Will Everton’s failed gamble mean top six disappear over horizon?

Sunday, 22 July, 2018 14comments  |  Jump to most recent

Last summer's big spending ended in disaster for Everton, which may deter others from trying to catch the Premier League's elite.

In The Guardian, Paul Wilson cites the Blues' failed and expensive attempts to kick on last season from their 7th-place finish in 2016-17 as evidence that the top six have tightened their grip on those places in the Premier League.

The good news for football followers is that the Premier League will shortly be back. The bad news is that, if your club did not finish in the top six last season, it will almost certainly again be among the 14 also-rans this time round. The even worse news, looking at the evidence of the past couple of seasons, is that clubs “knocking on the door” of the top six — that is, showing ambition in trying to move forward and join the big boys — need to be just as careful over relegation worries as those teams who expect to spend most of their time in the bottom half of the table.

» Read the full article at The Observer



Reader Comments (14)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer


Michael Kenrick
1 Posted 22/07/2018 at 18:03:27
It's like he's absorbed all the angst of the ages on our pages and regurgitated it as a mainstream article for the rest of footballdom outside our little bubble...
David Barks
2 Posted 22/07/2018 at 18:15:53
Not sure why you would use one club’s disastrous strategy as a reason that nobody can do better. We overwhelmingly were saying how ridiculous the buying strategy was, with so many central midfielders brought in while neglecting to replace Lukaku and having to resort to a free transfer of Martina for the known injury replacement of Coleman.

Last summer wasn’t an example of why the “top 6” (which was never a thing when we were regularly finishing 5-6th every season) is untouchable. It was an example of how money spent idiotically and with no clear direction is a massive waste. Which isn’t exactly news.

Peter Mills
3 Posted 23/07/2018 at 09:33:16
Michael, David, I agree with you. Whenever Wilson reports on one of our matches, he will be disparaging of us, I guess he is just doing a spot of pre-season training.
John Pickles
4 Posted 23/07/2018 at 10:53:14
Chelsea and Man City also wasted loads of money when they first tried to break into the top group. The difference is they were able to carry on throwing money at the problem until they reached their destination.

Once everybody understands you've serious money, you get quality people wanting to come on board. I think we come across as like a drunk who's had a good win on the horses.

John Raftery
5 Posted 23/07/2018 at 11:39:19
To state the blindingly obvious, a club needs a squad of top six players to challenge the top six. How many of those players have we got?

How many of our players would be of any interest to the top six? I can think of three. It will take years of patient recruitment and player development to mount a sustained challenge to the top clubs.

David Ellis
6 Posted 23/07/2018 at 11:52:18
Top six refers to revenue as opposed to league position. Sometimes one of them fails to finish in the top 6. But there is a clear long term revenue gap between them and the rest of the league.

We would need a new stadium and a string of top 6 finishes and decent Europa campaigns to create a top 7. This is still a possibility.

Kunal Desai
7 Posted 23/07/2018 at 12:08:08
Only way Everton ever challenge amongst the top four is if Moshiri sells up to an equivalent of Abramovich or Mansour or possibly brings in someone like Usmanov to work alongside him.

The spending outlay would need to be monumental bringing in proven international players along with playing in a state of the art modern stadium. Until then, we are also-rans which make up 14 teams.

Fran Mitchell
8 Posted 23/07/2018 at 12:17:15
The fact is the top 6 does exist, because, well, unless there is some sort of shock, we know who this years top 6 positions will consist of, yet not necessarily know in which order.

Chelsea could finish 1st or 6th, as could Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs. While the only clubs who are more or less guaranteed a top-4 position are the 2 Manchester clubs.

If any of the 'top-6' finish 6th, or 5th for that matter, it will be considered a failure of a season. They consider it as finishing bottom and second bottom of their mini-league.

If we finished 6th, it would be considered as an excellent season, hence proving we are not one of the 'top-6'.

If you ask any foreign person to name a team in the Premier League and the teams they will say will be one of the 'top-6'. You ask any top young player which teams in the Premier League they would like to play for and it will be one of the 'top-6'.

Hooefully, over the next few years, this hegemony can be broken, but as it is now,we can't deny it.

But the fact is, to that will require many a window of big investment, because they are just too dominant for a medium level club to compete in such a short period.

The top-6 often make 'Klaassen like' signings, £20+ million on duds, but the fact is, it doesn't matter, because they sign other players and accept that mistakes happen. At other clubs, such failures in the transfer market can be a death wish.

Paul Tran
9 Posted 23/07/2018 at 12:33:24
The usual lazy 'know your place' nonsense.

Moshiri picked his manager & DOF and backed them financially. The manager couldn't build a team out of the players he bought and was sacked. The DOF wasn't a DOF, so was also sacked. 7th turned into 8th, despite three poor managers confusing & demotivating the players.

Moshiri gets manager he wanted in October. Hires proven DOF. Has possibly/hopefully learned from mistakes.

The big if is how good Sliva will be. If he's a half decent coach, we will be pushing for 6th. If he's as good as Steve Ferns thinks, I'd have money on us getting top six.

I think if Koeman had tried to win games, we'd have got 6th in his first season.

No doubt some will regard this as kite-flying, some will obsess again with mid-table/relegation nonsense. Think about it, a confused, slow, disorganised mess under three managers got us 8th. What could a half-decent coach do?

All rests of Silva being at least half-decent.

Les Green
10 Posted 23/07/2018 at 12:53:12
John Pickles @ 4,

I was thinking of a Sun Bingo winner on holiday in Benidorm, but yours was better.

Si Cooper
11 Posted 23/07/2018 at 13:26:16
To become a regular in the (now) top six, you probably need the huge bank balance, but there is no reason someone can't do a Leicester every now and then, and the cups are open to anyone who can keep their focus for a few games in the same competition.

Spurs aren't as wealthy as the other five but they are now consistently threatening to them.

Jim Wilson
12 Posted 23/07/2018 at 21:38:35
The Guardian article is a misnomer.

If last seasons money had been spent wisely by a good manager, we might well have got into the top 4.

Jerome Shields
13 Posted 23/07/2018 at 23:51:51
Everton always had the potential to be a top six side. Mismanagement at Board level, an acceptance of under-performing managers, and a parental attitude to players as regards contracts, these were the main barriers to achieving anything. We have been sold a pup for years.
Gary Russell
14 Posted 24/07/2018 at 00:53:09
Looking at the six photos at the top of the article of players bought, I had to Google one of them. I guess with all the activity, I didn't notice the signing of Nathangelo Markelo. Does anyone have any news on him, how he did last season with Unsi etc?

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


About these ads