'Give him £200,000-a-week' - Expert: Duncan Ferguson is right about transformed Leeds player
Everton should have made more of an effort to keep Dominic Calvert-Lewin at the club last summer.
That is according to former Senior Everton scout, Bryan King, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
The Toffees let the 29-year-old leave on a free transfer to Leeds United, where he has scored 18 Premier League goals in just 42 appearances.
Former Everton manager Duncan Ferguson claimed last week that Calvert-Lewin should not have been allowed to leave the club, even if he had wanted up to £200,000 per week on a new contract.
It is unclear exactly how much the striker wanted to stay, but a contract offer reportedly made at the end of 2024 was withdrawn following the return of David Moyes to the club in January 2025.
The Scot would have been open to the England international staying put, but last-minute talks ultimately proved fruitless.
Everton 'made a mistake' with Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Calvert-Lewin joined Everton from Sheffield United in 2016 and would make 273 appearances over nine years at Goodison Park, scoring 71 goals.
Many of the striker's later years at the club were marred by injury, but he appears to have shaken off those problems at Elland Road.
Speaking to The Overlap on Sunday, Ferguson said: "You should never have let him go, but obviously I don’t know what’s happened behind the scenes.
"If he wanted £200,000 a week, give him £200,000 a week. If he wanted £100,000 a week, give it to him.”
Although it is easy to look back in hindsight, it is also hard to claim that Everton were right to let Calvert-Lewin go.
"He seems to have got a new lease of life, because he is scoring goals, he got back in the England squad, proving that he is a good footballer," King told Football Insider.
"Maybe Everton made a mistake. I don't think they'd have ever offered him £200,000 a week but when you lose a player like that, who initially didn't cost you a great deal of money.
"He came from Sheffield United. He was here for nine years. I think he joined for about £1.5million. Left for nothing and now he's proving Everton wrong.
"They should have made the effort to keep him. He's a strong-willed boy. Good luck to him. I think he's really come good at Leeds. It seems he's got the old arm around the shoulder and pat on the back. He's got a lot of confidence."
Calvert-Lewin on leaving Everton
Speaking in March, Calvert-Lewin opened up on his decision to leave Everton last summer.
"Yeah, pretty much as simple as that [feeling the need to a fresh start and new challenge]," he told ESPN.
"And I feel like I get asked that question like it’s not enough. You know, there needs to be more to the story of why I chose to leave.
"But it was something as simple as that. I’d been playing for Everton for nine years and, you know, Everton football club gave me everything that I have today. And I like to think that I was good for the football club and the football club was definitely good to me.
"And I just reached a point where I felt that a new stimulus, a new environment was what was needed to ultimately help me get back to the level I’m at now. And I’ve proven to be right.”