The Farhad Moshiri era has been marred by overspending on disappointing talent.
To put it mildly, Farhad Moshiri’s seven years as the football team’s owner have been turbulent.
Their decline to the bottom of the Premier League table has been attributed to record-breaking transfers, relegation struggles, and a plethora of managerial dismissals. Although their move to a cutting-edge stadium in 2024 may lift their spirits, it may have the opposite effect if the Toffees are already a Championship team by then.
The Toffees have narrowly avoided relegation in recent campaigns, so unless Sean Dyche works some sort of miracle, another struggle to stay in the league is likely.
Unfortunately, their continual errors of judgement in the transfer market—the price they pay for spending outrageous sums of money on underwhelming talent—have been the primary cause of their downward spiral.
A number of players, including but not limited to Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Sandro Ramirez, Yannick Bolasie, Davy Klaasen, and Cenk Tosun, have highlighted the utterly poor transfer policy that Moshiri has implemented since taking over.
The additions of Bolasie and Morgan Schneiderlin in 2016–17 were the catalyst for this trend, and Everton has ultimately been the victim of wasting money away on talent that promised so much.
The background behind Everton’s signing of Morgan Schneiderlin
In January 2017, Everton acquired the defensive midfielder from Manchester United for a reported £24 million, bringing him back together with his former Southampton manager Ronald Koeman.
For a comparable amount, the Frenchman first moved from St Mary’s to Old Trafford in 2015, but under Jose Mourinho, he had difficulty breaking into the starting lineup.
His poor performance in maintaining his spot in the matchday squad and his paltry 47 appearances for the club may have hinted at how his career would ultimately unfold.
Schneiderlin left the team under difficult circumstances and subsequently disclosed that he “lost himself as a player” at Man United for a variety of reasons, but that his biggest disappointment was the expectations made by manager Louis van Gaal at the time.
“It wasn’t just the manager’s fault, it was also my fault,” he declared.
It was a different function from what I had at Southampton.
My game felt constrained to me.
They seemed to want to alter something about me. I was thinking about what the coach would be happy with, not about myself.
“After you get to that stage, you don’t play freely with every pass you make or action you do. Something made it impossible for me to be who I was. I was so eager to undertake well and it is one of the most frustrating things ever.”
Having lost himself at one of the biggest clubs in the world, the Frenchman struggled to recapture the form that saw him burst onto the scene at Southampton as a youngster, and pay back the original price tag with exceptional performances.
Morgan Schneiderlin’s statistical record at Everton
Schneiderlin arrived at Everton when Ronald Koeman was spearheading their charge towards Europe and he would have expected the 27-year-old, at the time, to become the anchor of their ship.
A tough-tackling defensive midfielder with a sublime passing range, Schneiderlin boasted the desirable ingredients for a European charge in the Dutchman’s possession-based style.
The 6 foot 1 anchorman had previously showcased an ability to recycle possession for his team, caress line-breaking passes through to his attackers and read the game superbly to sniff out danger.
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