When Farhad Moshiri ploughed £85 million into Everton last year, he probably didn't realise that he was in the process of striking just one more parallel between the Merseysiders and Manchester City.
City, whose own takeover shook the foundations of football in 2008, have a great deal in common with their near neighbours from the city of Liverpool. It isn't just the colour of the shirts and those of their main rivals that count, but that does give a clue to the mutual trauma the clubs have experienced in modern times.
There has always been a kind of thinly stretched affinity between City supporters and the Blues of Merseyside, despite the feelings of competitive edge engendered by the two northern industrial bulwarks of Manchester and Liverpool.