In the end it was decreed that it was the football that had got Everton into this sorry mess.
Not the costs of a new stadium, the collapse of a naming rights deal or the impact of the Covid pandemic. No, it was the football.
Everton had — according to the Premier League and now underlined by an independent ruling commission — spent money on players they could not really afford in the hope they would take them up the league table and into the money positions. Or, at the very least, would be balanced by player sales further down the line.