What's the plan, Angus?

(Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Angus Kinnear’s programme notes ahead of Everton’s final home game of last season certainly caused a stir.

The now-infamous “happily dissatisfied” soundbite backfired spectacularly, while he also insisted Everton valued the “stability” of David Moyes, and the whole tone of Kinnear’s notes was almost one of having given up on a season that was still very much alive.

Everton, at one point in the game that followed, were leading Sunderland and sitting in eighth. A game-and-a-half later, Everton had finished down in 13th and the Black Cats had surged into the Europa League.

But another standout quote from Kinnear was that the club always knew it would be a “two-summer window plan”.

Here’s the sentence in full, for context: “Our job in the coming weeks and months is to continue with what we always knew would be a two-summer window plan, and ensure the squad has enough depth to mount an even more compelling challenge next term.”

That’s all well and good, but at no point did Kinnear go on to expand on the key element: What is the plan?

And this has just fed into the feeling of uncertainty and frustration surrounding Everton’s recruitment strategy this summer.

It’s absolutely fine to have a two-summer window plan; there’s nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, it’s good to see there is a plan, after years of the club simply surviving in the wake of Farhad Moshiri’s rash spending.

However, Kinnear’s comments have, perhaps inadvertently, put something of a target on his back, because in claiming it is a two-window plan, he has set a deadline.

And so fans have been left to ask, what is the plan that Everton’s leadership are working towards?

Is the plan to build a squad capable of sustaining mid-table finishes for a few seasons, and one unlikely to be in any danger of getting dragged into a relegation scrap? If that is the case, then so far, so good. And it’s hard to imagine a Moyes team getting dragged down to a fight at the bottom.

That would fit in with the general approach of the club, too. While Moyes and the players spoke of wanting to qualify for Europe, Everton did not gamble in January when, if they had just gone and brought another couple of players in, the chance of qualifying for the Champions League, never mind another European competition, was very much alive.

I won’t tread over old ground, but that failure to act felt like a cop-out at the time and one that backfired in the end. But, the club did stick to their guns.

However, I’m only guessing here.

What if ‘the plan’ is actually to turn Everton into a team capable of challenging for the European qualification places?

Now, that clearly should be the long-term ambition, but Kinnear has said this is a two-year strategy? So are they expecting two summer windows to get Everton to that point?

If that is the case, then they are going about it a strange way, because Everton’s additions so far this summer do not scream of a team that are set on mounting a European charge.

Last season was bizarre, and while you can never firmly predict how a campaign will play out, there’s a good chance the European race won’t be quite as wide open this coming season as it was in 2025-26, when at least six teams were all fighting for a couple of places come the final two games.

But we need some clarity.

That will probably now have to wait until after the window, but Kinnear should take heed that soundbites aren’t good enough. You can’t say there is a plan, but then not detail that plan.

All Evertonians can do now is sit back and hope the club really do know what they’re doing and what they’re working towards. There’s less than a month of the transfer window left, and while there has been movement, Everton have only brought in one fresh face compared to the squad that finished last season, and are still sorely lacking in positions of desperate need.

If this is the plan, Angus, then it’s not a good one.

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