Saying this is effectively a loan is effectively total bollocks. A loanee would return to their parent club at the end of the loan by default, whereas with a buyback he stays with us by default and the buyback has to be exercised which Barcelona and the player would both have to agree on.
There is (sadly) a gulf between a player who is good enough for Everton and a player good enough for Barcelona. The silver lining of which is that Geri D may fall into our lap. Barcelona have deemed him not good enough for them at this time and it will take a meteoric rise for their opinion to change in the next couple of years.