With Everton seemingly in crisis again and the season in a tailspin, is the past of another Premier League club going to be the future for the Blues?
The club I’m thinking of is Newcastle United and I fear that Everton are beginning to increasingly resemble the Tyneside club’s struggles, at least before their dramatic and controversial takeover this season.
Prior to that change in ownership, the Magpies had been a byword in the game for underachievement with a very unpopular owner who seemed less and less interested in the club and failed to invest in a team that bounced up and down from the Premier League to the Championship and back again.
As I’ve said before Toffees’ owner Farhad Moshiri hasn’t in the past been that sort of owner. He certainly wasn’t reluctant to spend anyway.
If anything you might argue he was perhaps too ready to splash the cash in a scattergun manner under a succession of managers who all spent freely and brought in a huge number of players over the past five years.
In fact, a few years ago the model the Blues’ seemed to be trying to follow was something like Tottenham Hotspur.
The north London club had managed to put together a competitive team on the pitch, which reached a Champions League final, and were in the process of building a brand new stadium.
Spurs have not had a smooth road recently. However, they have finally got that ground built and it’s one of the most impressive in Europe.
After perhaps mistakenly sacking Mauricio Pottechino and then having two managers who didn’t work out, they might be back on track on the pitch too.
First Jose Mourinho arrived (before inevitably that went wrong) and then Nuno Espirito Santo, heavily tipped for a while to be Everton’s next manager in the summer.
Now they have got Antonio Conte in and you would think with a coach of his calibre, they have a chance to break into the top four again and win something.
Meanwhile, Everton have gone backwards. Yes they’ve got the new stadium agreed and have started work on it, but on the pitch it’s been a hugely frustrating few years and things seem to be going on an inexerable slow, downward curve.