Everton’s financial plight has been unrelenting this season, consistently pegging them back just when they threaten to progress.
The Premier League have truly showcased their disdain for those outside the ‘big six’ with the rise in prominence of PSR, which not only has seen the Toffees and Nottingham Forest handed deductions, but could also force the likes of Newcastle United and Aston Villa into the sales of key assets despite their stunning form.
It’s a defunct system which seeks to monopolise the apex of the division, and thus far it is doing a splendid job.
However, it is also causing quite a mess at the bottom of the table; a mess which could now translate into next season.
Everton could face a THIRD points deduction
This latest report from iNews perhaps offered the most crushing news of all from a day in which Everton were deducted a further two points, as they suggested that more could be on the way.
Whilst yessterday’s initial verdict was far from good news, it could certainly have been far worse.
After all, they still sit in a position of safety, with the opportunity to avoid relegation firmly in their hands.
But, this piece by James Gray now suggests that next season might already be plagued by further PSR issues, as he writes: ‘iunderstands that this hearing, which will look at interest and loans taken out to finance the club’s new stadium, is likely to take place after the end of the season.
The journalist later continued: ’However, i understands any additional points deductions adjudicated this summer will be applied to next season’s standings, meaning the Toffees could start the 2024-25 season on negative points, the first team to do since the league was inaugurated in 1992.’
There is little end in sight for Everton’s misery
For many months now it has been suggested that survival this season, or even moving into the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, would provide the necessary boost to finally offer Everton that much-needed long-term security and stability.
However, with how fresh controversy and setbacks seem to keep coming, it honestly feels like there is no end in sight.
This latest report only adds to such an unrelenting sense of doom.
After all, what it does is suggest that survival this season will only see such deduction unrest transferred into the next campaign, thus plaguing any potential that Sean Dyche had to progress this side.
Were it not for the eight points they have been deducted this season, his Everton team would currently sit 14th in the table, well clear from the bottom three, and on track to gain a much higher prize for their league position.
However, instead the Premier League have taken that away, ironically impacting the sustainability of the club.
Should they keep reopening old wounds in such a fashion, there is seemingly no eventuality where they just leave Everton alone. It is gross misconduct of the highest order, and nobody seems to be doing anything apart from a select few political figures.
Worrying times indeed.