Maguire: Everton braced for 'significant losses' and FFP anxiety amid stadium update
Everton are set for "significant losses" that may prove a stubborn obstacle in their quest to join the Premier League's elite.
That is according to finance expert and new Football Insider columnist Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively after Everton were granted planning permission for a new £500million stadium on the site of Merseyside's Bramley Moore Dock.
The club plans for the 52,000-seater arena to open to the public in time for the 2024-25 campaign, bringing with it vastly inflated matchday revenue.
Everton posted a club-record £139.9m shortfall for the last financial year and Maguire says he expects their accounts to continue in the red before they move to their new home.
As such, financial fair play issues might make it difficult for the Toffees to break the 'big six' hegemony, he warns.
"I'd anticipate significant losses," he told Football Insider correspondent Adam Williams.
"Then that brings Everton a separate problem which is compliance with financial fair play (FFP).
"Trying to bridge that gap between the big six and the rest is going to be expensive.
"Everton are one of a few mid-tier clubs. You could probably list those out as being Everton, West Ham, maybe Newcastle in terms of potential, although whether that potential is realised or not under Mike Ashley is a different question. Perhaps you could throw Wolves into the equation too, although their owners seem to have gone a bit cold.
"But there is still clear blue water between those clubs and the likes of Burnley, Sheffield United, Southampton and so on."
Majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri has not been shy in publicising his aims to transform Everton into a regular on the European stage.
His strategy is beginning to bear fruit too, with Everton five points outside the top four with a game in hand on all of the teams above them.