I don’t know what kind of formulae they used, other than the Lazarus phenomenon.

I lived there in the mid to late nineties, In Both Brighton and Hove, both my Children were born there.
They literally hadn’t got a pot to piss in.

The board sold the Goldstone Grounds to Property Developers, to pay off depts, without securing a new Home.

They played in Withdean Sadium ( an athletics field), for a while and then they ended up Ground sharing with Gillingham, with supporters having to make a 150 mile round trip.

The Irony of this is, if some of their supporters was the same age as myself ( 70!), they probably aren’t alive today, to witness the Lazarus effect and live the Dream, that they surely wished for.
Let’s hope that some of us senior types, can see success for the Blues a lot quicker.

Interesting Club, Brighton. Highly successful business, and the fans know their place. I'm sure though all clubs are thinking 'we need to wheel and deal more like Brighton',

Easier said than done.

We're all trying to buy low and sell high. Before we get around to that though, we've got other fish to fry in my view. So many other things need fixing at Everton. We need new owners. And for those new owners to be ambitious and competent. Just those things fixed would be a massive step forward. And then we need to get around to the coaching, and the facilities. Long term stuff.

But even if we were to get there, I don't think Brighton is the model for us. Everyone there knows the deal. they buy top kids, give them free rein, drill them, let them make their mistakes. And sell them 18 months down the line. That sort of system is just never going to fly here. We don't tolerate players making mistakes consistently whilst. they settle in, and we want to hold onto our good players for as long as possible. I think Villa is more where we need to head towards.

Do you think that if our club, had a real thought out plan and it involved young players making mistakes because they were getting played instead of consistently sitting on the bench that people wouldn’t buy into it Kevin?

Interesting thought, I’d definitely prefer this rather than what I’ve witnessed during the last however many frustrating seasons, but yes I’d prefer to be like Villa, who have not long won a decent European trophy and are playing in the champions league again this season

I think they'd be all for it in pre season Tony. Any more than two defeats in the season proper cos the kids were playing it around on the six yard box and there'd be grumblings in my view. the commentary would switch, there would be lots of admiring talk about other players at other clubs who get by cos they know what they are doing. we'd be 'naive' and 'wide open'.

It's a business model that works. No PSR or SCR issues. Paying your way with a small stadium and fans base. If you get to a stage where you can keep players for a season longer at a time, you climb the table. Brighton made Europe last season. They're well on track to make Europe again this season. Not bad going in my book.

Robert w great article.Brighton aren’t a fairytale. They’re a system: smart recruitment, good coaching, selling at the right time, planning ahead. They sell because they have to, their revenue can’t pay top wages.

Everton’s ceiling is higher. New stadium, bigger fanbase, better commercial potential, TFG stabilising the finances. Get close to Brighton’s recruitment and development standards and “Brighton-plus” is realistic, a proper top-half/European side, not Man City.

But it won’t happen automatically. We’re trying to build this while cleaning up years of financial mess, PSR chaos and squad neglect. The stadium and new recruitment setup are needed, but they’re not enough.

The real problem is culture. Years of survival mode have built little empires. Departments protect turf, info gets hoarded, short-term fixes beat long-term planning, and hard calls, selling a favourite, backing data over the manager, sticking with a long-term hire after a bad run, gets quietly blocked.

So the real test isn’t the stadium opening or one good window. It’s whether we can make and stick to unpopular long-term decisions for two or three windows.

Do that, and the ceiling is high. Don’t, and extra revenue just buys a more expensive version of the same old Everton.

Villa have decided to sue Jamie Carragher for saying that they will never be as big as Utd. Is that how thin skinned clubs have become? Are we all becoming so insular, so parochial, so petty, that every opinion, every grievance, is now something to go to court over?

Villa have done well in recent seasons, and are a club on the up. They are obviously being well ran as a club. But how quickly do they think they will improve, that they will be on a par with how Utd are viewed? How big a history do villa think they have?

If someone said that about us, it would rankle a little, but I could see where that person was coming from.

By all means, don't limit what you think you can achieve. By all means don't lower your expectations, your standards, or how you see yourself as a club. But, have some sense of reality, have some sense of where you are compared to Utd, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich.

Robert, whilst Brighton have been well run and have similar numbers to Everton currently, they have spent more to achieve their placement whilst Everton have not and do not gave many if any academy players who will step up in the current or future season. But one has to acknowledge their recruitment plan has cycled through a number of seasons to get where it is today and it's worked. For them.
But we are not Brighton. Our pinnacle must surely be far higher than the best of the rest mantle they wear, one I might add we used to regularly be labeled with under Moyes.
We are seen by many as a big club badly managed struggling to get back to lofty heights, not merely achieving also rans once more.
Perhaps you could veiw it as a stepping stone on the way to better things but the comparison is flawed from the size of club, supporter base, world class stadium, and last but not least, ambition. We crave to break the glass ceiling not merely arrive at it.
A different strategy is required I agree but one focused on breaking the cartel, not getting a better view throw the glass!

I asked someone about what had happened Kieran, and they told me Carragher, was alluding that United, should just go and get the manager from Villa.

He seems a clever man, Emri, which makes me think he wouldn’t touch the present Manchester United, with a barge-pole, and if it wasn’t for SCR, I genuinely think he would actually have a lot more chance of winning the league with his current club?

The bigger issue is that it sounds like Aston Villa, have assumed that Carragher, is basically saying if United come, “they should just know their place” and whilst I don’t agree with taking someone to court over words, I’m glad that little old Villa, are getting an apology from someone who is one of the best pundits around, according to his equally boring and self entitled, sidekick.

Breaking the glass ceiling and the cartel, Christine, seems to be getting harder and harder to do. City cheated but looking at Newcastle, it looks like it was the only way to gain consistent success, unless you should just know and accept your place!

Tony, God help me I'm tired and can't sleep, my fingers aren't even hitting the right letters on my tablet but you're right, somehow the current cartel has to end, be it the demise of the SCR or even the Premier league itself, just about every club apart from city is in huge debt and it's a bubble that will burst unless the league or the clubs have different rules because it's not sustainable, never mind fair.
You can't dumb down the top six by leveling the playing field, you can't wait for others to bridge the gap. This is why the penalties city face have to be severe, failure to relegate leaves the status quo intact radical change in some form has to happen, regulate spending caps for all clubs each season to 100m irrespective of wealth.. somehow things have to change. But how is the question.

For almost all my years supporting Everton the Club have been managed badly. As a consequence we have stumbled from one crisis to the next and in recent years we must have come very close to an ultimate disaster. By some miracle we now have a wonderful stadium and with new wealthy owners we seemed to be on the road to stability. Sadly that scenario did not last long and we are up for sale with our owners simply acting as caretakers.
Until the ownership situation is resolved any talk of progress is just wishful thinking.

Brighton have and are doing well recently, but nothing stays the same for long.
Their recruitment has worked out well and my choice from 3 months back their manager in place of Moyes, isn't doing too bad either, fair play to them.

Recruitment in my opinion is the most important part of a club, you can have all the money in the world, a very good manager, but sign the wrong players and you wont prosper.
Look at the money Moshiri squandered on players, probably not all his fault by any means, that was more down to the 'experts' he surrounded himself with.

It's a bit of a vicious circle though, you need to be doing well to attract the right players but you need quality players to do well!

david @ 11 yeah I agree until we get new ownership that have ambition for everton to progress its all a bit 'pie in the sky'.as for good recruitment and development of young players well lets just say we are a bit hit and miss in those departments !
oh and don't put everton and crisis in the same sentence - I did last week and a certain RT came back with crisis what crisis as we were joint 6th and in place for european competition. amazing as we had only played 7 league games then !
a great win on thursday lets keep it up but with a small squad its gonna be tough

To those of us in some denial that we're close to crisis point I just want to point out that having won only one of last seven games only Hull and Sunderland have won none.

A brilliant piece, Robert, very well argued, and encouraging, as it offers us Evertonians hope for the future.

But my reading of our situation is that EFC under the Friedkins, and even to a lesser extent before them, has already been trying to do the same as Brighton.

As you say, the strategy needs patience and I reckon the Friedkins were planning to be owners for longer than two years. But various developments in the football world in 2026 have snapped their patience and now they are selling.

However, I don't think this strategy has been working out at EFC as well as it might have done. David Moyes has many strengths but, as a manager, I don't think he is the best fit for this strategy. Hopefully he will prove me wrong.

Finally, regards Everton following the Brighton model, who was heavily involved in the success of this on the south coast from 2019 to 2025, but our former club captain David Weir. Everton that?

Philip #13'and Don# 14 Everton are not only in crisis with a small squad and one wayward player l.Grealish is on full pay less fines till the Summer and the end of his contract, which has no get out clause

TFG have done what they can do without challenging the club culture.On the first stage their Head of Tech said that soon after TFG took control of the Club.

There only foray was into recruitment on the football side , because they needed to make a trading profit.With the Multi Club Rules. They can't claim the valuations they would need to push the Club on further.

That would entail a next stage development of the infrastructure and the football side They decided to sell after their proposed model to comply with the Multi Culture Rules was rejected by FIFA in August.

Brighton started with a stable base and a culture ready and keen to go forward.Everton are some way off that..

Aston Villa are right to sue Carragher, they are challenging Liverpool's position..

Man U are five years behind Everton on a similar journey.Everton are not quite the basket case they are.

Great article Robert.

Brighton unearth young, hidden gems and then sell them on for significant profit to reinvest.

They profit because they play the young talent they recruit - 46% of their minutes last season went to players aged 24 or younger, and the club are seeing the benefit of that now. They have a plan and implement it.

The coach role is interchangeable in their model as their football operations are so good; we are led to believe that we stand or fall on the experience and wisdom of our manager.

We signed 7 young players - Dibling, Barry, George, Rohl, Hackney, Alcaraz, Aznou - and Moyes parked them on the bench for a season to “watch and learn.”

Not FiFA, but UEFA.

Just to clarify my point on reduced valuation

According to Paul the Esk:

UEFA's rejection did not just remove a hypothetical benefit. It withdrew committed capital. Everton had around £100m set aside for the summer window on the understanding that TFG's multi-club solution would be acceptable to UEFA. Once UEFA rejected it, that money was "turned off"—the taps were shut. TFG then spent only about £11.2m on permanent additions.

A decent manager helps as well.

Post 14, want to reconsider crisis/denial comment as 7th in league now? Pathetic mentality

Some people incessantly moan about Moyes but if we had someone like Nicholas Jackson (£60m) up front instead of a £25m development player we'd be absolutely flying and nailed on for european qualification.

What are the barriers for Everton to repeat it?

1. The fans don't like top players being sold. Needs have must, but there is an unease that funds will be recycled onto the pitch, nor the quality will be brought in.

2. The players inevitably have to fight to leave. Plenty of left, fighting their way out. Players leaving cheap seems to be another issue. Fairly easy to solve for by having release clauses built into the deals.

3.squad size. A buy to sell policy must have some stock coming through. It has been improved, but is a country mile behind.

4. Brand of football. Park the bus football isn't going to take emerging players to Real Madrid. Theyre going to clubs, with a front foot of football.

5. Finance. To sell big, you need to paying out a lot more than we do. We don't spend enough on the £5m to £20m space and build them on loan. And we don't have enought £30m to £50m players one to keep and one to sell.

6. Technical players. I often look at some of our signings, and think what the hell were you thinking. Far too many have been slow and poor technique. That could be our standing in football, or just that we don't know what good is anymore.