Merseyside Domino Effect

Everton Football Club is in 17th place in the Premier League. Before the season began, that was not something that was on the radar of football fans around the world. That is the reality that one of the giants of English football has found itself in. Frank Lampard and Everton as a club are in a fight for their survival and integrity.

There have only been six total teams that have never in their history been relegated from the Premier League, and Everton Football Club is one of them. This team has now lost four consecutive matches and leaves fans wondering if their performance against Tottenham last week is a sign of the Toffees doing the unthinkable. While some of this can be shocking to some, Everton may have created their own demise with some dreadful transfer decisions over the past few seasons.

After a disheartening loss to Tottenham manager Frank Lampard stated, "I’m confident but that doesn’t do anything to help us now...I didn’t walk into this building with a magic wand. I’m absolutely confident, that’s why I’m here…Tonight is a test but it’s doesn’t give me any fear. I can’t wait for the games coming up at Goodison. I’ll be ready for them and the players will be ready. Show application, stick your foot in when you need to, work hard, and we’ll be alright."

Back in 2016, Farhad Moshiri sold his stake in Arsenal Football Club to put a bid in for the majority of Everton for some unforsaken reason. The Toffees have not won a trophy or finished in the top-six of the top-flight during his reign. Money was being flown around everywhere like it was a strip club for Moshiri, but the British-Iranian businessman and the managers forgot the check who he was bringing in for all that money. In the past two seasons, the Toffees have finished 12th and 10th respectively and spent significantly more money than several teams that finished above them in the table.

According to the net spending of all the Premier League teams this year in the table, Everton Football Club is ranked eighth, just behind West Ham and Aston Villa. The data is calculated using numbers from the past 10 seasons of English football in millions of dollars. There are currently nine teams ahead of the Toffees in the table that have spent less money on transfers than them in the last 10 years. Tottenham, Leicester City, and Wolves have spent significantly less on transfers and find themselves vying for European football this season.

Since Morshiri began his reign as the majority owner of the club, Everton has been moving in a downward spiral. From 2016 to the present day, the Toffees have had a total of nine different managers. Current West Ham manager David Moyes was really the last man to lead Everton successfully, but he left due to an opening at Manchester United after Sir Alexander Ferguson retired. Big-name managers like Roberto Martínez, Carlo Ancelotti, Sam Allardyce, and most recently Rafael Benítez have all come and gone.

Currently, Frank Lampard is at the helm and has only led Everton to one league win since he took over in late January of 2022. Some of the losses include an embarrassment at the hands of Spurs, a loss to Newcastle who was below them in the table during that fixture, and a shutout loss to Southampton where they failed to register a shot on target.

The story of Everton has been a lot of hype and excitement surrounding transfers or managers, but almost every single time, the individual falls flat on their face when they enter Goodison Park. Moshiri keeps increasing his stake in the club almost every season, and now he owns 94% after the first month of 2022.

Almost every summer since 2016 is a story of a failure. The summer of 2017-2018 is the best example to illustrate the demise of Everton as a whole. During that transfer window, the club spent a total of $320.8m on incoming players like Jordan Pickford, Theo Walcott, and even Gylfi Sigurdsson or a club record £40 from Championship side Swansea City. Other players like Davy Klaassen, Nikola Vlasic, and Cenk Tosun were all brought in for big money, but none of them would call their time in Everton a success.

Davy Klaassen is a prime example of failed Everton players. The Dutch midfielder came over to Merseyside from Ajax on a five-year deal worth £23.6 million. He only played one season at Goodison Park, and never scored a single goal or executed one assist. The season before joining the Toffees, the former Ajax captain Klaassen netted 14 goals to go along with nine assists for the Dutch club. Almost a year after he signed for Everton, the club sold him to the German side SV Werder Bremen for less money than he signed for the year before. Klaassen is just one example of a successful player coming to Merseyside, and just not working out in the slightest.

This club is nothing but a disaster as of now and is on its way to the Championship for the first time in its history if nothing changes. Lampard says he isn't worried, but that does nothing to help the circumstances of the club. The players that are in the squad are just not up to the caliber that a club like Everton should have. Lampard brought in players like Dele Alli and Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek on loan. If the club thought bringing in a few players in the January window was going to solve the problem, they are delusional. The issues at the club stretch far beyond the present day.

The story of Everton Football Club this season is a team in shambles. Currently, one of the biggest clubs in England is on its way to some of the most shocking campaigns of all time. How is it that a club that spends in the top eight in England finds itself in the current position it is in?

From the outside view, this may seem astounding, but when a deeper dive is down, it realistically makes a lot of sense. Poor transfer decisions continue to pile up, and finally, it is starting to affect them. It has not come back to bite them at all until this season, and Everton should be lucky it has taken this long. When a club spends $187.1 million over one transfer window, and all but three are gone, the critics start to ask questions. Out of that class, none of those players currently start for the team, and an outsider is forced to say, whoever is making the decisions needs to be stripped of responsibilities.

The club has gotten rid of so many managers that all of the failures cannot just be pointed to them. The issues are so ingrained into the club that no matter how many new players and managers are brought in, nothing will change. The Toffees need a new clean slate-like in 2016, the Moshiri has not panned out at all. The real complication is something that nobody outside of Merseyside knows. Morshiri has backed every manager when it comes to the transfer market during his time at the helm, but money does not grow on trees, even for a rich businessman like Morshiri.

In the last five seasons, Morshiri has spent £484.5m in total, which is fifth in the Premier League for total spending, behind only Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Manchester United. The owner has no doubt invested in players, but the decisions haven't always been the correct ones. Very few decisions during the Morshiri era can be deemed in some ways successful. He was supposed to help Everton maintain success after Moyes, and maybe even make the Champions League as Moyes did once during his time.

There is no one answer to solve everything that is wrong, and as former Bayern Munich, Manchester United, and Manchester City midfielder Owen Hargreaves said early the season, "Everton have so many problems, it is absolutely unbelievable." Nobody is going to be able to solve this club's problems overnight. It is going to take years for Everton to recover from all of these inadequate transfer decisions.

On top of all the problems this club currently has, they are now at risk of getting a points deduction this season in the league. According to reports by the Daily Mail, Everton is on the edge of breaking profit and sustainability rules as the club has recorded losses of £260m between 2017 and 2020. This number could increase when they publish their 2020-2021 accounts. The catastrophe keeps getting worse, and as if relegation looms, a wage crisis is on the horizon with many players making Premier League wages next season. Lampard could be the answer, but it might be too late as one of the most disoriented yet large clubs in world football is looking bound for relegation for the first time since the 1950-1951 season.

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