In the five years since Farhad Moshiri became majority shareholder at Everton the investment has been heavy and it has been sustained.
Some £450m has been invested by Moshiri through his Blue Heaven Holdings Ltd company into Everton with Moshiri knowing that in order for the club to fully realise the potential that the 52,888-seater Bramley Moore Dock stadium could offer they have to close the gap on the 'big six' and make sure that they are in the conversation for Champions League football when the ribbon is cut.
Moshiri has certainly spent in order to make sure Everton try and narrow that gap before the Champions League reform, set for 2024, threatens to make the task even harder for those clubs who wish to challenge the established elite and break up the party.
Hiring Carlo Ancelotti, one of the greatest coaches in European football, has been central to those plans, as has considerable spend in the transfer market to attract talent, as well as higher spend on wages.
With bigger deals being struck it has meant that Everton have also represented greater pickings for player agents.
In the latest figures, for the period between February 1 2020 and February 1 2021, Everton's payments to agents, as detailed by the FA, stood at just shy of £14.1m, a drop of around £2.8m on the previous reporting period for 2019-2020.
But looking at the bigger picture, Everton have spent £67.3m in the past five years on agents fees, up from £17m for the period between 2011 and 2016, a rise of 296 per cent.
That rise makes it the largest in the Premier League when comparing the last five years to the 2011-2016 reporting period.
With Everton attempting to make gains through increased spend it is reflected in the rise, which has been at a far steeper rate than any of the 'big six'.
But while the rise may look steep, and is certainly significant when assessing how the approach of the club has changed under Moshiri, Everton's agent spend over the past five years remains dwarfed by Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United.
Chelsea spent £138.3m on agents in the past five years, a rise of 171 per cent, while Liverpool spent £136.3m, up 156 per cent.
United saw a agent spend rise of 188 per cent with £115m spent between 2016 and 2020 compared to £39.9m for the five years prior, while Manchester City's agent spend came in at £133.1m, up 152 per cent from their £52.8m figure between 2011 and 2016.
Everton's agent spend did show that they are certainly trying to attack the status of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, which looks more precarious that it has done for quite some time owing to their poor league performance.
Arsenal spent £62.4m during the last five years, up 105 per cent, while Spurs had by far the lowest increase in agent spend, up just under 50 per cent, rising from £36.4m to £54.5m, reflecting their conservative approach in the transfer market in recent seasons as they invested heavily in their new £1bn stadium.
Agent spend takes into account payments to agents for the transfer of players between clubs as well as the part the agents play in renegotiating contracts with players at their existing clubs.
