The Premier League has at last decided it will not pursue Everton over its final financial fair play complaint. It had little choice.

That may sound like a bold claim - we have already seen the ruthlessness with which the organisation is willing to pursue and seek to punish the club. But, for a long time, this felt like an argument too far.

The specifics of the allegations against Everton are as complex as the Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) themselves - last season’s points deductions were the result of messy arguments over millions of pounds ruled over by independent panels whose only consistency appeared to be in the inconsistency of their decision-making: By the time Everton’s two prosecutions, one appeal and Nottingham Forest’s case had been concluded, four different interpretations had been provided on the penalties Everton should have received and how they should have been calculated.

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For all that regulatory chaos, Everton had no choice but to deal with the unprecedented deductions that shocked the world of football. The club’s ability, therefore, to steer clear of a catastrophic relegation battle despite having eight points ripped from their grasp was testament to a combination of Sean Dyche’s stubbornness, the resilience of the squad and the power of the fanbase.

Thankfully, no more days of trouble like that should now lie ahead. This week started with news the club was PSR compliant for the first time in three years. We may never know how close it was to the £105m, three year loss limits but we do know that in June, the final month of the football financial year, things were tight.

Director of football Kevin Thelwell continued the proactive work of the season that had just finished by helping to protect the club with the late sales of Lewis Dobbin and Ben Godfrey. For all that he may be judged on the players he has helped to bring in, his work to seal those outgoings under huge pressure deserves credit. Like with so many key figures at the club over recent years, his remit has extended far beyond the responsibilities most commonly associated with his role.

Yet while Monday brought the good news over the 2023/24 financial year, the outstanding issue over interest on loans the club said were used to fund the new stadium remained very much alive. As I tried to explain on social media that day, the refusal of the Premier League to provide any update on the situation appeared telling, but the threat still cast a shadow over the club’s forward-planning.

That fear has now gone following Friday’s joint statement by the league and club. The most telling line was this: “After considering the further information and documents provided by the club in detail, the Premier League Board has concluded that it would not be appropriate or proportionate to continue to pursue the second part of their complaint.”

Whatever that information was, the reality is the Premier League had lost any moral-high ground on this case long ago. The panel that decided to defer the case over stadium interest made note back in the spring that all parties had an interest in a “speedy determination” of the case.

The longer that went unresolved the weaker the case became and the greater the unfairness of forcing Everton to operate in the darkness for so long. The delay to proceedings completely robbed them of integrity.

The upshot is that the only right and fair decision has now been reached. And with it, Everton received another pillar upon which to start building the club of the future.

New owners, a new stadium, and now a clean slate from a PSR-perspective, all of a sudden everything appears to have fallen into place for Everton after years of chaos.

The only area where problems remain is now on the pitch - but hopefully the new manager will quickly be able to sort that out too. If he can, then after a long, gruelling slog, things really are, finally, starting to look up.