Dreaded drop may just be the boot up the backside that this Everton need...

EVEN being kind, you’d say Everton are 50-50 to get relegated. And though I know their fans will hate the suggestion, it may just be a blessing for them.

I’ll qualify that by saying it would only be a blessing if they came straight back up.

And I’m not saying they’re doomed, like Southampton. Though another two out of four have got to drop. Take your pick from Everton, Leicester, Leeds and Forest... so a 50 percent chance. Tomorrow night’s visit to Leicester is absolutely massive for Everton.

Of course from the club and fans’ perspective it will be a disaster, I get that.

But it may just be the biggest boot up the backside they’ve ever needed. Let’s face it, the club and their eccentric owner Farhad Moshiri need a reset. We’re not talking about one bad season. This is the third time they have (more than) flirted with relegation under him, and it seems inevitable it will happen one day if nothing changes.

In the eight years since he arrived at Goodison, they’ve finished in the top half only three times.

And the second highest position they’ve achieved was eighth, when they had to call the Sam Allardyce cavalry to save them!

Contrast that with the previous eight seasons, when they finished in the bottom half just once, and three times finished fifth, Actually, only once in that time did they finish below eighth.

I mean, Big Sam’s eighth doesn’t look all that bad now, does it? So something has to change, massively.

I’d actually say it’s time to start from scratch.

But given the harsh reality of football finance, that’s not going to happen.

There will be plenty of players on big contracts who won’t go… because they won’t get that money elsewhere.

I doubt Everton will have put relegation clauses into contracts so salaries can be reduced dramatically.

Because you don’t attract players that way.

It’s more the owner’s and the club’s thinking that has to change.

I did say here when Sean Dyche was appointed that relegation still looked likely.

And for a club in such a precarious financial position, that could spell disaster.

It’s true. With a brand spanking new stadium to pay for – and for all the progress of the build, they still haven’t secured the finances to complete it – there’s a chance the club could collapse.

But I’m looking beyond the disaster scenario.

For far too long, Everton have been living in the past, believing they are direct rivals to Liverpool. They’re not, and it’s embarrassing.

This whole People’s Club thing is embarrassing. To me, it’s a way of saying they’re not huge and global like Liverpool.

Not corporate, not Americanised.

All admirable sentiments, but not making much sense in the modern football world.

It’s an excuse to get away with doing things in a secondrate manner, as a way of being ‘better than Liverpool’.

But where is Moshiri’s structure, where has he put the systems in place that even clubs such as Brighton and Brentford have? What is his philosophy, what is his direction?

Everton are not Liverpool’s rivals. They are Leicester’s rivals, they are Leeds’ rivals, Forest’s rivals.

Six managers in six years under Moshiri and he hired all of them against the advice of his director of football. It’s that simple.

So going down maybe concentrates the owner’s mind because Moshiri has a lot to lose... the best part of £1billion if they don’t bounce straight back up, because no one will buy them in the Championship with a stadium still to complete.

Maybe it will concentrate the minds of the fans too, and get them to finally focus on the problem of an owner who took over a club consistently in the top half of the table and ran them into the relegation ground.

It’s time for change at Everton... and going down may be a blessing in disguise.

For far too long, Everton have been living in the past, believing they are direct rivals to Liverpool It’s embarrasing

STILL NOT LOOKING GOOD Sean Dyche appointed was January, manager in but the fortunes at Goodison haven’t changed