We are just as much as a ‘stepping stone’ as Palace will ever be. See John Stones for recent history, and see Branthwaite and Onana for the here and now.
That perception stuff is just a load of nonsense, which leads to the likes of Swansea thinking they were a better option than Everton just because they won a trophy and finished above Everton a couple of times. In reality, Swansea were never a better option, regardless of any BS media ‘perception’.
As for the five year timeline for improvement, this type of nonsense wrecks my head. Football does not work that way, and if you try to adhere to some kind of five year plan of incremental improvement it will be doomed to failure.
The game changes way too quickly for five year plans. Newcastle went from a relegation battle to European qualification within a season, so have West Ham and Villa in recent seasons.
Football is littered with stories like this, we did it ourselves under Moyes and Royle, and wasn’t there some bloke call Kevin Brock that did a back pass that instigated Kendal’s turnaround from bottom half strugglers to winning European trophies within about 18 months?
It’s not gona take five years to ‘fix’ Everton. If the takeover goes ahead we are already fixed imo.