American Blue Scouser Column: Anger Doesn't Even Express How The Transfer Window Went

We as Everton supporters should be outraged after what happened during this transfer window. David Moyes made it known that he needed more players. There were deals in place for replacements. Now? If this team beats relegation, it would be a blessing. What we just witnessed wasn't just incompetence, it was pure stupidity. We're used to bad decisions being made, especially under the Farhad Moshiri era, but this was extraordinarily horrendous. Figureheads need to be held accountable, a remorseful apology issued, and enact a plan to massively bring in players during the January window. This isn't just a colossal mistake, this is a dire situation that could have some serious ramifications.

Ramifications, that's a word that should scare not just the fans, but also the entirety of the club. It needs to be repeated, Moyes asked for more players especially with ambitions of playing for European competition and winning trophies and yet here we are, a club with 18 outfield players. 18! They have less players now than they did before the window closed and that was open for 78 days. That's absolute gross negligence. How do you allow a player to leave before having their replacement locked up? Sure, in the business they had in selling the players, they recouped a lot of money that could help for a push in later windows, but that is aside the point. The point here is that now the team has less to work with and an injury at any point is going to be very costly. If Everton gets relegated, then it will cost the club a lot of money. A prime example of what relegation does is what happened to Leeds United/Sheffield United or to an even greater degree, Blackburn Rovers. We don't want to see Everton become that. Sure, the team would likely find a way to spend in a way that will help them get back to the Premier League, but the ramifications of relegation is greater than one might think.

So, with these ramifications of relegation, what could happen? Well, Everton would have to sell off a lot of players and to think as little as there are on the squad right now, there would be a significant amount of them to sell. But why sell? Because the club would be in an immediate violation of Championship financial rules. So, goodbye Jordan Pickford, Jarrad Branthwaite, James Tarkowski, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Thierno Barry, Tyrique George, Brennan Johnson, Hayden Hackney, Merlin Rohl, James Garner, and lastly Harrison Armstrong. That's a lot of significant talent to lose thus meaning Everton would need to rebuild their entire squad whether it's finding cheaper talent and/or promoting a lot of younger players from their academy.

After losing all these players, then comes the loss of revenue from a television deal. To give some perspective from an American's view point, we watch the Premier League games on NBC and through Peacock. That means it's easily accessible as that is the best TV contract to play for as it is so lucrative to play at the highest tier in England. Teams in the Premier League net a lot of revenue just because of the Premier League's TV contract, so losing all that would be costly. If Everton were to play in the Championship, the TV contract gets worse as here in the United States, it's not as easily accessible as a package as one would have to purchase Paramount+ and none of the games are shown on regular television (yes, Americans are starting to get more into the English Football League by purchasing Paramount+ as the sport is growing so much that people are starting to become fans of clubs in lower divisions). That would hamper a lot for Everton's revenue. To put it in even more of a perspective, the first year in the Championship, the club would earn about 55% of what it would've made in the Premier League, then 45% the season afterwards, and in the season after that it would be 20%. If you see the type of math here and the longer Everton stays in the Championship, then that is a lot of money to lose. Heck, even just one season would do some serious financial damages.

Another major issue would be sponsorships as they would either diminish or disappear thus meaning less revenue that way too. Do you really think a major sponsor of Everton's would want to keep pumping money in for a club floundering in the Championship? All that would lead to a lot of budget cuts and with Everton being a big club that they are, it would most certainly make them smaller. That would mean the club would be one of those like Leeds United where they are constantly getting promoted to the Premier League and then getting demoted back to the Championship. That's not ideal. The club had so much ambition supposedly and if that was to happen, it would be a massive step backward. No, the situation isn't as dire as when the team possibly was on the brink of administration, but watching Everton play at the highest tier in England and then seeing them languish away in mediocrity for what could be eternally is pretty bleak.

That also leads me to my next point, all that supposed ambition. I have no doubts that Moyes had all the intentions of making the team better and is probably furious that things turned out the way they did. But whether CEO Angus Kinnear and the rest of his team in their recruitment knew what they were doing is the bigger question. My guess is that from the moves that were made and how they were done, no. If I were Moyes, I'd resign in protest, but right now we all need him to lead the team to survive this season. Everton is a big enough club where they should be able to compete for a Premier League title and other trophies, plus enter European competition on a regular basis, but for whatever reason haven't been able to for couple of decades. If Kinnear was as serious as he says he is, then holy moly! Clearly he and his team have no idea how to get to that point. However, he does have the January window to save face and right now, they need to come up with a plan and be prepared for it once that timeframe comes up. They have to be rapid, determined, and aggressive once the window opens and with a clear plan of attack. Now if the club can get past this 2026/27 campaign then they would have to come up with another plan in order to attack the Summer window. It would have to take two more windows after that in order to become that big club they strive to be. If Manchester City (yes, controversially) can get the point to where they are now, so can Everton.

This window is also a missed opportunity on more money and that one comes from USA. While there is going to be a separate column about how this Folarin Balogun debacle hurts more than the club might think, it's crazy how bad of a missed opportunity it is. Remember my point about how we Americans watch Premier League games? Well, if Everton gets more exposure because fans in the country are watching them for the sake of having Balogun on the team, then that equals more fans for the club and more fans means more revenue. Crazy concept, I know. If the team had not dicked Balogun around as much as they did, then they would've had at least had some depth at striker.

The problem with all this is in handling all this business is that it is clear no plan was enacted as they were left scrambling before the deadline hit. It's not clear whether their attempt to pursue Joshua Zirkzee was in addition to Balogun or the alternative. If it was in addition, then that would be some good bit of business as that leads to some safety net just in case Barry or Balogun suffer an injury. However, it doesn't seem like the case because if it was, it wouldn't have popped up last minute and honestly it looks like it played a role in the Balogun mishandling. The team also had pursued Alistair Johnston, but once that fell through, they moved onto Daniel Munoz, then after that Kenny Tete. Yes, right back was eventually solved, but depth at both right back and left back is left to be desired after the window closed. So letting Adam Aznou and Nathan Patterson to leave is, for a lack of a better term, stupid. Unless there were other replacements lined up, then that's where you let them leave. It seems like the club kept scrambling for replacements instead of keeping tabs on their targets. It's ok to have a Plan A or Plan B and so on and so forth, but to just have a target and then try to find another one is not a good idea. While we don't know exactly what happened up in those meetings about certain players, but from the look of it, they didn't seem be prepared especially for situations like this. The team also targeted other players such as Christian Kofane, Youssouf Fofane, Ben White, Djed Spence, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Liam Delap, Guela Doue, Jamie Leweling, Mandela Keita, Tammy Abraham, and of course Richarlison, but it seemed like things kept scrambling around until they hoped one would finally come join the squad. Not exactly a smart game plan. Now is it possible the 50 million that was given to Burnley played a role? Possibly, but that doesn't negate the recruiting strategy.

Now, where does Everton go from here. Well, the team will heavily rely on their academy as depth. There could be a silver lining here as bringing these young players in to train and get some minutes in a league game or a cup match might actually be beneficial for them and the club. Everton needs depth, so these youngsters will have to be pressed into service in a much needed time. I have always felt like the club seems to neglect their academy in order to stay competitive as there could be some young talent there that could contribute, but right now is a golden opportunity for them to do so. Develop them and hope that they could become stars. One player that has been mentioned a lot is Braiden Graham, who ironically is a striker. He is likely going to be getting a ton of minutes for the team in the meantime. This right now is an opportunity for himself to earn some minutes, develop, and possibly become a star striker in the league. Other names to be on the watch out for is defenders William Tamen, Elijah Campbell, and Odin Samuels-Smith and midfielder Francis Gomez. Maybe one of these players could become the next Harrison Armstrong or Wayne Rooney, but time will tell.

All in all, Kinnear and his team need to do a lot of explaining as well as issue an apology. The ripple effects of what happened could be detrimental to the club right now and in the future. If they want to avoid that, then devise a plan to avoid the possible damage that could come to light. Otherwise, there is going to be a lot more anger and resentment from the fans. Kinnear once said: "Judge us at the end of the window." Oh yes, Angus, we are certainly judging right now and we are all furious. Do something to fix it before it gets worse.