Everton have made so many terrible errors leading to their current PSR disaster, which has completely dominated this season and threatens to encapsulate the next few too.
It is the result of half a decade of mismanagement, first starting with Farhad Moshiri but trickling down through a number of other key figures, all of whom have contributed to this steady regression.
Two points deductions in one season have been tough to take, and yet Sean Dyche could still steer this side to safety somehow, against all the odds.
And, rather ironically, he will do so barely using one man who has contributed to both of the PSR charges and subsequent deductions: Nathan Patterson.
Nathan Patterson was a big transfer risk
Whilst it might seem harsh to pick on a 22-year-old who still has his entire future ahead of him, he marks just one example of many who were brought in during this period perhaps unnecessarily.
Neal Maupay is another who springs to mind.
However, Patterson is perhaps the most pertinent alongside the Frenchman because of how little he has offered since making his £16m move in January 2022, which encapsulates him within both of the three-year rolling periods with which they overspent.
Adjudged against PSR, Everton were first handed a ten-point deduction for a £19m overspend back in November.
Then, earlier this month, a further £16.6m overspend saw them hit with a further two-point penalty.
To deduct Patterson’s transfer fee from both of those figures, it is arguable that the club might not have even received a single points deduction.
His performances for Everton have not merited the PSR hit
Whilst some might say Amadou Onana’s £33m signing, or Dwight McNeil’s £15m acquisition, were also to blame for this current PSR crisis, it is first important to recognise the role these players have played in the starting squad.
Both became mainstays in the first team and have never really left the lineup. James Garner took a little longer to get into it due to injury, but is now equally as important too.
Patterson, however, seems like he is simply not trusted by Dyche.
Preferring Seamus Coleman, an out-of-position Ben Godfrey and an ageing Ashley Young to the young Scotsman, his impact on the squad has been minimal.
And that is through no fault of his own, really.
An inability to plan ahead and acquire a successor for their club captain led to a rushed January window under Rafael Benitez’s poisonous leadership, in which they overpaid for a raw, exciting but admittedly ill-prepared defender.
There is every chance he could flourish into a superstar one day, and he has exhibited signs of dynamism and attacking input that could prove key.
However, for now he has made just nine Premier League starts this season, a further 14 last season, and yet his £16m fee could have swung PSR in their favour massively.
Realistically, Everton probably could have signed him years later for a similar sum as well.