Ex-Everton Scout shares reason behind ‘demise’ as Premier League relegation claim made
Goodison News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent over eight years as a scout at Everton and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent six years on Tottenham’s recruitment team and 11 years scouting at Aston Villa across two different spells…
Bryan King believes Everton would have been relegated last season had they been handed a 10-point deduction.
The Goodison Park club were given the punishment this season for breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules.
The Toffees dropped from 14th place to 19th place in the table following the sanction, but have since climbed back to 16th place.
Speaking to Goodison News, King said: “I think last season they would have definitely gone down, without any shadow of a doubt. You’ve got three prime candidates at the moment – Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton. Everybody said before the season started that those three would be relegated.
“And it’s certainly opening up as though they will be relegated, because although they are starting to find their feet a little bit, it’s a long way to go to get yourself to playing Premier League football next year. For them it’s far easier to go down than it is to stay up.
“Look at the points tallies down at the bottom. If one of those clubs would have had a 10-point penalty, and Everton were on the same number of points, then I think they would have been in trouble.
“Everton are one of the few clubs that have never been relegated [from the Premier League]. It’s a special football club, they have a great history, and have had some wonderful players and managers. Their demise has come about because of bad recruitment.
“I’m going to be interested to see what happens to certain other clubs that are also coming under the scrutiny of Financial Fair Play.”
In other Everton news, a Nottingham Forest ace has sent a message to a Toffees star after what he did against Burnley.