2009/10 to 2017/18

Everton played all nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League. Their best finish was 5th, in 2013/14. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £276m in transfer fees and took in £215.8m, a net spend of £60.2m. In 115.football they get City’s £900m instead.

Everton were the Premier League's most consistent best-of-the-rest. Every one of these nine seasons ended between fifth and 11th, with 72 points and fifth place in 2013/14 the peak. No trophies, no relegation scares, a lot of respectable afternoons.

The transfer record is the story of a selling club. Joleon Lescott and Jack Rodwell went to Manchester City, Marouane Fellaini to Manchester United in 2013, John Stones to City for £47.5m in 2016 and Romelu Lukaku to United for £75m in 2017. When big money finally went out, that same summer, it bought Gylfi Sigurðsson for £45m plus Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane and Davy Klaassen, and the team finished eighth.

The 115.football Everton save writes itself. Keep Lescott, Fellaini, Stones and Lukaku, spend City's money around them, and a club that kept finishing seventh has a real go at the top four and at ending a long wait for silverware.