Nathan Patterson’s surprise transfer to Everton in January 2022 is reported to have forced the EPL into a full investigation of the financing of the club.
On Friday Everton had 10 points deducted from their total for this season for breaching Financial Fair Play.
While the Goodison Park side instantly announced that they would be appealing the decision it has also confirmed to Leeds United, Leicester City and Burnley that they were relegated up against a club that refused to play by the same set of rules.
Almost any price can be put on the cost of relegation from the EPL with Friday’s ruling and punishment kicking off a series of activities with attention on Chelsea and Manchester City over far bigger breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations.
Patterson’s transfer was mysterious from the start, being transferred to the EPL with just five starts and eight SPFL substitute appearances to his name there appeared little to interest other clubs other than the hype of the Scottish media.
Steve Clarke named James Tavernier’s understudy for the 2021 European Championships despite having no caps, he did make his full international debut in the defeat from Croatia when Scotland’s interest was dead and buried.
With four u-21 caps he was hardly knocking on the door although Police Scotland did that when he was caught enjoying a house party with Ibrox team-mates during Level 4 of Lockdown.
Everton seemed to be the only club interested in the Ibrox starlet but Rafa Benitez never turned up at Ibrox, partly because it was unlikely that Patterson would be playing.
The actual transfer fee was never disclosed, BBC Mersey were sticking with the undisclosed line while cheerleaders like Tom English were rattling on about £15m plus add ons. Almost two years on Patterson has started just 19 EPL matches fror Everton with Sean Dyche his third manager since moving south.
Picking up on a report from the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Record reports:
The decision has raised eyebrows across the game – with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher among defenders of Everton as he questioned why the Premier League did not step in to halt signings like Scotland defender Patterson.
The right-back left Rangers back in January 2022 and was named by the Commission among deals that had contributed to the £19.5million losses that saw Everton hit with the hefty sanction.
The Premier League were said to be pleased with the business conducted by the club during the summer of 2021 with Rafa Benitez bringing in Andros Townsend, Salomòn Rondòn and Demarai Gray for a combined total of £1.5million. But the spending in the following window – which included the additions of Patterson and Vitalii Mykolenko – is said to have “angered the Premier League sufficiently for a prosecution to occur.”
In the following summer, new boss Frank Lampard would be allowed to spend a combined £86million on recruits, and while the sales of Lucas Digne and Richarlison offset losses spending in 2022 was judged to have been “reckless” by Everton. A source told the Sunday Telegraph that the league felt they were “bending over backwards” for the Goodison club and continued spending from January 2022 “is what really pissed off the Premier League”.
The Patterson deal certainly had a Boumsong feel to it, with no other club showing interest a fee of around £3m would have been welcome at Ibrox.
With the EPL getting serious on FFP there could be a terrible price for Everton to pay with the EPL braced for serious compensation claims from clubs that suffered for sticking to the rules.
In Scotland there is no FFP rules, next month Aberdeen will play in a cup final against a club that is overpaying their players around £2m a month.
