This summer, Everton unconventionally utilised the loan markets to strengthen their personnel by signing Jack Harrison and Arnaut Danjuma both on initial temporary deals with a view to making them permanent past this campaign.
It's ultimately risk-free from a Toffees perspective, the ball in Everton's court if they then decide to pull the plug on the prospective deals if both Harrison and Danjuma fail to perform at Goodison Park.
Both players – who have relocated to Merseyside temporarily from Leeds United and Villarreal, respectively – haven't set the world alight by any stretch of the imagination early into their fledging Everton careers.
Harrison and Danjuma have a combined three goals in Everton blue, with the former also assisting another versus AFC Bournemouth.
But, although their starts on Merseyside have been unspectacular, they should both play far better in the long-term than Joshua King managed when he joined the Toffees as a late January addition in 2021 on a short-term deal.
When did Everton sign Josh King?
The 62-time Norway international unusually packed his bags and departed Bournemouth for Everton for a nominal fee, the Toffees thinking they had struck gold by getting a player in who had bagged goals at Premier League level previously on the cheap.
Before signing for Everton, King had netted 53 goals in 186 appearances for the Cherries.
48 of those strikes would come in the top-flight, the Toffees hoping he could add a few more to his resume with Everton.
Unfortunately to those with allegiances to the Blues, King's transfer would turn out to be a waste of time.
How did Joshua King perform for Everton?
King wouldn't add a single goal to his Premier League scoring tally with the Blues, playing a grand total of 138 minutes for the Toffees in the top flight, all coming off the bench with zero goal contributions.
Former Everton striker and football pundit Marcus Bent labelled the purchase of King as "strange" in retrospect when speaking to FootballFanCast, never really giving King a chance to shine after securing him on a short-term basis.
He said: "They signed him on a six-month contract and didn't give him a chance – he never started a single game, that's weird if you've only got someone for six months, Ancelotti clearly didn't fancy him."
He was unsurprisingly released in the summer of 2021 alongside Robin Olsen and Theo Walcott, a bizarre transfer altogether.
However, since departing Goodison in bemusing circumstances, the one-time Manchester United man has refound his mojo once more.
How has King performed since leaving Everton?
Watford would swoop in for the Norwegian attacker on a free transfer directly after his exit from Everton, having a mixed spell with the Hornets in a one-year stay.
King's most memorable moment in a Watford strip came when he netted a hat-trick against Everton in front of the Goodison Park faithful who used to cheer him on, the one-time Toffees dud enacting his revenge in emphatic style as Watford won 5-2 on the day.
The 31-year-old forward has since plied his trade in Turkey with Fenerbahce after leaving Vicarage Road, again showing the Toffees what they missed out by not giving him a proper chance.
In the 2023/24 season alone, King has notched up seven goals and assists from just ten appearances – outscoring the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin who has three goals in all competitions whilst new striker signings Beto and Youssef Chermiti at Goodison Park have only one goal between them.
Harshly treated at Everton arguably, the Oslo-born attacker hasn't let the Toffees setback completely derail his career and has since found new homes to call his own to recapture his goalscoring best.
