Speculate to relegate? The price of failure looms large over Everton

The losses at Everton have not just been confined to the pitch. With their Premier League status increasingly imperilled, they announced a third successive annual deficit of more than £100m thislast week. Rarely has so much been spent to accomplish so little and if some speculate to accumulate, the danger is that Everton have speculated to relegate.

A glimpse at a team with 15 defeats in 20 Premier League games can prompt questions about where the money has gone. Everton have the worst away record this season and the fewest points in the past six months even though around £550m has been spent on transfers during Farhad Moshiri’s largely ill-fated reign as owner.

The School of Science has scarcely specialised in mathematics. The numbers have not added up. If Everton’s 68-year stay in the top flight comes to an end, the signings will be a reason for a historic slide.

Alex Iwobi’s £28m fee makes him the fourth-most expensive arrival in Everton’s history and there was an element of understatement from the Nigerian when he was asked to describe his time at Goodison Park. “I feel it could always improve,” he says. There are more strident verdicts. He has been branded a waste of money.

But if Everton have had precious little return on their investment, Iwobi may have scored the most important goal of their season. His winner against Newcastle, when Everton were down to 10 men in a game delayed because a protester had tied himself to a goalpost, provoked such delirium that Frank Lampard broke his hand but did not notice at first. “It was crazy, the scenes were amazing,” Iwobi says. “It was one of those feelings you wish never disappears.”

If that strike may prove pivotal in keeping Everton up, three days later they lost 4-0 to