There are a lot of moaners on this forum forever criticising our so-called lack of vision or "limited" financial means who should sit down and pay attention to the Everton story. It's instructive. Here's how it reads.

Multi-millionaire owner (Moshiri) comes into the club brandishing his wallet and the fans spunk themselves. Every man's dream...time buy success. But ten years or so have passed since the Sheik's bought Manchester City and the landscape's changed. Now, there's Financial Fair Play which limits a club's ability to buy success. Rich owners still matter, but less than they did.

Moshiri does what all fans want; splashes the cash and brings in star names plus a star manager. In essence, he gambles everything on Everton winning something and qualifying for Europe which would increase their revenue stream and thereby give them more room under the FFP rules.

But it doesn't happen. All the money yields a tenth place finish, no Cups, and no Europe. So with the maximum amount of money already spent last summer, revenue streams left static by the failure to progress into Europe, and up hard against the FFP cap suddenly Everton have no room to spend more money whether the owner has a big wallet or not.

What happens? First, Ancelloti walks in part because he knows there's no money to strengthen the team again this summer. Moshiri makes no real effort to keep him because he's happy to get a big salary off the books and free up a bit of cash he can spend elsewhere (on the team). Ancelloti, meanwhile, goes to Real and immediately puts in a cheeky bid for Calvert-Lewin because he knows that if they want to buy, Everton has to sell first. In fact, it's so bad that Everton can't even nail down Nuno, who turned down Palace for a bigger club he thought would meet his demands, then discovered in negotiating that they had no more free cash than we did.

I have no sympathy for raging Everton fans. Their dream came true but rather than see the reality of last summer's excesses, they were seduced into thinking you could buy success. Now, they've come down to earth with a bump and they don't like it. Tough.

The moral here is "beware of Greeks bearing gifts". Being a well-run club is not simply a matter of having a ridiculously rich owner. Manchester City (rich owner) are successful because they're well run. Tottenham (rich owner) aren't successful because recently at least, they haven't been well-run. Ditto Man. Utd.

We are where we are because whether you like our ownership set-up or not or not, because we are a well-run club. And we're more or less punching our weight on the pitch. There are worse things in football than that.

There are a lot of moaners on this forum forever criticising our so-called lack of vision or "limited" financial means who should sit down and pay attention to the Everton story. It's instructive. Here's how it reads.

Multi-millionaire owner (Moshiri) comes into the club brandishing his wallet and the fans spunk themselves. Every man's dream...time buy success. But ten years or so have passed since the Sheik's bought Manchester City and the landscape's changed. Now, there's Financial Fair Play which limits a club's ability to buy success. Rich owners still matter, but less than they did.

Moshiri does what all fans want; splashes the cash and brings in star names plus a star manager. In essence, he gambles everything on Everton winning something and qualifying for Europe which would increase their revenue stream and thereby give them more room under the FFP rules.

But it doesn't happen. All the money yields a tenth place finish, no Cups, and no Europe. So with the maximum amount of money already spent last summer, revenue streams left static by the failure to progress into Europe, and up hard against the FFP cap suddenly Everton have no room to spend more money whether the owner has a big wallet or not.

What happens? First, Ancelloti walks in part because he knows there's no money to strengthen the team again this summer. Moshiri makes no real effort to keep him because he's happy to get a big salary off the books and free up a bit of cash he can spend elsewhere (on the team). Ancelloti, meanwhile, goes to Real and immediately puts in a cheeky bid for Calvert-Lewin because he knows that if they want to buy, Everton has to sell first. In fact, it's so bad that Everton can't even nail down Nuno, who turned down Palace for a bigger club he thought would meet his demands, then discovered in negotiating that they had no more free cash than we did.

I have no sympathy for raging Everton fans. Their dream came true but rather than see the reality of last summer's excesses, they were seduced into thinking you could buy success. Now, they've come down to earth with a bump and they don't like it. Tough.

The moral here is "beware of Greeks bearing gifts". Being a well-run club is not simply a matter of having a ridiculously rich owner. Manchester City (rich owner) are successful because they're well run. Tottenham (rich owner) aren't successful because recently at least, they haven't been well-run. Ditto Man. Utd.

We are where we are because whether you like our ownership set-up or not or not, because we are a well-run club. And we're more or less punching our weight on the pitch. There are worse things in football than that.

I can't remember any club getting more than a slap on the wrist for breaching FFP, but if not the case would be interested to know.

Can it really be EFL looking at two fixture lists depending on whether Derby are punished with the result of relegation

I see why Wycombe are concerned the EFL will not act on the " big " club until season started.

Everton fans will be laughing at us if we appoint Silva.