Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear has revealed that the Friedkin Group viewed their first full season in charge as a failure after the club's miserable finish cost it a place in Europe.
The Blues entered the final weeks of the campaign in the hunt for European football, but a run of seven winless matches ended with them finishing in 13th place.
Kinnear said that outcome was viewed with disappointment at the Friedkin Group's Houston headquarters given the strides forward that had been made before that collapse.
Owners' verdict: 'They viewed it as a failure'
Asked how Everton's owners assessed the season, Kinnear told BBC Radio Merseyside: "They viewed it as a failure because it was a failure. They knew we put ourselves in a really good position and I think they were excited that we put ourselves in that position."
Stressing that he and the Blues' ownership are ambitious, he said: "I think most fans, even the most ambitious fans, would have accepted that, if we had said that at half-time at Sunderland we could be in a Europa League spot in the last home match of the season they would have felt that was probably projecting to be a good season.
"But the Friedkins are winners. They want to win and we didn’t win anything. We didn’t achieve what we wanted to achieve. So there has been appropriate pressure this summer to make sure we have everything in place to go to the next stage and, whilst they don’t speak publicly, what I can say is 90% of my conversations with them are not about revenue generation and ownership structures… they are about how do we win more football matches, they have bought Everton to win football matches."
Season targets: Europe and cup success
That desire runs through the heart of the goals set for this season, Kinnear said, in a wide-ranging interview.
On the target for the upcoming campaign, which begins at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday, he said: "There are two things. European football, we have shown, is eminently achievable, because we came so close. When we inherited the club I think we had 12 players under contract so last summer the rebuild was really challenging. The club had relied on too many loan players, probably too many older players and there was significant work to be done.
"This summer the work is still significant, but I think we are in a better place, we are coming off a higher base so everybody is thinking about how we mount a challenge for Europe and don’t fade in the last critical matches.
"And the second thing, which I talked about last summer and was a well-discussed failure, is I think to get the club back on the right trajectory we need some cup success. Newcastle, Crystal Palace, have shown that it is achievable of clubs who are ambitious but [where] winning a Premier League or winning a European cup is hard. We have definitely had discussions with ownership and with David [Moyes] about how we use the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup to give something for the fans to really cheer and get behind and be proud of."
A much-changed Everton side was dumped out of the Carabao Cup at struggling Wolves last season, while a penalty shoot-out defeat at home to Sunderland meant the first FA Cup game to be held at Hill Dickinson Stadium ended in disappointment - though Moyes was in the midst of a selection crisis caused by injuries, suspensions and the Africa Cup of Nations at the time.
Moyes under pressure, contract not discussed
The Blues boss, it appears, enters the campaign under pressure to deliver genuine progress. That is despite uncertainty over his future given he is in the final year of his current deal. Kinnear said an extension had not been discussed but added attention - at the manager’s request - was on building for the new season.
He said: "The whole focus of this summer has been, and it has been at David’s request, about getting the squad in the right place for the start of the season so we haven’t discussed a new contract. David is very happy. I think he had a brilliant first six months when he steered the club away from relegation.
"I think last year, we were all bitterly disappointed by the way the season finished, but there were some real signs of recovery and signs of potential and I know David believes that this season he can go one step further and achieve something really tangible on the pitch."
In order to achieve that, work has been ongoing in the transfer window. Tyrique George and Merlin Rohl, both on loan last season, have been signed on permanent deals while Hayden Hackney, Brennan Johnson and Christian Norgaard have also arrived.
Moyes, who broke his summer silence in an interview with Sky Sports that was broadcast on Monday, projected an image of frustration at the business signed off so far. He said: "We’re still needing quite a few players to add to the squad. I’d like to do more if possible, we need to see how the remaining few weeks go."
He added: "I’m pleased with the players we’ve brought in. You have to remember that two of them were already here last year, so we’ve just made them permanent.
"I think it will take Hayden a little bit of time to adapt from the Championship to the Premier League, which quite often it does with players coming from the Championship. Christian is very experienced and will help us replace Idrissa Gueye, but unfortunately he’s injured at the moment.
"Brennan has just come in on the back of the swap deal for Dwight (McNeil). So, look, we’re putting things together but we certainly feel behind the scenes that we’ve got a long way to go and need to do an awful lot more."
Kinnear, in contrast, sounded more positive about the business to date, stating: "I think the squad’s in a really good place. We’re really happy about the players we’ve brought in. We think they’re all upgrades and we think they strengthen the squad significantly. We’re delighted they all wanted to be at Everton.
"There’s still a lot to be done. I think we’re in a good place. We’re not behind where we thought we would be. It’s always our objective to get our business done early but the challenge is to get the absolute best players we can in the position. So our metric is by the close of the transfer windows we’ve achieved that and got the best player in the position."
Right-back issue and Grealish link
The CEO sought to provide reassurance that the longstanding issue of right-back would be solved though he accepted "we would have liked to have got it done earlier".
Kinnear said: "I don’t think we’re in a bad position on that. The options we thought we had available are still available to us. I don’t think they're going to be there for our first game against Crystal Palace, which was the objective, but I think the idea is we have the very best player for that position come the end of the window."
And on a potential return for Jack Grealish, he said: "Jack is a player we have remained in contact with. It was no secret that he decided to have his rehabilitation done here for the remainder of last season, when he didn’t have to do that, he could have gone back to Man City. I think he is a player who has fallen in love with the right shade of blue but ultimately he is a Manchester City player at the moment, we need to respect that.
"All I do know is that the supporters and the team embraced him, treated him as if he was one of our own, and that gave us a very good platform to have a longer term conversation with him but at the moment, as you have seen - the most important thing is he is back, he is fit, he had a very serious injury, he has worked really hard to get back from that so I was delighted to see that he got some minutes at the Community Shield at the weekend."
