A financial director of a football club once told me that the moment you start missing payments you no longer get the benefit of the the doubt. Whether that is players or suppliers, when the bills are due but they aren’t met, then relationships can evaporate in an instant; the trust just vanishes into thin air.

We are now almost seven months on from 777 Partners agreeing to acquire Farhad Moshiri’s 94.1% shareholding in Everton. In that time, the Miami-based firm has provided some £200m in working capital via interest-bearing loans, but still they have not satisfied what has been asked of them by the Premier League.

Last month the Premier League granted 777 ‘conditional approval’ in an attempt to try and reach a swift conclusion to the matter with some security attached.

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Those conditions were: that 777 loans to the club be converted into equity; funds required in an escrow account to meet financial obligations for the remainder of the season; proof of funding for the new stadium completion; and a £158m loan to be repaid to MSP Sports Capital.

That loan repayment was the first big test, but claiming the turnaround was too short, 777 Partners requested an extension, which MSP reluctantly agreed to.

Football allows us to escape each week. That little moment in time when, whatever happens in our lives during the week, our attention, and minds, are solely focused on what happens on the pitch. You win some, you lose some, but you know that it will be there for you to cheer for, shout at, love, and loathe for the remainder of your days.

Last week, Everton recorded a 2-0 victory in the Merseyside derby to all but seal their survival and simultaneously end the title hopes of their rivals, Liverpool. It was under the lights at Goodison Park. It was a night that many there will never forget, where fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, mates and strangers all embraced in the euphoria that football can deliver when you least expect it. It was the best of Everton, it was the best of English football, of what it can do for the soul.

The following day there was a spring in the step of Evertonians around the city, and for good reason. A day they could be proud, and bask in some glory. A day when they didn’t have to think about points deductions, Richard Masters and 777 Partners’ issues with providing funding to buy the club.

Days later, the club secured survival in the Premier League, despite all the challenges thrown at it. But now the focus is back on the uncertainty, the worry, and the ‘what happens next?’

It’s hard to think of a worse investment in football than Moshiri’s in the Blues.. Part of it out of his hands, part of it where the blame lays squarely at his feet. The intentions appear to have come from a good place, but so poorly executed have they been that there is little chance of him leaving with much more than widespread derision.

The football is what we should all care about, regardless of who we support. But Everton fans have had to care about too much for too long, and not enough of it has been about football.

This week has brought about more 777 Partners revelations. The voluntary administration of an airline they part own, a lack of payment to advisors, including a PR firm hired to look after their image in the UK, is just the latest in a string of stories, of legal wranglings in the US, and tales of missed payments.

It’s now another mad dash to run around and try and raise capital, but with one of their major sources of funding having been advised by no less than two US state regulators to reduce their exposure to 777, that seems like a tall order.

777 has been using money from others to keep the wheels turning at Everton - the same thing that Moshiri has been doing. It isn't some gesture of altruism, they are interest-bearing loans. It's time for the buck-passing to stop.

Moshiri has gone on record in correspondence to the Everton Fan Advisory Board to state that his support remains with 777 and that there is confidence the deal will be done. That is either through sheer blind faith, or the lack of any viable options that would be presented in a timely fashion to allow him to recoup at least some funds from a sale.

This is not a budget airline. This is not a reinsurance company. This is a football club that is older than private equity, that is even older than Miami. It is a football club that is part of a unique city, where two hearts beat, where passion for each side exists in families, but where it shows unity in the darkest of times.

This is a football club where people have poured in their hearts, and their souls. Where they have dedicated a life to a passion that takes far more than it gives.

Football is a business, it was ever thus, it's just we used to hear less about it. For a club to survive and thrive it needs a serious plan for the future, with backing from those with the ability to deliver.

Do 777 Partners still have the right to be given the benefit of the doubt? Are they the only show in town? If they aren’t, and there are those said to be waiting for the right time, then it needs to be killed or cured. If you have the funds, show the funds, and present to the Premier League the information they have asked for.

There has been enough time now to get all this in place, for there to have been a coherent plan. Instead, it is uncertainty, uncertainty, and more uncertainty.

The players, the manager, the backroom team, the good folk who work tirelessly at the club, and the fans, have all shown up. There is a game-changing stadium on the cusp of being delivered.

But this next phase of Everton has to be placed in the right hands. Do these people exist? Of course. But business deals are usually borne from opportunity. See Liverpool’s acquisition by Fenway Sports Group, for example.

The time for clarity is now. Not next week. Not at the end of the season. Now. Time is not on the side of Everton, and there are only so many miracles that can be served up from a competitive standpoint.

It’s time to show some respect. It’s time to show up.