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It really is that extreme, with the club potentially weeks from administration.

Even on the football side, few are exactly happy, which sums up the modern Everton.

Everton couldn't assert the same control in that world, and the most relevant truth right now is that it has ensured their finances have spun out of control.

Despite that, and the morass of confusing details in their ongoing PSR cases, it is possible to track the club’s demise and how all of these modern issues became intertwined and influenced each other.

Everton fans protesting after receiving a points deduction from the Premier League (Getty Images)

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Put bluntly, the Premier League was a huge factor in making football a financial arms race.

There’s an argument that it was the most self-defeating and frustrating pursuit in English football history, which inevitably led to common criticisms that Everton have been “the worst run club in the country”.

Even when they admittedly got close, such as with Romelu Lukaku under Roberto Martinez, it just meant that wealthier clubs immediately took their best players.

It’s galling to imagine what Everton could have been had they taken the decision to adopt a model like Brighton’s a decade ago, but that would have involved accepting some hard truths.

Instead, they threw themselves head first into the Premier League’s maddening wage race, to the point salaries have occupied more than 80 per cent of their budget.

That is how they have become this hub for the most recent Premier League issues, from the debates about competitive balance to regulation.

It should be an indictment of modern football that a club of this stature can be viewed in this way in any situation, but especially after receiving billions from Premier League broadcast income over three decades.

Now, the Premier League would argue it’s not their job to ensure Everton don’t go out of business but, given how there should be inter-dependency among all clubs, if one club goes, it’s damaging to football generally.

“Any owners should be the custodians of their own club, but the Premier League have to be the custodians of the game.
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