Hayden Hackney has made his choice.
The Championship Player of the Season.
A midfielder who won a standing ovation from the City Ground in Middlesbrough’s final game.
And the name that half a dozen Premier League clubs have been chasing all summer.
Hayden Hackney on the verge of £25m Everton move
According to the BBC, Everton remain the clear frontrunner to sign Hackney, with the 24-year-old’s preference for the Hill Dickinson Stadium keeping David Moyes’ side firmly in pole position.
Negotiations are now entering their final stages.
A full agreement between Everton and Middlesbrough could be finalised this week.
With a deal worth around £25 million closing in on completion after a summer of stuttering talks, rejected bids and deliberate silence from Boro.
The journey to get here has been far from smooth.
Everton failed with at least two bids before significantly increasing their offer to a level Middlesbrough are finally willing to accept.
Boro stopped responding to Everton at one point, using Crystal Palace’s interest to engineer competitive pressure and hold the line on their £25 million valuation.
They never budged from that figure.
And eventually, Everton met it.
Hackney leaves as a boyhood Middlesbrough player.
An academy graduate who broke through under Chris Wilder, developed under Michael Carrick and delivered the best season of his career in 2025-26, despite the heartbreak of the Championship play-off final defeat to Hull City.
He made more than 150 appearances for his hometown club.
That chapter is now closing.
For Everton, this would represent their second midfield signing of the summer, following the triggering of the £18 million clause to make Merlin Rohl’s move permanent.
Alongside James Garner, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Tim Iroegbunam, Hackney would give David Moyes an extraordinary depth of options across central midfield.
The deal isn’t signed yet.
But the finishing touches are being applied.
And the summer’s most persistent transfer story is finally approaching its conclusion.
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