Errrrr.............

1) A big debt.
2) A very old ground in need of huge investment (or see 3).
3) A new ground required (or see 2).
4) Gate average of 10th in the Premiership (despite finishing the best of the rest for two consecutive seasons).
5) A chairman who will insist on retaining his position in order to sell (even as Honourary Chairman).

OR........

1) An English footballing tradition.
2) The team most likely to break into the riches of the Champions League.
3) The best young manager in the country.
4) A fanbase just waiting to jump on what could be a huge bandwagon.
5) A chance to own a profitable business?

Brian, how about:

1) A mangeable debt in terms of the rest of the EPL.
2) A new ground or rebuild/renovation required — but one which isn’t in the arsehole of nowhere which will be difficult to get to.
2) Gate averages and season ticket sales which are consistent despite the recession
4) A chairmen who will demand a seat on the board (suggests a coup shortly after takeover).
5) The strongest team in the league in terms of pounds spent on delivery (best of the rest without huge wage bill).

Couldn’t/wouldn’t argue with any of those Gavin mate... it’s all down to perspective really isn’t it? Which is what I was trying to put across I suppose.

Us Evertonians can be a blinkered bunch (me included) when it comes to our club.

Add a complimentary packets of polos and an Everton pen and the job's a good'un.

This could be the list post-Kirkby:

1) A £200mill debt.
2) A new stadium which holds 45k but gets 30k.
3) Kevin Keegan as Manager
4) An Intertoto Cup place two seasons ago.
5) A chairman who wants an honourary position.

Grim eh! However, in the interests of balance, the post-Kirkby list could also be:

1) A £200mill debt
2) A new stadium that gets 45k a week
3) David Moyes as manager
4) Europa League qualification for the last 3 years.
5) A chairman who wants an honorary position.

Fill yer boots.

I have a better idea.

Let’s keep a count of the number of articles & posts from end of last season (which was such a poor season for us) that ram the same tedious point to inifinity & back again, Kenwright, Kenwright, Kenwright, ... Count currently stands at 1,618, although only 43 different people are responsible.

Anybody would think this club got relegated and did shite in every respect. But it acually came 5th and got to a cup final. It's best performance for over 2 decades. What else do these myopic dreamers expect from a club with the 10th highest average gate in the league?

Maybe ToffeeWeb could produce some online razor blades that members could attach to their ID to indicate total dissatisfaction with all things, just so that others can immediately see to give their whinging, whining, moaning, mind bendingly boring, wrist-slitting contributions a miss.

The words Leeds & Newcastle spring to mind every time I read this drivel. The grass is ALWAYS greener, everyone’s better than us, bla, bla, fucking bla.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum. This is Everton. We expect. We’re a massive club. We’re bigger than... erm? It’s all Kenwright’s fault. Under our last chairman we were... erm... fighting relegation & bankrupt. Now we’re only... erm... top 6 every year & cup finalists. Oh how thoroughly fucking depressing. I mean, we can’t even fill our own stadium, but we want more of everything, especially money.

I suggest those of a balanced disposition, who are not angrily dissatisfied with the club in every way, give this site a miss for a while. It’s gone beyond pathetic and it’s only the beginning of July.

And your list?

No list needed. No billionaire required.

A club should pay its own way a la Arsenal, Barcelona & many other smaller versions. That’s where we should aspire to.

No doubt you would have bitten Mike Ashley’s hand off 2 years ago if he’d fancied EFC. No doubt you were casting envious glances in the direction of Elland Road a few years ago (when I was asking my Leeds fan mates where the hell is the money coming from — truly, it was THAT obvious).

Has the irony dropped yet?

If fans don’t turn up at the gates or won’t invest in membership then they have no right to demand anything in return. It’s a business, not a charity.

Hope that’s clear.

So what are you trying to say Alan? *LOL*.

Seriously though, I agree with you. People are on here already bemoaning who we’re not going to get and why, when we SHOULD just wait and see. I’m not actually one of those who moans "same as last close season" ... I’m more on the side of the realists who believe that, for the financial situation we’re in (whether that be good or bad or what), we’ve done brilliantly this last season. I actually have faith that we’ll probably get four (or thereabouts) players who’ll go towards us maintaining our position as the best of the rest.

I believe that David Moyes accepts that we CAN’T buy our way into the top for NOW. But, if you take a look at some of the youngsters that have arrived and maybe a few more still to arrive, I think David Moyes is doing this with a view to having a team that may be able to compete with them in three years. In the meantime, I believe his personal goal is to keep us there or thereabouts. Just a personal opinion!

I agree with most of what you say, Alan, we are in a stronger position now than we have been for some time and I think BK deserves some of the credit. I also think that Pompey and Newcastle are a stark reminder of what can happen when a club gets the wrong sort of owner, it’s the luck of the draw in many cases.

However, I think Bill is guilty of misleading us on a number of issues and that has created a strong degree of enmity between supporters and the club. There have been some appalling stories (Fortress Sports Fund was the most damaging in my opinion) and the 24/7 claims are just ridiculous in the light of events elsewhere. That’s what most of us object to, it’s just a shame that we dilute the argument when we fail to acknowledge his achievements.

If the mass brains of you lot cannot suggest a mere 5 positive selling points, how in hell's name is it down to Blue Bill?

Fair point Dick, here goes:

1. Large, loyal fan base.
2. Competitive squad of players.
3. One of the best young managers in the country.
4. Latent potential for increased income.
5. Sensible player contracts and wages.

Alan,

If you don’t like these type of threads, don’t reply. Or better still don’t read them.

Because personally I find the kind of sanctimonious and myopic denegration of those who have concerns with Kenwright... as infuriating as you seem to find the contrary position.

I however, do not spend my life complaining about these valid opinions. Like you seem to do.

I agree with Brian Williams (2nd post). But real the question is:

If I’m looking for investment "24/7" for over 5 years, how long can I get away without finding ANY before people question my ability (or possible commitment) to sell the club?

a) Less than 5 years. Given that other smaller, poorer and less glamorous clubs have been bought twice in that time.

b) Indefinitely... selling a Premier League football club is hard given that no-one ever buys anything these days. Plus I’m a lifelong blue and I love the club.

I think Alan Kirwin always gets things spot on. A very reasonable response. The panic people feel about us not signing anyone always decends into this farcical debate about Kenwright being the devil incarnate.

Alan Kirwin, couldn’t have put it better myself. Can you copy that and make it into an article please?

Where are all those billionaire owners (Chelsea apart), Villa, Portsmouth, City, Fulham, Sunderland? Below us in the league, that’s where! Utd & RS were already above us before they got bought out and if anything has just made them unstable.

We should model Everton FC on (domestically) Arsenal and (internationally) Barcelona. They are both well run clubs (Arsenal are only in debt due to building their stadium) and don’t pay huge transfer fees or wages.

Alan K, I think Ciaran put it best, if you don’t like what you read switch over, the site doesn’t belong to you or I, it’s the internet and as far as I know an open spot for discussion. If you have seriously had the time to count the articles/mailbag entries then I think you should get a life/job or take up something in your retirement.

It’s called aspiration and actually grates when you sit back with third person perspective and see lesser clubs gaining investment, just ask Citeh, ManU and Chelski fans if they are gutted they have sugar daddies.

Matthew, the Barca club model is one we are never likely to see at Goodison in it’s present ownership status. Arsenal, even given their massive debt of new stadium, will come good as they are very well run business wise in terms of off field activities.

Tony I’Anson intimated the need for lateral thinking from upstairs at the club to expand from our monoculture business model and exploit other avenues, yet this came from the fanbase and not the well paid money men onboard, does that not highlight internal complacency and no real new strategies?

Alan

I too am sick of BK articles, I think eveything that can be said has been said, but i read the threads in hope that someone will come up with something new. It’s you the irony was lost on; Dick - pro-Kenwright - was actually throwing down the gauntlet to the very people who drive you nuts. You’ve squandered a golden opportunity by merely ranting against the people who see things a little differently from you.

Mathew, before Wenger came along, Arsenal were pretty much on a par with us, in terms of size, history, fanbase and achievement. The difference is, Wenger was provided with a huge amount of cash when he first arrived; people like Henry, Viera, Pires, Pettite. At the same time, we were selling everyone we could, just to keep the wolves from the door - Jeffers, Ball... Don't kid yourself that Wenger was able to provide them with the platform from which they now operate without that cash; he may be a genious, but he has squanderd more than Moyes has spent — Jeffers, Walcott etc

It's easy to have a well run club when all your directors are either rolling in it or have the ability to attract people who are.

Ciaran,

" Sanctimonious and myopic..."

Were you looking in the mirror there ?

It always puzzles me when people say things like ’I bet City wouldn’t swap their sugar daddy’. What exactly have they achieved? They’ve had the money now for a full season, and they went backwards last season.

Robinho, despite claims to the contrary, was brought in by the new owners, and they added Bellamy, De Jong, and the other midfield guy whose name I can’t quite remember for around £40m in January. And it still made fuck all difference.

Now who’ve they signed...? Barry - better than Arteta? And Santa Cruz, who has only ever scored double figures in a season once in his whole career. Tevez possibly to follow, who was 4th choice at Man Utd. They’re gonna be an unbalanced team, with a bunch of mercenaries who care shit for the club, and once said mercenaries reaslise that the ’dream’ they were sold is pie in the sky, they’ll fuck off for another huge pay day.

I may be wrong, as football can be a strange game, but I’m certainly not falling into the trap of thinking they’ll be above us next season just cos of the money, and I’ll be betting that we at least maintain our best of the rest position.

Money would be nice, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. We have cracked 4th before, and we CAN do it again. Indeed, many of the people who bleat on about BK were also the ones who were saying "if we’d had a better start, Moyes had signed his contract, no injuries, Goodison had magically transformed overnight, we could have done it last season". Give DM and the board 'til the end of the month to get the 2 or 3 players I think we need in, and try to be optimistic for a change — or if you really wanna see it all as doom and gloom, take up an interest in Newcastle as a second team.

Oh, forgot my list:
1) Massive club with huge heritage and history
2) Young squad with manageable wage structure
3) One of the best managers in the league
4) Manageable debt levels
5) Excellent youth and training facilities

Apart from "Massive club", which is essentially meaningless, you put forward an impressive five pointer, Stewart.

So impressive that I’m left wondering why we haven’t been snapped up.

Just kidding. I know Bill’s a liar really...

1) On Goodison Road, there is a shop/cafe that sells Scouse and Red Cabbage with crusty cobs.
2) Our new kit reminds us of the glory years.
3) Andy van der Gobshite — who spent most of his Everton in a wheelchair or in a Lap dancing bar and was on £35k a week — has had the bullet.
4) Some of our fans will put up with anything without so much as a whimper, which in turn lets the man at the top get away with murder.
5) We sell warm Chang for £3 quid a can.

Tony, from your point of view, why are Evertonians so apathetic?

From my point of view, it’s very hard to cast aspertions when I don’t know what the fuck is going on. Does anyone have absolute concrete evidence that some multi-millionaire has come in for Everton? If anyone has, does anyone know that the guy could be trusted and wouldn’t ruin us?

We sell warm chang for £3??

What the fuck is that?? That is just a typical British moan about nothing... if you don't want it, don't buy it!!! The Echo Arena (along with most stadia in the country!) has the better facilities but serves you crap, warm ale for more than £3 but that is an amazing state-of-the-art arena. New ground, new owner or even changing your support won’t change that!!

How bored are we this summer... that this post has had this much attention! Haha.

Kenright, transfers, warm Chang, Evertonians bickering, blah blah fuckin’ blah ... I feel like I am in the movie Groundhog Day!

Didn’t we exhaust every conceivable complaint, issue and annoyance during last year’s close season? It’s like reading last years news... If there was a Premier League for moaning we’d win it every season — along with the European Moaning Cup

Our best season in two decades and still we bicker. Say hello to britain’s blame culture — we have to have someone to point to and say, "He did it!!! It's his fault ... look ... him over there ... he’s to blame." Evertonians seem to be at their worst when there’s not even football being played.

So I was thinking... if Bill is struggling to sell the club, perhaps he should get Owen's people to help make him a leaflet!!! It looks as though Owen is going to Man Utd, and to have pulled that one off, that leaflet must have been a stroke of Marketing genius!!!

Please note that this is a sarcastic post. I know that a lot of you fellow fans feel as though Bill isnt even trying to sell, because he wants to hold onto his baby etc, etc, etc, etc........!!!!!

Michael Owen... Is this one that got away for us - or a lucky near miss? Considering all the fuss that has been made over whether the RS fans would forgive him for joining Everton, what do they feel now he is about to join the Manure?

Spot on, Craig Taylor, what we need is a quality leaflet maker, Sign him up Moysie !!

John Lloyd - it would be nice to avoid warm shyte £3.50 Chang half and half (half foam, half liquid) if there was an alternative on offer... oh that's it in the way of lager refreshment is it... ah. I, like a lot of fans, get nicely watered outside of GP, profits going to, err, not EFC. Maybe the club could make a few quid if they just........