The Athletic’s Everton correspondents Greg O’Keeffe and Patrick Boyland have been providing some insight into Barcelona reportedly bidding for Richarlison during the January transfer window, and one reveal about the board in particular should be music to the ears of the fans.

What was written?

Well, Sky Sports reported towards the end of last month that the La Liga giants had an £85m bid for the Brazil international rejected, before it was quickly shot down by sources at both clubs, as reported by The Athletic.

The same source has taken a look at what really happened here, but one thing in particular stood out during the article.

Speaking about a Barcelona source’s comment about Everton not being a selling club, O’Keeffe wrote: ‘It is a message that those high up at Goodison are echoing in private.

‘Despite record losses of £111.8 million last year, there remains an insistence that Everton are not a selling club and want to keep hold of their best players.’

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Music to the ears of fans

Following the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti as the club’s new manager in December, some members of the Goodison Park faithful may well have expected some incoming signings last month.

However, none were forthcoming and as The Athletic mentions, that was perhaps due to the losses they have suffered and the sizeable first-team squad the Italian currently has available to him.

Everton probably don’t have loads of players who would interest the very top clubs in European football right now aside from someone like Richarlison, who has impressed for both club and country in recent months with 10 goals in 28 games this season for the former, and six goals in 17 caps for the latter.

Did he really play for us?! No Everton fan has managed to name all of these obscure Toffees players….

The fact that the message from the board of the Merseyside outfit that they won’t be forced to sell their best players even if they need to watch out financially is certainly a major boost for the club, as Ancelotti looks to take them forward and help them be contenders for European qualification on a consistent basis.

Supporters have already been through the same scenario with Romelu Lukaku when he moved to Manchester United for a fee of £75m in the summer of 2017, but according to the board this shouldn’t be happening again with Richarlison anytime soon.

In other Everton news, one man has expressed his surprise that the club wanted to bring him to Goodison Park…