David Moyes left Everton with plenty of memorable quotes. One, however, has lasted longer than most. Ahead of Everton’s trip to the Etihad Stadium on 24 September 2011, Moyes summed up the gap between the two clubs in one line:
“This is like going into a gunfight, and I have got a knife.”
The David Moyes gunfight knife description was grim, funny and painfully accurate. It captured the changing landscape of English football. Manchester City’s new ownership money was beginning to reshape the game. Everton were still relying largely on what the club could generate itself.
Fifteen years later, the financial gap is even clearer. The story has also taken on a legal dimension that nobody could have expected at the time.
Summer 2011 transfer contrast and sponsor findings
The contrast was obvious during that summer’s transfer window. Moyes spent nothing on transfer fees. Everton also lost captain Mikel Arteta to Arsenal on a free transfer. City, meanwhile, spent close to £80 million. Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri were among their arrivals. Within a year, City had won the Premier League title.
That spending has since faced a very different level of scrutiny. An independent commission found that City recorded £360 million in sponsorship revenue across three Premier League-winning seasons.
Of that figure, just £43 million was judged legitimate. The commission concluded that the remainder was disguised funding from the club’s owners rather than genuine commercial income. The findings were detailed in a Liverpool Echo report on City’s commission findings. The report also stated that:
“A number of important club witnesses gave false evidence in key respects, and some knowingly gave untrue and dishonest evidence.”
Everton had no equivalent backing to rely on. Moyes had to build his teams through coaching and scouting. The club’s finances reflected that reality. There was no comparable owner funding behind the scenes. Instead, Moyes had to work with the resources Everton could generate themselves.
Comparing Everton’s PSR penalty with City’s commission details
The contrast between how the two clubs have been treated since is what really stings for Evertonians. In the 2023/24 season, Everton received an initial 10-point deduction for a single breach of the Profitability and Sustainability Rules. The punishment landed quickly, and the club felt its effects on the pitch almost straight away.
City’s case has moved at a completely different pace. Despite the commission’s findings on sponsor fees and false evidence, no punishment has been handed down, and the process remains unresolved years after the alleged breaches took place. Set against that, the David Moyes gunfight knife line from 2011 feels almost gentle compared with what the report actually describes.
Everton have since had to rebuild under new ownership themselves, and supporters keen on the wider picture of where the club is heading can follow stadium progress and ownership updates as that project continues. None of it changes how uneven the last decade and a half has felt when comparing the two boardrooms.
Player movements across the divide and legal ongoing impact
The player traffic between the two clubs has largely run from Everton to City. City signed Joleon Lescott from Everton in 2009, Jack Rodwell in 2012, and John Stones in 2016. Iliman Ndiaye’s departure from Everton was completed on 1 September 2026, the most recent reminder of how often the club’s best players end up moving on. Each deal chipped away at squads Everton had built up themselves, while City used their resources to keep strengthening.
Feelings around the rivalry boiled over in December 2023, when City supporters chanted, “You cheating b******s, you know what you are,” at travelling Everton fans, a jab at the PSR punishment that had just been applied. It was a pointed reminder of how differently the two clubs’ financial conduct had been judged up to that point.
City’s legal proceedings and any potential appeals remain ongoing, and no final punishment has been confirmed, so the full consequences of the commission’s findings are still to be settled. Everton, meanwhile, have already served their punishment in full. For more on how the current squad is shaping up under the new ownership project, our earlier report covers the latest transfer and squad news in detail.
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