Great debate lads. I have massive doubts if a manager alone could break it but I certainly hope that's the case (because otherwise we are SOL).
I know a lot of people's eyes glass over when anyone mentions a sport other than football ... BUT ...
Baseball. Interminably boring roided-up rounders it may be but it manages to have some non-rich teams succeed in a way we don't really see in the PL.
Yes it has playoffs but it also has 162 regular season games and less playoff spots than most US sports. In other words the chances of a poor team just getting lucky over a 162 game sample is fairly low.
It has massive disparity in terms of rich teams v. poor. Maybe not quite as much as the PL but still massive compared with the NFL. I believe at some points in history you've had "they spend more on one player than this other team does on its entire roster" type situations.
It does have a draft which helps poor teams (although it's less valuable in baseball than some other sports).
What it has had over the last 10-15 years especially is a couple of teams (A's and Rays in particular) with a massive organizational-wide commitment to statistical analysis and data-driven decisions.
Unfortunately (since it is so prevalent in US sports now) it means most of the big PL teams use this stuff as well. But there may still be a chance there to find some advantages.
If we had a plan and decided to spend heavily on this area (to the point where we'd pump crazy money ... 5-10m* into that division and it would mean we'd be doing that rather than signing a player) it might be an edge.
I know not many will agree but that's just my take on what might work v. hoping we manage to get two years out of the next Mourinho before he inevitably just buggers off to Barca or Chelsea.
If winning cups get us into CL then it would be another story. But, alas, the CL club wanted to keep the access to the cup to themselves. The best way for Everton to get into CL might be buying out a no-name Welsh team and try to prop it up with our B team.
Holy crap I love that idea and am disturbed I never thought it up myself.
Obviously it's a massive a-hole move but maybe it would start a conversation about the Champions League and how more teams from the leagues which make the Champions League possible (as such a massive competition) should have a chance to compete.
Most of the teams in the CL are not champions. So that's already established.
Are we and Spurs better than most of the teams in the early qualifiers? Yes.
Not saying you'd dump the Welsh (and similar countries) Champs out. Just one more round of qualifiers maybe.
* Yes I know we have no money.
