Is Neal Maupay to Sevilla the most Football Manager transfer of all time? | OneFootball

The year 2026 is less than a month old and we’re already starting to suspect it’s a simulation from a vengeful and darkly amused higher power.

We’ve had talks of a World Cup boycott, the dispiriting rise of Big Protein, the biggest FA Cup shock ever and a storm that’s covered most of the Northern Hemisphere in debilitating snow.

In Britain, Labour’s government of reactionary centrists are busy building the apparatus of suppression for Nigel Farage’s inevitable rise to power.

Life is hard right now, frightening, expensive and uncertain in equal measure. No wonder people are misguidedly looking back to 2016 as some kind of golden age.

Light-hearted relief is in short supply, but Sevilla have captured our attention with the most randomly generated transfer in years.

Neal Maupay’s time at Marseille passed us by entirely, even though he was a perfect fit for Robert De Zerbi’s gang of waifs and strays on the Mediterranean coast.

More of an irritant than a prolific goalscorer, Maupay is best remembered by Premier League fans as one of its modern-day banter merchants. A wind-up king, or someone best engaged with in small doses.

He spent five seasons barging, bitching and sh*thousing his way around the division, carving out a reputation as one of the narkiest players around.

As befitting his pebble-in-your-shoe persona, Maupay even attracted flak from neutral clubs. This was flipped knowingly during his Sevilla unveiling video on Twitter:

While Maupay will no doubt bundle home a few goals during his loan spell in Spain, the more interesting observation is the sharp nature of Sevilla’s decline.

Their status as Europa League kings is gone; having won the competition seven times since 2006, Sevilla are now thoroughly mediocre and without European football.

Since beating Barcelona at the start of October, they’ve won three league matches and are just three points above the relegation zone.

Sevilla even lost at home to Betis for the first time since 2018. That 4-1 win over Barca increasingly feels like a misprint.

Off the pitch, sloppy financial decisions have left the club on the verge of bankruptcy.

Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco, the team’s president, has allegedly led the Sevillanos to lose over 100 million euros.

As a result, Sevilla have the lowest salary limit in La Liga and spent nada last summer.

Their current squad is stuffed full of ancient names (Cesar Azpilicueta, Alexis Sanchez), La Liga journeyman and Adnan Januzaj.

Even in an era where European teams are paupers compared to Bournemouth and Brentford, Sevilla’s dire situation is eyebrow-raising.

Maupay has experience in relegation scraps as part of the Everton team that Goodison’d its way to survival under Frank Lampard and Sean Dyche. There is a certain logic to his signing.

But it’s thin gruel for Sevilla fans. Our escapism and mid-doomscroll chuckle is their lived reality.