The World Cup Break
Everton's mid-season tour of Australia has seen them play just one game so far, and have already suffered two seemingly serious injuries. In their fixture against Celtic, Tom Davies suffered a knee injury later reported as a ligament issue. Yerry Mina was also injured, and in other news, water is wet.
Everton came out victorious, beating the Scottish Champions on penalties, but such results shouldn't fool anyone. Everton are not in a good place. Progress has been made undoubtedly, but the squad has declined in other areas.
We are in another battle, and unless something changes drastically, we're in for another dog fight at the wrong half of the table. I'm sure Frank Lampard and his coaching staff are scratching their heads wondering how we can change our fortune. How do we lift the curse on Everton Football Club?
What's gone wrong?
Truth is - years of mismanagement at the top of the club have left us here. Since Farhad Moshiri has taken over the club, we have been performing awfully nearly every season. Some of the transfer business seen under his reign has been nothing short of hilarious.
Much of the awful core of footballer's who have dragged us into this mess still reside in the squad picking up a wage. Yerry Mina perfectly encapsulates the issues at the club. He is a fantastic footballer but has possibly the worst injury record of any player I have ever seen - certainly at Everton anyway, He can't be far away from About Diary and Jack Wilshere territory.
It also seems that forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin is heading in the same direction. A few seasons ago under Carlo Ancelotti he had come on leaps and bounds. He had became our ever reliable striker, playing every game and scoring in most - something we haven't seen for two seasons now.
Years of poor spending
The tale of Calvert-Lewin again serves as a reminder of Everton's poor business in player recruitment. After the departure of Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United in 2017, the club lacked a clinical striker all the way until the 2019/20 season, when Calvert-Lewin found his feet in the Premier League.
Lukaku was sold for upwards of 80m, and in the same season Ross Barkley was sold to Chelsea for around 20m. Everton earned over 100m in that window, enough money too drastically improve the squad. That money was spent awfully.
50m was spent on a player who doesn't need to be named. Nearly 30m (each) was spent on Micheal Keane and Davy Klaassen. It cost Everton a combined total of around 50m to bring in an ageing Theo Walcott (who would later see out his contract and leave for free) and Cenk Tosun - less said about him the better. The free transfer of Wayne Rooney, aged 32 at the time, was our only real source of goals that season.
Such baffling lists could be created nearly every season since, and now we are left struggling to pay fees for anyone as a result of misspending. FFP is looming and hanging over our heads since just 2.5m was spent in last season's summer transfer window on winger Demarai Gray.
There was a slight more freedom this summer, with Frank Lampard and Kevin Thelwell able to spend big on Amadou Onana, as well as paying fees for Dwight McNeil, Neal Maupay and James Garner - all fees were relatively low compared to the 35m paid for the Belgian Onana.
Back to square one
Even having spent approximately 600m since Farhad Moshiri bought his majority share, we still find ourselves fielding just one player bought before 2019. Jordan Pickford being the sole survivor of the mass splurge of cash under Moshiri. 10/11 of our average starting eleven were brought in since the 2018/19 season.
We currently field two young full backs signed last January. A loan and a free transfer at centre half. In midfield, two 30m signings and a player sold in 2020 and never properly replaced - so resigned this summer. Up front, a 2.5m winger and two academy graduates. Everton have spent over half a billion on transfers since 2016, and less than 100m of that spend resides in the playing squad today. Mortifying.
When you've tried everything, what next?
No other club could spend so much money and not be successful, but here we are. It feels as if Everton have tried everything. First looking at managers. Ronald Koeman comes under the 'exciting and up-and-coming' category - he lasted just one season and left with the hatred of all Everton fans.
In 2017, Sam Allardyce came in and served his purpose as the 'stay solid and hard to beat' coach, hardly an inspiring appointment but it kept us afloat. Next came the 'progressive and fun to watch' Marco Silva - for me, a good coach that came at the wrong time. He is now doing a great job with newly-promoted Fulham.
After Duncan Ferguson's first of two short tenure's as interim manager, 'the veteran professional' Carlo Ancelotti was brought in and did a brilliant job with an awful squad Just shortly missing out on Europe. He won the hearts of Everton fans when he secured a long-sought after away derby win against Liverpool. He left for Real Madrid after a season and a half... and who can blame him?
On the 30th of June, ex-Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was employed, and he'd best be described as 'the dinosaur'. This tenure was doomed from day one, possibly even before then. It wasn't the fact he'd been Liverpool's coach which made people unsure - he'd been doing a terrible job as a mercenary coach in China for the previous seasons. Last season he did his best to drag us down to the Championship.
Benitez would be sacked in January and after the second Ferguson interim and days of protests, Everton would appoint Frank Lampard. Lampard kept the Toffees up, completing a comeback win against Crystal Palace in their penultimate Premier League fixture last season. This season - we have looked toothless after selling Richarlison and not replacing him, scoring just 11 goals in 15 games this campaign.
All of that drama leads us to where we are today. Everton sit one point above the drop zone going into the World Cup break. We look defensively astute following the signings of Conor Coady and James Tarkowski,, but couldn't score if our lives depended on it.
Last chance saloon
No matter what we try, which approach we take, we just can't seem to get it right. Everton is a revolving door for managers, and for good players, but the poor ones just cannot seem to find the exit. The World Cup break has come at the perfect time, and Lampard has a huge job to do in reigniting the spark in this team.
Everton need to spend big in the January transfer window. It hasn't worked before but we have no option. Any money we have available will be spent on forwards. We are in an awkward position, we can't attract Europe's elite and likely don't have the funds to do so.
I suspect we'll dip into the Championship. Both Ben Brereton-Diaz and Viktor Gyokeres currently reside in the Championship, having scored 9 goals each so far this season. Both were heavily linked with a move to the Merseyside in the Summer but reportedly the club didn't fancy the gamble. This time round we don't have a choice.
Everton need to roll the dice and bring in some hungry players. Players with something to prove. Ben Brereton-Diaz's contract expires in 2023 and would be available for relatively cheap in January. Viktor Gyokeres is contracted to Coventry until 2024, but it's hard to see him turning down a chance to play in the greatest league in the world.
On Wednesday the Blues face the WS Wanderers in their second fixture in Australia before returning to England. Lets hope that Kevin Thelwell is plotting some big moves in January, or Everton Football Club may finally make the drop.