Even being kind, you’d say Everton were 50-50 to get relegated, and though I know their fans will hate the suggestion, it may just be a blessing for them.
I’ll qualify that by saying it could only be a blessing if they come straight back up. And I’m not saying they’re doomed, though it’s two of four with them, Leicester, Leeds and Forest, so a 50 per cent chance, with the visit to Leicester now absolutely massive. Of course from the club and fans’ perspective it will be a disaster, I get that. But it may just be the biggest boot up the backside they’ve ever needed.
Let’s face it, the club and their eccentric owner need a reset. We’re not talking about a single bad season. This is the third time they’ve (more than) flirted with relegation under him, and it seems inevitable it’ll happen one day if nothing changes. In the eight years since he arrived at the club, they’ve finished in the top half only three times, and the second highest position they’ve achieved was eighth, when they had to call the Sam Allardyce cavalry to save them!
Contrast that with the previous eight seasons, when they finished in the bottom half only once, and three times finished fifth, Actually, only once in that time did they finish below eighth. I mean, Big Sam’s eighth doesn’t look all that bad now, does it?! So something has to change, massively. I’d actually say it’s time to start from scratch, but in the harsh reality of football finance, that’s not going to happen.
There will be plenty of players on big contracts who won’t go… because they won’t get that money elsewhere. I don’t think Everton will have put relegation clauses into contracts so salaries can be reduced dramatically. You don’t attract players like that. It’s more the owner’s and the club’s thinking that has to change. Look, I did say in this column when Sean Dyche was appointed that relegation still looked likely…and for a club in such a precarious financial position, that could spell disaster.
It’s true. With a brand spanking new stadium still to pay for - and for all the progress of the build, they still haven’t secured the finances to complete it - there’s a chance the club could collapse. But I’m looking beyond the disaster scenario. I think for far too long, Everton have been living in the past, still believing they are direct rivals to Liverpool. They’re not, and it’s embarrassing. This whole People’s Club thing is embarrassing.
To me it’s a way of saying they’re not huge and global like Liverpool, not corporate, not Americanised. All admirable sentiments, but not actually making much sense in the modern football world. To me, it’s an excuse to get away with doing things in a second rate way, as a way of being ‘better than Liverpool’.
But where is Farhad Moshiri’s structure, where has he put the systems in place that even clubs like Brighton and Brentford have? What is his philosophy, what is his direction? They’re not Liverpool’s rivals. They are Leicester’s rivals, they are Leeds’ rivals, Forest’s rivals. They need a reset to compete against them first, then structure to get to the level of Brentford and after that Brighton.
You can’t build foundations if you run Everton like it’s some private luncheon club where the owner hires and fires staff depending on what he’s had for lunch that day. Six managers in six years under Moshiri and he hired all of them against the advice of his Director of Football. It’s that simple.
So going down maybe concentrates the owner’s mind because Moshiri has a lot to lose...the best part of £1billion if they don’t bounce straight back up, because no one will buy them in the Championship with a stadium still to complete.
Maybe it will concentrate the minds of the fans too, and get them to finally focus on the problem of an owner who took over a club consistently in the top half of the table and ran them into the relegation ground.
It’s time for change at Everton, and going down may be a blessing in disguise.
