As the Premier League pushes towards its 'New Deal for Football', one part of the plans will do precious little to aid the ability for Everton and others outside of the so-called 'big six' to compete on a more level playing field.
Everton's financial issues that they are starting to finally emerge from after last season's period of enforced austere approach were largely the result of the Toffees attempting to close the financial gap that existed between themselves and Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur without having the revenue streams in place to support sustained heavy investment at those levels.
Owner Farhad Moshiri had been ambitious in wanting Everton to break the cycle in English football, but in order for the plan to work it meant the Toffees working to a strict timescale where they needed to make it into European football, specifically the Champions League, in order to sustain deliver the revenue growth to match the spend.
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That didn't happen and last season was a campaign of tumult, with the unpopular appointment of Rafa Benitez ending in failure, the club spending just £1.5m in last summer's transfer window and narrowly avoiding what would have been a catastrophic relegation to the Championship.
The appointment of Frank Lampard helped steady the ship and this summer's business has helped improve an Everton side who have looked far more resolute this season as they seek a period of stability moving towards them taking residence in their new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock in 2024.
The 'New Deal for Football', according to a report in the Times, includes more money for the EFL put the potential scrapping of third and fourth round FA Cup replays. Other changes include parachute payment reform and a look at the League Cup and its impact on the calendar, with one suggestion being that clubs involved in European football would either not enter the competition or would field under-21 teams.
Another part of the plan is for some element of wage capping to be brought in that would see the Premier League follow suit with what most major leagues do in Europe when it comes to payroll cost control.
UEFA have a directive for the clubs competing in European competition that the recommended wages to turnover ratio stand at 70 per cent. The Premier League, which has its own profit and sustainability regulations that Everton had to be mindful of, has no such directive or soft wage cap.
It is the expectation that any such cap will be delivered, with the clubs competing in European competition already having to adhere to the UEFA regulations. The Times suggests that the salary cap threshold in the Premier League would be higher than UEFA's; 90 per cent for the calendar year 2023, 80 per cent for 2024 and 70 per cent from 2025.
The reality for clubs like Everton who have a desire to ultimately challenge for the biggest honours, is that any new salary cap simply solidifies the gap that exists between the big six and the rest.
Figures presented by football finance expert and Price of Football author Kieran Maguire show that at an 80 per cent wages to turnover cap Everton would be allowed to spend £155m per season under any new Premier League structure, based on figures for the 2020/21 financial year. That puts them at around the same level as Wolverhampton Wanderers (£155m), West Ham United (£154m) and Aston Villa (£147m).
The difference in salary cap compared to Manchester City would be £301m, while the salary cap gap between themselves and the club in the 'big six' with the lowest salary cap, Arsenal, would stand at £108m. To put that into some context, that gap is three times the amount of commercial revenue that Everton generated in 2020/21.
The goal for Everton has been for some time to be the club that generates the highest outside of the big six, and that isn't something that have been too far away from, and something that will likely be aided considerably when the opening of a new stadium brings new revenue streams with it.
But the gap in what can be spent in comparison with clubs whose European pedigree over the past decade or so has seen them able to create an enormous, almost unassailable gap between themselves and the rest of the Premier League, means that working smarter is the only way to go to try and make meaningful ground.
Everton tried to spend like the big six and it ended in failure. The new model, of signing reliable experience alongside more raw potential, is something that is a necessity to be a competitive force at a time when any new deal for Premier League clubs will only serve to strengthen the hand of the clubs who are already dominating the top end.
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