Everton add Aaron Lennon to Ramiro Funes Mori in last-minute business

Roberto Martínez said Ramiro Funes Mori represented “value and ambition” after Everton paid an increased £9.5m fee for the Argentina defender but failed to land the playmaker and striker their manager wanted before the transfer deadline.

Funes Mori became the most expensive defender in Everton’s history after joining from River Plate, Argentina’s Copa Libertadores’ champions, on a five-year contract. He was the second transfer at Goodison Park on deadline day, with Aaron Lennon rejoining the club where he spent a successful loan spell last season for a fee believed to be £4.5m from Tottenham Hotspur.

Everton had expected to pay £6.25m for Funes Mori, who has been capped once by Argentina and has been named in their squad for the international against Bolivia on Friday. That sum comprised a £5m transfer fee for River Plate plus a 24% tax levy due to the Argentinian football federation. However, it emerged the 24-year-old was also entitled to 50% of any transfer fee under the terms of his contract with River Plate. Everton covered that cost rather than risk the deal collapsing late in the window with no alternative in place.

Martínez’s priorities were a central defender to provide competition for Phil Jagielka and John Stones, a No10 playmaker and a striker. Funes Mori, who has been training on Merseyside for more than a week, was ultimately the only player to meet those requirements, with Everton unable to agree a deal with Dynamo Kyiv for Andriy Yarmolenko.

The Everton manager said: “The player we are welcoming into the dressing room fits the profile we need. He is a left-footed centre-half, a really good defender who is exceptional in the air with good quality. He will give us great balance in the back-four.

“Then you have got the personality and character of a winner – he has just won the Copa Libertadores with River Plate. You don’t [normally] get that sort of player, at the age of 24, who has just been called up for Argentina, becoming available. We have made a massive effort and it is a fee that reflects the value and the ambition that we have as a club to attract such an exciting player for the future.”