Everton’s Spending Couldn’t Break Premier League’s Glass Ceiling; Now They Might Fall Through Its Trapdoor

Fairly superficial analysis but just reinforces how spectacularly badly we've been run.

This isn't benefit of hindsight stuff either. There's been no transfer strategy since Martinez added flair, youth and the wise head of Gareth Barry to well drilled Moyes side.

Strangely the only time we spent money wisely, on positions we specifically needed to improve, was last summer - the one window where we had almost no money.

I had hoped that was a sign that things had settled down but January was bizarre.

It isn't far fetched to say we could have reasonably seen a couple of Champions League runs in the past 5 years with proper strategic spending. Now look at us.

Robert 2

Another thing about Martinez other than having a strategy was that he had some backbone. Everyone said we couldn't afford or attract Lukaku permanently from Chelsea. But RM charmed the player and demanded the move. He also the only person with a backbone to say "no." He refused to sell Stones to Chelsea. He refused to sell Baines to Man Utd. The most Moyes ever did was make passive aggressive statements like "it doesn't always work out well when players leave." And Kenwright was always there with the ever open hand to take money for Pienaar, Arteta, Rodwell, Rooney whoever

Moyes and Martinez both had plenty of flaws Kieran. But I suspect £500m might have been enough to compensate for the flaws and get us competing for the Champions League places.

Martinez in particular had a vision of success and a strategy to deliver it. He wasn't deterred by the lack of money.

Since then, Everton has looked like a club spending money as though that is all you need to do.

Just so I am clear. We are looking at relegation in the Premier League, U23s and Women's League.

Wow. That's some effort, and tells you everything about how badly run this club is from top to bottom.

Awful recruitment, awful man management, awful physio department, awful, awful, awful.

Ian

I don't think women's league has relegation not that it makes things any better

Kieran @6
Apparently, promotion and relegation was introduced in 2019, with the bottom club in the division facing relegation, don't know how many games are left but I don't think the Everton ladies will finish bottom.

On the subject of transfer money paid out, I read somewhere that around the time that we came into money, transfer fees inflated by circa 26%, and although the spend of £500m is oft trotted out, that completely ignores any money which came to Everton from sales of players such as Lukaku etc. Still a massive wasted opportunity of course. If the removal of one centre-back can be blamed for a team failing to achieve its targets, surely the multitude of injuries that Everton has sustained this season is at least partly a reason for having such a horrendous season?

Kieran, I'm sure that even if the women's league doesn't have relegation, they'll introduce it specially for Everton (who will be the only club to whom it ever happens).

Robert Tressell,

This isn't benefit of hindsight stuff either. There's been no transfer strategy since Martinez added flair, youth and the wise head of Gareth Barry to a well-drilled Moyes side.

So, what happened? He's long gone and we are almost up Shit Creek! 🤷😳

Mike # 9. What happened?

We got the money we'd waited decades for and then forgot everything that had stood us in good stead in that time.

We hired two directors of football but allowed neither to impose a vision on the club.

We let managers, DoF, Kenwright and Moshiri get involved in the signing of players.

We went from a possession based club under Martinez to pragmatists under Koeman to turgid conservatives under Allardyce to more expansive pressing types under Silva to the mix of styles under Ancelotti to the (initially) direct and awkward style under Benitez - all the while accumulating players who didn't fit a system.

We neglected the academy and let a load of mediocre players clog up the u23s.

We bought the most expensive average players that money could buy, and then watched them deteriorate with us.

We bought players at an age where the chance of recouping the fee was very low.

We shopped in the most poor value market in world football - the Premier League - for players not good enough for the Champions League side we were hoping to become - but gave them Champions League wages.

We stopped buying 23 to 26 year olds who needed a step up, like we did under Moyes.

We stopped buying players of exceptional potential like we did under Martinez (except those we then flogged without having given them a chance).

We watched on while Wolves, Brighton, Palace, Leicester etc all accumulated players of high quality by doing exactly the thing we'd done under Moyes and Martinez.

We failed to notice our lack of strategy / success year in year out for an extended period - despite drifting down the table from 8th to 12th to 10th to wherever we end up this season.