Phil Jagielka asks if Premier League wants to relegate Everton amid appeal wait
Former Everton star Phil Jagielka has questioned whether the Premier League are trying to relegate his former club.
The Toffees, who have spent more seasons in the top flight than any other team, are currently in the relegation zone due to their 10-point deduction. Sean Dyche's side would be sitting comfortably in 12th place if those points hadn't been deducted.
As Everton await the outcome of their appeal against the decision - which it's understood was concluded on February 2 - Jagielka has voiced concerns about potential bias against the club.
Speaking on talkSPORT, the ex-Blues skipper said: "I can see why they (the fans) think that way. I can't believe that there's only one club that's ever made bad decisions financially since the Premier League started.
“There’s only one team that’s been deducted points. I don’t know the ins and outs and whether the rules have changed blah, blah, blah, but if other clubs have got away with it, you can’t say it’s still pending, these investigations are pending for 25 years, who is going to care what’s gone on?
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“It’s got to be done within a timeframe and it seems that for whatever reason someone has decided that this was going to happen very sharpish.”
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Jagielka, when asked if he thinks Everton are being treated unfairly compared to others, said: "It seems like they are but we don't know enough information where maybe 95 of Man City's counts were done before they changed the rules because they don't give us enough information, they don't really let us know. All we're left to do is speculate.
"Evertonians are going to feel victimised as will Forest fans if Forest get points deducted and they end up going down or someone else does. I was at Derby and stuff was done wrong and it was points after points after points.
"In the end, the Football League made sure Derby got relegated. And whether they meant to or didn't mean to, you can't deduct 20 odd points and expect a team to survive and say you can't pay your players more than x amount and that x amount probably isn't enough to field a League Two or even a top Conference team.
"You're basically saying in a roundabout way that you've done wrong, now you're going to pay the price which is automatically going to be relegation. It seems like something quite similar when you look what's going on at Everton."
Former captain Phil Jagielka questions the motives behind Everton's points deduction on talkSPORT (talkSPORT)Jagielka also questioned why Everton have been punished so harshly with a points deduction for a single breach greater than the nine that Portsmouth had taken off them for going into administration in 2009-10.
He said: "I knew it wasn't a great situation before the points (deduction). Obviously there's been a financial strain on the club for a little while now, selling their best players, selling their young lads to try and make the FFP (Financial Fair Play).
"When I heard there was going to be 10 points, which is a significant amount of points when you're talking about the Premier League, it's not a 46-game season, 10 points is a lot, especially considering that Everton have only survived literally the last game of the season and then two games from the end the year before that.
"They got galvanised, the team did well and got themselves out of it but then you open the newspaper or listen to the radio and you realise that there is potentially more points on the horizon. I don't know what's going on, I don't know how and who comes up with the ideas of how many points and how quickly this has been done.
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"There have been plenty of other teams who have supposedly bent the rules slightly or more than slightly shall we say over the course of the years but that's never been sorted or figured out. All of a sudden, Everton have been given 10 points and Forest, who have been in the Premier League no time at all, and all of a sudden they're on the radar as well.
"Something's not right. I presume some rules must have been broken for Everton to accept it but it's tough times."
Jagielka admitted that Everton's financial problems are down to the squandering of huge amounts of money during Farhad Moshiri's ownership of the club. The Blues' now wantaway majority shareholder has churned his way through eight managers in as many years and spent big on a number of flops during his time on Merseyside.
Jagielka added: "Part of it was happening towards my last year or two. You've got to understand what your club is and what your club gives to the league and where you should be.
"The owners came in at Chelsea and similar at Manchester City again, and they were able to flex their muscles and literally go and buy a team that was going to challenge for the top of the division. When Everton's money came around, there were already five or six teams who were plenty good enough to win the Premier League, when Chelsea and Manchester City did it there was probably one or two and Liverpool weren't the Liverpool that we're looking at now, it was Man United, Arsenal or whatever.
"They just spent the money in the wrong places. They tried to buy people without probably doing their homework."
"When I was at Everton, I think they called David Moyes 'Dithering Dave' but I think the reason he was so dithering was because he cared so much about the squad and we didn't have much money. It was all about making sure we not only got a player who was going to perform on the pitch but the right characters in the dressing room as well."
"That made your team. You had individuals that would win you games but the core squad and the core team would make your season was a successful one."
"It just drifted, drifted, drifted and before you know it they're sacking managers left, right and centre, releasing players, we're selling people you don't want to sell and that's purely down to mismanagement of the money."
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