‘Toxic’ - potential solutions to Everton crisis assessed amid ‘dysfunctional atmosphere’ struggles

Everton’s troubles at the current time have led to substantial backlash among the fan base.

The Toffees find themselves in another Premier League relegation dogfight, having narrowly stayed up last season. They sit joint-bottom of the table, having won just one league game in their past 11.

Supporters in their thousands stayed inside Goodison Park after last weekend’s dismal 2-1 loss to Southampton. They continue to demand majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri makes ‘sweeping changes’ to the Goodison Park hierarchy.

There are widespread calls for chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale to be replaced from their respective roles on the Everton board. The pair did not attend the Southampton game - along with chief finance officer Grant Ingles and non-executive director Graeme Sharp - because of what the club described as ‘a real and credible threat to their safety and security’.

There has been an allegation Barrett-Baxendale was ‘put in a headlock’ on a match day at Goodison. Merseyside Police has said it has had no formal complaint and Everton have since said it would not be commenting further on specific historic incidents and it has been resolved internally. 

Certainly, it’s not a pleasant situation around L4. And speaking to BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty - who hails from the city - broke down the current state of Everton he believes is ‘toxic’.

He said: “In all my years of covering Everton, I don’t know of a time when there was a more toxic and dysfunctional atmosphere.

“There have been some rough times as you know but when you look at that league table – 19 points in 15 games, three wins - that is a very serious situation and that is why fans are so concerned, not just about the present, but the future.”

McNulty suggested there were two options on the table for Moshiri; build a credible structure at the club and adopt a better strategy than the one that’s seen Everton struggle over the years or to sell up and go, but that plan requires someone to come in and take the club off his hands.

However, the most worrying part of it all is that neither look like happening anytime soon. As described by the McNulty, Everton seem to be ‘sinking like a stone’ with no salvation in sight.

McNulty added: “The football club has been run on such a dysfunctional basis and on the back of all of that they’ve wasted so much money in the transfer market.

“The arrival of a billionaire owner should have been a great opportunity for Everton to build something. Instead £500 million has been spent making the team far worse than it was when Moshiri arrived. It takes some doing that when you think about it.”