Everton supporters will always back the team.
Of course they will.
They always do.
But that unwavering support should not be confused with unwavering trust in the people running the football club.
That trust has been badly damaged by one of the most chaotic, embarrassing and deeply disappointing transfer windows Everton have endured in recent memory.
And there now needs to be some accountability.
The Friedkin Group, CEO Angus Kinnear and the club’s recruitment committee – Angus Kinnear, Nick Cox, James Smith, Nick Hammond and Chris Howarth – cannot simply wave goodbye to another transfer window and expect everyone to shrug their shoulders and move on.
Everton have emerged from the transfer window with 18 senior outfield players, one recognised senior striker in Thierno Barry, one senior left-back in Vitalii Mykolenko and one senior right-back in Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Meanwhile, Everton’s most valuable player, Iliman Ndiaye, has left.
Beto has gone.
Harrison Armstrong came remarkably close to being sold.
And desperate, literally last minute panic attempts to bring in the likes of Joshua Zirkzee, Tammy Abraham and Tete failed.
Jack Grealish is back. Maitland-Niles is in. Tyrique George and Hayden Hackney provide younger additions and there are certainly positives to point towards.
But those positives cannot disguise the fundamental problem.
Everton being desperately short of quality and numbers in attack and at full-back.
That isn’t an opinion born out of impatience.
It is the reality of the squad Everton have assembled.
What exactly happened?
That is the question the recruitment committee now needs to answer.
Were Everton banking on the £40m-plus sale of Armstrong before committing to further incomings?
If so, why? The CEO had just cherry picked favoured media and proactively assured the club were well financed.
Or was it simply poor organisation?
Why did Everton leave their business too late?
Why did Everton find themselves scrambling around for attacking reinforcements towards the end of the window, when it was already abundantly clear that the squad needed strengthening?
Why did Everton fail?
These aren’t unreasonable questions.
They are basic questions about professional standards.
And supporters deserve answers. Or better yet, action in the form of P45s being handed out.
What was the plan?
Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the window is the combination of departures and near-departures.
Everton allowed Ndiaye to leave.
Beto has also departed, leaving Barry as the only recognised senior striker.
And then came the extraordinary saga involving Armstrong, with Everton seemingly prepared to sanction the departure of one of the brightest young players to emerge from their academy in years.
It leaves supporters asking what the overall plan actually was.
Sell your best player.
Sell your striker.
Come close to selling one of your brightest young players.
Then scramble to replace them.
And ultimately fail to do so.
That isn’t a coherent recruitment strategy.
It looks like a club reacting to events rather than controlling them.
And then there is Balogun
Perhaps nothing sums up the current situation better than the collapse of the Balogun deal.
A player who had been identified as a target had a close-up look at Everton’s situation – he looked Everton’s recruitment clowns in the eyes and ultimately decided against joining the circus.
And can you honestly blame him?
That is an uncomfortable question for those running Everton.
Players need to believe in a club’s direction.
They need to believe there is a plan.
They need to believe they are joining a football operation that knows where it is going.
If Everton are struggling to convince players to join them, that should set alarm bells ringing.
Because this isn’t simply about one failed transfer.
It is about reputation.
It is about credibility.
It is about whether the people responsible for recruitment are successfully selling Everton as a club players should want to join.
At this point, some accountability is needed – and quickly.
The numbers are damning
One striker.
One left-back.
One right-back.
18 senior outfield players.
And Everton have Premier League football to play until January.
That is not squad building.
That is squad gambling.
Injuries and suspensions are inevitable over the next four months. Everton cannot realistically expect to navigate the first half of the season without being tested severely in those positions.
Expect Brennan Johnson or Michael Keane up front at periods then, or perhaps Braiden Graham.
The manager deserves better.
The players deserve better.
And most importantly, Everton supporters deserve better.
Players such as Jordan Pickford, Jarrad Branthwaite, James Garner, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harrison Armstrong.
There is a foundation here.
Which makes this transfer window all the more frustrating.
Because Everton had an opportunity to build something.
Instead, they have left themselves exposed.
This Is About Culture Now
Back in May, I wrote that Everton had a culture problem.
A culture problem.
I shared culture is not a poster on a wall or a phrase in a press release. It is what you tolerate. It is what you celebrate. It is the message sent – loudly, implicitly – by those in positions of authority about what is and is not acceptable.
At the time, that argument was built around Angus Kinnear’s infamous description of himself as “happily dissatisfied.” ?
Three months later, it feels even more relevant.
Because this transfer window has provided something far more tangible than a badly chosen phrase.
It has provided evidence.
Everton have finished the window with 18 senior outfield players, one recognised senior striker and just one senior player in each full-back position.
Our best player has gone.
Our top goalscorer from last season/striker in Beto has gone.
Our brightest young midfielder was nearly sold for buttons to Nottingham Forest.
Everton entered the final hours of the window scrambling for solutions.
That isn’t simply bad luck.
Transfers fail. Players choose other clubs. Selling clubs change their minds. Negotiations collapse.
But when the same organisation repeatedly leaves itself exposed, when contingency plans appear inadequate and when a club of Everton’s size reaches the end of a transfer window with a squad this thin, the question stops being “Why didn’t they sign more players?”
It becomes:
What standards are being applied inside Everton Football Club?
And perhaps the most uncomfortable question of all:
Who is actually accountable when those standards aren’t met?
Trust has been broken
Evertonians will still turn up.
That is what Everton supporters do.
But the people running the football club should not mistake that loyalty for approval.
There is now a clear disconnect between the support the team receives from the stands and the trust supporters have in the people making decisions above it.
One fan summed up the mood bluntly:
“The time for mass protest is now. Stop buying the overpriced pints and cookies.”
Another put it even more starkly:
“Hit the corporates where it hurts, their P&Ls.“
Those sentiments should not simply be dismissed as angry internet comments.
They are a warning.
When supporters begin talking about withholding their spending as a means of making their feelings heard, the relationship between a football club and its ownership has reached a dangerous point.
Everton’s supporters are the lifeblood of the club.
They have stood by Everton through administrations, relegation battles, ownership disasters and years of sporting underachievement.
They are entitled to expect competence from the people entrusted with running it.
They are entitled to ask what the plan was.
They are entitled to ask why Everton entered the final days of the window so short of attacking and defensive options.
They are entitled to ask why the club’s best player was allowed to leave without his replacement being secured.
They are entitled to ask why the recruitment operation appears to have been caught so badly short.
And they are entitled to demand action for negligence.
The Supporters Are Sending a Message
If culture is about what you tolerate, then the response from Everton’s supporters tells us something about how far patience has now been stretched.
The 1878s have announced that they are stepping down from organising their iconic pre-match displays for the foreseeable future.
These are supporters who have spent countless hours creating the displays and atmosphere that have helped make Everton matchdays what they are. They have done so because they believe in the club, the team and the supporters around them.
Now they have decided to stop.
Their statement described Everton’s transfer window as “gross negligence”, pointing specifically to the loss of five players since David Moyes warned that Everton needed to remain as strong as possible, while bringing in only two. They highlighted the lack of full-back cover, the reliance on one striker and the departure of one of Everton’s best players without a replacement.
The group’s motto is “The Standard We Expect.”
The question now is whether those running Everton expect the same standard of themselves.
Heads must roll
At some point, someone has to be responsible.
If the recruitment committee is accountable for identifying targets, negotiating deals and building the squad, then it cannot simply be business as usual after a window like this.
The club cannot simultaneously insist that it has a sophisticated football operation while asking supporters to accept what looks, from the outside, like a complete failure of planning.
This isn’t about demanding perfection.
Football transfers are difficult.
Clubs reject bids. Players change their minds. Negotiations collapse. Agents move the goalposts.
That happens.
But when you end a window with one senior striker, one senior left-back, one senior right-back and just 18 senior outfield players, while losing your best player and coming within touching distance of selling one of your brightest academy products, it is perfectly legitimate to ask whether the people responsible have done their jobs adequately.
And if they haven’t, there must be consequences.