A ball has yet to be kicked in anger. Across the forthcoming 2023/24 Premier League campaign there are 34,200 minutes of competitive football to play out.
Prior to all that, several weeks remain of a transfer window that can transform a club’s standing with a signature of two.
And lastly, one of the clubs in question brought in a manager last January who installed a more rigid structure to his new team, making them difficult to beat from March onwards.
Moreover, he has a proven track record at keeping sides among the elite.
So why is it, when acknowledging all this, that it already feels like Everton are destined to drop next year, losing their top-flight status for the first time in several generations?
Why does a sad ending feel so inevitable for a story that has not yet even begun? Why do the Toffees’ Premier League relegation odds look so enticing in mid-July?
To explain this, we must look past the results from the Toffee’s latter half of last term, results that were barely cause for encouragement, if truth be told, even if they did lift the relegation-haunted club out of the bottom three, surviving by the skin of their teeth on the final day.
Throughout Sean Dyche’s 18 matches in charge, Everton averaged 1.1 points-per-game. When extrapolated across 2022/23 that would have seen the Blues look worryingly over their shoulder in every season of the Premier League era.
The results therefore didn’t speak of any transformative improvement. Instead, it merely suggested that a better coach was at the helm, demanding greater application aided by well-drilled shape and discipline.
What was still missing however, hopelessly so leading up to Christmas, and then crucially still in scant supply, thereafter, were two aspects that any self-respecting top-flight outfit need to get by, they being quality and fight.
A threadbare squad contributed to the first failing, most notably in attacking areas that desperately relied on a focal point in Dominic Calvert-Lewin who was unable to stay fit.
As for heart and grit, even with a renowned taskmaster such as Dyche in charge, and even amidst a relegation scrap, and even in front of fans who will bring the roof off at the sight of a wholly committed challenge, Everton looked resigned to fail throughout.
It was as if the players looked around the dressing room and knew they fell short. It was as if they had accepted a fate they were absolutely capable of subverting.
That doesn’t simply vanish via a summer hiatus, and that doesn’t alter via a ginger bloke shouting hoarsely at them on the training ground.
Real change is needed, a change in personnel. So entrenched is the malaise at the club, Everton must start from scratch.
It greatly concerns then that the Toffees are stony broke, so far recruiting only the ironically-named 38-year-old Ashley Young on a free, while losing a couple of their emerging teens who at least showed promise.
Which leads us to a likely scenario, that right now feels more probable than probable. That Everton’s forthcoming season will replicate their last.
Don’t look for them in the Premier League top four odds. Don’t even consider any form of resurrection that might see them compete even in the top half.
For theirs is a pre-season accompanied by the sound of gallows being constructed.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
