As everyone knows Everton have been facing a serious financial crisis for a long time now and last season it was clear that those problems had finally come home to roost.
To recap once again, it was incumbent on the Premier League’s clubs to ensure they did not lose more than £105 million within any three-year accounting period to avoid breaching the Profit and Sustainability Regulations.
After a long-running investigation, in November and then February, the Blues were docked an initial ten and two points respectively in total for separate PSR breaches.
That first deduction was reduced to six on appeal, but even so those eight points almost pushed the Toffees back into a relegation dogfight for a third consecutive campaign.
Everton survived and in the end comfortably as it happened, but it might have turned out differently meaning that the club could be facing a season in the Championship come August.
As the summer transfer window loomed it was also apparent that the Blues would have to sell players in order to help get finances in order and avoid another possible breach hitting the team next season.
In addition, the Toffees were also waiting for a resolution to it’s argument with the Premier League over the claimed allocation of Stadium loan interest costs on Everton’s new Bramley-Moore Dock ground.
If the club does lose that argument, the Blues will possibly be again be further in breach of the guidelines for financial years for which they have already been punished.
Regardless of anything else this is a mess to put it mildly and leaves everyone with a great deal of uncertainty, which has surely hampered planning and inhibits spending on strengthening the squad.
Nevertheless, Kevin Thelwell and Sean Dyche have managed to work successfully in the transfer market adding Tim Iroegbunam from Aston Villa for around £10 million and re-signing Jack Harrison on loan from Leeds United. The Toffees are also said to be close to signing Iliman Ndiaye too.
In part this was accomplished by Everton selling Lewis Dobbin to Villa for an equivalent fee to Iroegbunam’s and then Ben Godfrey’s departure to Atalanta yesterday.
So, there is some room for optimism that the club can finally avoid a breach and comply successfully with PSR.
For our part as Evertonians we can only hope that all these efforts have been enough to ensure that prospect of further penalties are not coming down the line when the new campaign kicks off.
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