GRAEME SOUNESS: People thought I hated Everton but it breaks my heart to see them run into the ground – and here’s who the blame should come down to

It was another extremely tough week for Everton. On Monday their financial results showed they had doubled their losses last season to £89.1 million. On Tuesday they set a club record for games without a win in the Premier League.

Their supposed No. 1 forward, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, scored his first goal since October, 24 games ago, in the draw against Newcastle. And therein lies your problem in a nutshell. They don’t score enough goals. Only Sheffield United has scored fewer in the Premier League this season. Please look no further than that.

Due to my history and association with Liverpool Football Club, it could be perceived by some that I don’t like Everton. But I assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.

I lived in that city as a player for eight years and some of my good friends were Evertonians. Of course there was chatter – there always is in Liverpool – but I always wanted them to do well, as long as it wasn’t as good as Liverpool. It saddens me to see the state they are in now.

This club has given a masterclass in how not to recruit players. And why is that? Because of the scandalous way in which they were run into the ground by the top of the club.

The club’s total debt now stands at £330.6 million, but that doesn’t include the care packages offered by potential owners. 777 Partners

This club’s crisis boils down to total – and I mean total – mismanagement by those higher up the food chain. By that I of course mean owner Farhad Moshiri, who listens to the wrong so-called ‘football advisors/agents’ who tell him which footballers are worth playing for Everton. I cannot emphasize strongly enough the folly of following such bad advice. It has brought years of purgatory to one of our most prominent clubs.

The fact that Carlo Ancelotti, one of the sport’s most successful managers, made very little difference at Everton during his eighteen months in charge from 2019 highlights a point about running football clubs that I will say until I turn blue in the face is standing. : that recruiting good players is paramount. And that it can be even more important than getting the manager right.

Ancelotti then received a better offer from Real Madrid. (Everton or Real Madrid? Let me think about that for a moment.) The manager would have a big say in most things in my day, but now he is so dependent on the people above him doing their jobs well.

There will be a lively atmosphere again on Saturday afternoon, but how many more times can the club’s long-suffering fans be asked to provide the inspiration to boost the team?

I never felt there was a wave of new managers under Sean Dyche. He comes across very well in the media, but I think he found it very difficult to get a new tune out of those players. A lot of it is about trust. If you don’t score goals, you don’t win games and you don’t get defeated because you didn’t play well, it’s difficult to reverse this. People no longer believe they can win games.

When Everton lost from a winning position in another relegation battle at Turf Moor two years ago, Dyche told his Burnley players at half-time that Frank Lampard’s side ‘don’t know how to win’. That assessment continues to haunt him now that he manages many of those same Everton players.

Everton’s situation is the result of poor advice from chairman Farhad Moshiri

It is no wonder that one of football’s greatest coaches, Carlo Ancelotti, has struggled at the club

We have a unique situation during the last seven weekends of the season. Everton and Nottingham Forest could potentially make a run and think they have done enough to survive, only to be hit by decision-makers who feel they have broken the financial rules. Somehow the managers, staff and players have to maintain their focus. Good luck with that.

Many old friends of mine on Merseyside will be praying for the right result against Burnley, who are on a four-match unbeaten run. For such a football-mad city, it is so important that Everton retains its Premier League status. I think most Liverpudlians would agree that you don’t want them in the Championship.

Robson’s plans to develop players

My friend and longtime sparring partner Bryan Robson is involved in a project to educate players about financial pitfalls. I certainly see the need for the right messages to be conveyed.

So-called ‘investment opportunities’ have long been fraught with danger for players, but the large sums of money swirling around the game attract many of the wrong types.

When I was manager at Blackburn Rovers, an ex-player turned up on the training ground with some Americans selling a revolutionary coffee bean. I poked my head in the door as these guys were giving a presentation about this bean that was supposedly going to revolutionize the coffee industry.

Bryan Robson is involved in a project to educate players about potential financial pitfalls

“Are you really investing?” I have asked. I was surprised to find that one player had invested £30,000 based on the pitch from these snake oil salesmen. It was a huge scam.

I was lucky when I was a young player at Middlesbrough as I met an accountant, Gordon Brooks, twenty years my senior, who became a lifelong friend and had a huge influence on me not to spend beyond my means.

That said, when I was playing there weren’t the kind of influences on the edges that there are now. And we weren’t making the kind of generational change that these guys are making today.

The money these days changes the lives of players’ children and grandchildren, and that attracts some nasty people. I wish Bryan the best of luck in leading players away.