Dele Alli's true cost to Everton shown in accounts as recruitment flaws exposed

For several seasons now the balance sheet of Everton Football Club has not made for good reading.

A series of seismic events, most notably the coronavirus pandemic and the sanctions placed upon Alisher Usmanov that resulted in the club having to cut lucrative sponsorship ties with his companies USM and MegaFon, impacted revenue and, at a time when the club was engaged in the process of building and funding a new stadium, exposed the reliance that the club has on its majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.

Everton’s accounts for the year ending June 2022, a season where the club narrowly escaped relegation and where it had to impose austerity measures when it came to recruitment in an effort to be compliant with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability (P&S) regulations, lost £44.7m.