Will Everton' failed gamble mean top six disappear over horizon?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 㿀+ 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.

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.

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

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

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