Everton’s 10-point deduction assessed as ‘surprise’ reaction emerges

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The wider media has been largely sympathetic towards Everton’s plight, given the severity of the landmark punishment they were dealt.

Having breached the division’s financial ruling, they rallied for a 12-point deduction before an independent commission saw fit to settle on ten. However, even that has left the club in uproar.

They feel that their transparency throughout what has been a challenging few years, was more than enough to merit some leeway, but the Premier League have remained staunch in their stance coincidentally as calls for an independent regulator intensify.

However, not every pundit has come out in defence of the Toffees in the same way as Duncan Ferguson, Kevin Campbell and Alan Myers have.

Speaking to TalkSPORT, Simon Jordan remained as pragmatic as ever whilst handing his verdict, starting by claiming: ‘These are the rules that you guys signed up for as members of the Premier League, if you want to change those rules you change them.

‘And then you move into the argument of the reality of who’s going to be doing what to whom and how. It’s very difficult to fathom how anyone can anticipate that three clubs are going to have any real reason.’

He then moves onto the financial implications of the decision: ‘First of all, the £20m loss, you’re right Jim it’s not admirable because it starts with the fact that the business has a ridiculous concept that you can actually be allowed to lose £105m, so every other industry governance says you should be a viable business, you should operate with the customer-facing perspective. Football says, this is the amount of money you’re allowed to lose as governance and beyond that Everton have gone way beyond it.

‘Now there’s a whole raft of other football clubs that have lost lots of money during that period of time predominantly because of COVID and loss of revenues, so there will all have lost big numbers of money. Everton’s was substantial and they’ve managed to get it down to a certain level, which was within 20% of the allowable amount.

‘I don’t think there’s a feeling of empathy or sympathy, I think there’s a feeling of surprise that the Premier League have A) had the balls to do it, and B) given it to the quantum they’ve given it.’

Will Everton get relegated with their points deduction?

Whilst in other years such a shocking deduction would certainly have doomed Everton to the drop, they are fortunate that this year there is a whole host of weak outfits to prop up the Premier League for them.

However, ever since losing those ten precious points, they have moved to joint-bottom of the league, where previously they had sat 14th and eight points clear of the relegation zone.

Regardless of the punishment, of which they are only won win away from moving back into a position of safety, the form Sean Dyche’s men had been exhibiting was set to easily keep them in the division after two years of devastating near-misses.

Having won six of their last nine in all competitions, and lost just once in their last five league matches, all signs suggested a continuation of that would help them ease to safety.

Should they instantly hop back out of the drop zone, which such recent results suggest, Everton will hopefully be able to ride out the storm and use it to propel them to a position of exceptional heights compared to recent years.