Everton may well be starting to turn their season around, having won their last two games across all competitions, but the turmoil surrounding the club cannot be overshadowed.
Farhad Moshiri clearly wants out, and upon agreeing to offload the Toffees to 777 Partners, has brought about even more questions regarding who the company is, which boasts a far-reaching footballing network spanning numerous clubs across Europe.
Few believe the Iranian's claim that "I firmly believe they are the best partners to take our great Club forward," with his disinterest in the Merseyside outfit well-documented. The money has dried up, and with the various financial manoeuvres taken slowly becoming overwhelming, his is a position swiftly becoming untenable.
Fans will welcome his exit, but preferably to an ownership that can confidently take the historic institution into a brighter future.
After all, the businessman has hardly enjoyed a stellar seven years on Merseyside since acquiring a 49.9% stake back in 2016. His tenure is one littered with huge transfer blunders, even bigger managerial missteps and a current FFP crisis that has hamstrung their last few transfer windows. The only saving grace is the shiny new stadium slowly creeping up on the riverfront, which is admittedly quite the legacy to leave.
Focusing on transfers though, and that side of his legacy is one many will rush to forget.
Who is Everton's worst-ever signing?
In their desperate attempt to return Everton to the apex of English football, significant fees were spent over many years, and in support of many managers.
Ronald Koeman was the first to enjoy the financial backing of Moshiri, spending big on the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Yannick Bolasie, Jordan Pickford and Michael Keane. Whilst the Dutchman set the club back by nearly a decade with his thoughtless investments, as arguably only three of his 17 acquisitions proved to be successes, Marco Silva would fare little better.
The current Fulham boss did bring Richarlison to Goodison Park, who developed into a true hero for the Toffees, but aside from that the likes of Yerry Mina, Fabian Delph and Jean-Philippe Gbamin were all lucrative failures who saw careers ravaged by injuries.
Moise Kean was another expensive risk, whilst the free transfer of Bernard actually saw them lose out significantly once again, as the Brazilian drained the club with his huge wages.
However, it could actually be argued that one of the club's worst signings came courtesy of the manager who emerged in between those two, as Sam Allardyce was employed to help them avoid the drop despite that being far from a threat, having amassed 15 points as of his November appointment.
Although the 68-year-old would be dismissed in the following summer, Moshiri still saw fit to allow the experienced tactician to spend big in January, welcoming two key figures. Cenk Tosun, the more expensive of the two, still stands as a truly mind-boggling acquisition who fans today still wonder what his outstanding characteristics were.
2022/23 (Finished 17th)
€78.2m (£67.6m)
2021/22 (Finished 16th)
€39.50 (£34.1m)
2020/21 (Finished 10th)
€74.37m (£64.3m)
2019/20 (Finished 12th)
€121m (£104.7m)
2018/19 (Finished 8th)
€99.8m (£86.3m)
2017/18 (Finished 8th)
€203.2m (£175.8m)
2016/17 (Finished 7th)
€86m (£74.4m)
Not particularly strong or physical, he lacked any real pace or sharp movement, and thus rarely found enough space to showcase the lethal finishing that was promised.
As such, the Turkey international would feature just 61 times, scoring 11 before a string of loan spells emphasised his dwindling first-team influence.
Journalist Aaron Sharp even poked fun at the 32-year-old, highlighting a lack of work ethic too, as if to exacerbate an already-maligned striker: "Tosun’s work off the ball is awful. Can Yerry Mina play up front?"
Given the Colombian actually departed Merseyside with only two fewer goals than the 6-foot flop, it was not actually that crazy of a notion. He has since returned to the comfort of his homeland, which seems to be the only place where the underwhelming dud can consistently perform.
How much did Everton pay for Cenk Tosun?
Having worked his way up through the Eintracht Frankfurt academy of all places, the 49-cap finisher would gladly take up the chance to move home, joining Gaziantepspor for just €400k (£346k). A string of fine performances caught the attention of Turkey's elite, with Besiktas willing recipients of the forward.
A fine tally of 20 goals in just 33 Super Lig appearances across his final full year there clearly caught the eye, and with a touch of European pedigree too, they slapped a huge £27m price tag on him.
Naturally, Everton would pay it, with the frontman failing to live up to anywhere near the hype that such a figure provoked.
What was Cenk Tosun's salary at Everton?
Such a large outlay was bound to command an equally lofty salary, but to tie him down to a long-term contract was a show of faith that has since backfired dramatically.
After all, bringing someone from the Turkish league hardly merited a £60k-per-week deal to tempt them to join the best league in the world.
But, such was the foolishness of Moshiri at the time, he would gladly offer such a figure. On top of that initial transfer fee paid, he has also been forced to unload £14.55m on wages, bringing the total expenditure up to £41.55m.
Did Cenk Tosun deserve to earn £60k-per-week?
Unsurprisingly, for a striker who could not score, Tosun was not good value for the wage offered.
In fact, to use that aforementioned figure to emphasise the failures of the floundering marksman, given he scored just 11 times, that meant the club were forced to unload a whopping £3.7m for every goal he scored.
A truly terrible return, such a statistic helps to properly outline the scale of such failure, and the financial drain caused by such a clueless signing.
How much has Cenk Tosun earned in his career so far?
Tosun's is a career that has not been all bad though, with a fine record in his homeland noted earlier.
Across 187 appearances with Besiktas, the club to which he is most affiliated, the former Crystal Palace loanee has recorded an admirable 86 goals, assisting a further 23.
It seems that the quality levels of the Super Lig suit the sluggish star more than the all-action Premier League, and as such his €32.6m (£28.2m) total career earnings are somewhat merited. However, it will sting that a large chunk of that figure has come from Everton, who saw little return on his acquisition.