s Ligue 1 with Lille – has been a revelation. A diminutive figure, standing barely 5ft 8in and weighing in around 10 stones, hardly the archetypal midfield general. Yet, his reading of the game and his constant pressing, aligned with an astonishing knack of being in the right place to nick the ball off opponents is uncannily reminiscant of N’Golo Kante during Leicester City’s spectacularly unexpected 15/16 title surge.

And the comparisons with Kante don’t end there: last year he was only second to the French man in terms of the amount of combined interceptions and tackles made across Europe’s top five leagues.

Perhaps the fact these statistics were achieved in such a poor Aston Villa team, meant he was overlooked by many top sides. But the same formula used by Everton Director of Football – and former Leicester City scout – Steve Walsh in recruiting Kante has clearly been the blueprint followed in enlisting the Senegalese midfielder for the Toffees. Potentially if Steve Walsh had still been at Leicester, Gueye would be wearing the blue of the Midlands title holders and not the royal blue of Everton.

And even on initial impressions it’s clear that Koeman earmarked Gueye as the type of player he needed to kickstart his own Goodison Park revolution and become the bedrock of his high-energy, high-pressing, footballing philosophy.

But what is clear to see, even in the early stages of the new campaign, is that the £7.1 million fee may well be the best money Everton spend this summer, and possibly even the most value for money acquisition any top flight team will make this year.

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