There's not much to argue with in the Prentice article. And while Mancini complains that the owners wont open the cheque book this January (remember the beloved Beneathus?) we must think we are in the wherethefukawi tribe. It can't go on like this - or, it can, but only in one direction.

Panto season - anyone know a fairy godmother?

Lyndon, it is not just the "internet" blues who are voicing their concerns in respect of our club.

I am a match going echo buying blue as are many that I know and mix with. If you are trying to imply that those of us who still go to the game are "unfailingly loyal to Bill Kenwright and his regime" then you are too far removed from the reality of the situation.

I pay my cash by choice to watch my team play a game of football and I could'nt care less who is owner/chairman/manager/captain of the ship. I go and watch my team because I want to and that has applied in sickness and in health - good times and bad.
Who the hell are you to make suggestions that those who actually go to the match are unfailingly loyal to Kenwright.

This will probably get me censored by TW again for disagreeing with editorial statements.

I for one have never had the opinion that LL tries to stifle people on this site.

I think you have read the article wrong, Paul Joy. What Lyndon is saying is that previously David Prentice went along with the club saying that those against Bill are just a minority causing trouble over the Internet. So for him to now go against that and start questioning the club himself may finally get the local media on Blue Unions side rather than up Kenwrights backside.

I am a match going echo buying blue... If you are trying to imply that those of us who still go to the game are "unfailingly loyal to Bill Kenwright and his regime" then you are too far removed from the reality of the situation.

Apologies if the wording was misleading, Paul, but, no, that wasn't what I was implying and I actually agree with you.

I was merely referring to the long-held belief (one that I don't subscribe to) put forward by some that the Internet, and this website specifically, has been this haven for conspiracy nuts and Kenwright bashers and it's those who either aren't part of the online community, who don't subscribe to the views that get thrown around online, or who get the majority of their EFC news from the local press — i.e. the "man on the street" Blue (I've amended the text above accordingly, BTW) in other words — that need to be reached if the Board is to feel any real pressure.

My reference to "match-going" fans was a nod to the impression some wanted to create that the majority who go to the game are pro-Bill and that's why he was cheered when they showed his face on the screen at the Villa game.

Dan #608 put it much better than I did (thanks, Dan!)

Well, Dan, I hope this doesn't come down to a choice between supporting Kenwright's continued tenure or siding with the Blue Union. Kenwright has failed, long term, to lead us out of the Slough of Despond, it's true, but the Blue Union position is just untenable and if what they propose occurred, it would be detrimental to the club in the long run. Its leaders know that, but they are happy enough to just shout louder: 'If you love this club let go!" I wish Prentice would take as hard a look at Moyes. It is, after all, his failure, at a time when we had a talented squad that was capable of progressing in Europe, that has truly diminished this club, not anything Kenwright has done or failed to do. By the way, if you love this club, go to the match, buy some merchandise and stop running Everton down.

Peter Fearon@618 you are obviously the other side of the world if not on another planet and are not watching the dire dross the fans who go are subjected to every week.
In a nutshell, Kenwright has sold every asset the club has including now some of the best players. All television money has gone plus the season ticket money for next year and still we are losing money. Yes Moyes is boring but kenwright has destroyed us.
Get real and at least the Blue Union is trying to correct things. What exactly are you doing to make us a viable and great club again. Zilch by your attitude.

Peter there are plenty of match and former match going blues that have poured thousands into the club over the last decade and watched Billy Bullshitter and his bunch of useless lickspittles board and shady tax dodging friend of the club run it to rats shit not spending a penny. Don't tell me I should be spending money on the club whilst those twats are running it down the drain.

Peter Fearon you should apply for the job with the North Korean ministry of information / propaganda, Ian Ross has schooled you well my good sir !

How much money should we keep pouring into the black hole called Everton Peter. As 2 season tickets for the last few years and numerous football kits for the kids. Yet they have to watch that shite every week.

Here here Mick @ 644. I have recently given up 3 season tickets and spent much of my hard earned on the club for many years, my season ticket dates back to 1985, my sons and my wifes since 2005. After a couple of cheap tickets this season to watch utter bile and with the continuing bullshit I can honestly say I have made the right decision. As much as I love Everton I can not bear to bail out a gang of croocked incompetent dickheads and pay to watch the inevitable shite, inept and spineless car crash being played out in front of my eyes.

I was offered a cheap Blackburn ticket today but turned it down, I just can't muster up the desire or enthusiasm to visit GP until things change. Why should I waste my money on shite when they don't give a shite about me.

Prentice's article represents a specific change in the local media's perception of the club and, in particular, the way that it has treated that media outlet in the past, Prentice has seized his chance to put the boot in {and rightly so} he makes reference to grovelling apologies in the past that the Echo has had to make, only to be proved correct months later by the Manager of our cllub. No doubt he will probably have to buy his ticket for our next home game, and share a bovril with the rest of us at half time, well fucking good, because in my opinion, thats where our local journo's should be, in amongst the people that matter....US !!! football clubs are fuck all without supporters, hopefully Prentice may start listening a bit more now that he's got no chance of water biscuits and brie at half time.

Oh, and one more thing, loads of people on here lately "not going any more" – well, what the fuck are you moaning about?

It's the team we support – not the regime, or just to keep in line with the blog.... "never let go Rose".

Steve, if you read some of the posts from contributors who are "not going anymore", I think that will tell you what the fuck they are moaning about. You're right, football clubs are fuck all without supporters... so I will stick to my water biscuits and brie because I can afford that now!

You're "never let go Rose" did make me laugh though.

I actually do see them every week and my hat is off to everyone who still goes and pays good money to see the shadow of a club they once were. But there are plenty of fans who go to the pub, get shitfaced, watch the match on tv and complain about not having transfer cash because of falling revenue. If you love this club let go? If you love this club, go to the match!

Those of us who criticise Dour Tactics Devoid Davey and Billy Liar are not the ones who do not love Everton. Our problem is we love Everton too much and are seriously concerned with the damage Billy Liar and Useless Dour Davey are doing to the club. Hopefully we can be rid of BOTH of them before the damage they do becomes irreparable. One of them going is not enough they must BOTH go.

Lyndon, regarding the losing £5 million a year, I posted this on another thread and I think it bears repeating here because I think that figure masks a much more serious problem.

The Club made a loss of £5 million in the last financial year according to the accounts to 31 May 2011. During that same period we sold £22 million of assets (£9 million fixed assets being Bellefield and £13 million other assets being players.)

This to me means that the Club operated at a loss of £27 million in the year purely in terms of operating as a business selling a product and receiving an income.

In other words if this year we don't sell any assets we can expect the accounts to show a loss of £27 million and considering that attendances are down and league placing money will be less then it could well be more.

Peter #618 "the Blue Union position is just untenable and if what they propose occurred, it would be detrimental to the club in the long run"

Can you explain why getting new owners prepared to invest in the Club and manage it properly is detrimental? and keeping these incompetant charlatans that we currently have is a better option?

"If you love the club, go to the match"

What garbage. We aren't living in a time where 50p on the turnstile gets you in. We are living in a time where the manager and players are paid astronomical amounts of money and we're charged between 30 and 35 quid a ticket. Hats off to those that still go but until the product served up on the pitch improves, a lot of us won't justify the expense. An expense that disappears into the mysterious black hole of 'other operating costs'.

Peter Fearon, you're starting to sound as much of a wind up merchant as Richard Dodd.

Alan, I'd say can't justify the expense.

To the Moyes out campaigners, normally new owners change the manager within the first 6 months of purchasing the club. If everyone focuses on getting rid of the board then Moyes will follow soon after. Unless of course he proves to be as good a manger as some people still believe him to be and Everton become an attractive, successful team under his tenure. In other words its a win win situation.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT MOYES. BOARD OUT FIRST>

Lyndon & Dan (#608), the applause when Bill Kenwright's mug "mysteriously" popped up on the big screen at Goodison was nothing more than a ripple. It was hardly a ringing endorsement of him from all present.

I accept that I might have read Lyndon's initial statement wrongly but I felt that there was a clear pop at those who go to the match. At best the statement is ambiguous.

STADIUM.

Theres a way out and its the stadium issue. What is the club doing to rectify this? We have heard the same thing for years now, looking at this site, really keen on this site, theres no land, Speke, blah blah blah..........

I dont think the club have been serious at looking for options. They have managed to come up with one scheme in 10 years since the Kings Dock. And that was a bag of shite. It was embarrassing, as were the pathetic attempts to get people behind it.

Just what are the club doing to address the issue? It would appear fuck all. We are a much more selllable proposition if we have an "out" on the stadium issue.

If thing stay as they are we are, we are down. Our ambitions can extend no further than staying in the division till this is rectified. I cannot stress this strongly enough. If nothing is done to rectify this situation we are going to be relegated at some point.

We need to ask the club some serious questions about what plans, if any, the club has to fix the stadium issue. The issue which is directly linked to our financial decline.

Its ever decreasing circles. We will be debating this forever.And we will be debating it in another 10 years, in the same outdated, dilapidated stadium, watching championship football.

The stadium is the titanic, the iceberg is relegation. And every year these clowns do nothing about it, the iceberg gets nearer.

One project in 10 years, which was a joke. It was decimated at the inquiry. Do the board have the capacity to change the situation? Track record suggests not. Ownership and stadium issue go hand in hand.

The situation is critical, it is nearly too late, some may say it already is. Its gonna take 10 years to get something going, move, benefit and progres the club. We are fucked if this doesnt happen.

This issue goes unresolved and there is no future.

Eric Myles: This is the reason why:

The BU proposal is for Kenwright to step aside and for a third party to be nominated to negotiate the sale of the club. This third party is then supposed to offer the club for sale at a price far far lower than its true value. No major shareholder in his right mind would agree to that but if they did, the banks, who have secured loans based on a much higher valuation, could be entitled to call in those loans immediately which be be a disaster.

The buyer is then supposed to put the cost of a stadium – let's say that's only £120M, but it could be £150M or £200M or more – in escrow until a stadium is built, let's say five years. No buyer in his right mind would do that with that much liquidity but, if he did, that money is still money that could be invested in the team but which wouldn't be.

Some people forget the team is the most important element. The Team. It's a proposal which benefits neither the seller nor the buyer and, as a good deal has to benefit both, it clearly would never be allowed to happen.

Setting aside the fact that anyone who believes a stadium is going to be financed by someone putting the full cost in escrow for however many years clearly is naive beyond belief about finance. I could be wrong but I don't think there has ever been a stadium financed that way in the history of sport. It undermines the credibility everything else they propose.

Peter, the 'true value' of any property or business is what the purchaser buys it for.

The BU are not asking for the Club to be sold for less than it's 'true value', they have not set any value on the sale.

The loans from the bank are not secured against the 'true value' of the Club. They are secured against future revenue.

The loans will either be repaid by the current owners if they are called in or carried over by the new owner as part of the deal (discounted against the purchase price of course)

The BU are not asking that a new owner fund a new stadium or put any money in escrow, where did you get that idea from?

Peter, where are you getting all this shit from?? — Third party is to offer the club for sale far lower than its true value ????? Buyer is supposed to put a new stadium in place ????

Sorry mate you're well off-base I think!!
The true value of the club is whatever the purchaser offers/buys it for.

You may think your house is worth X amount but maybe you'll only be offered Y amount. It's up to you to sell at the offer price or sit in your house for ever and a day waiting until someone offers what you think its worth.

The third party will only negotiate the best price for the club taking many factors in to account. Certainly, as far as I know, no preconditions (eg, new stadium) will be put forward.

Peter (#938) — while I wouldn't be able to argue against your conclusions, I'm struggling to recognize the BU strategy in what you describe.

Please elaborate where this is coming from. I could have missed something but I've not seen the BU strategy defined in these terms by them anywhere.

To put it simply, the Blue Union's request to have a third party negotiate the sale is really just a calling of Kenwright's bluff to sell. Kenwright has said he takes nothing from the club and only has the club's best interest in mind, and therefore that assumes he would not care about the purchase price as long as it was the right buyer. So, they are saying put your money where your mouth is, let a third party find that buyer, without Kenwright and all caring about how much profit they will make. Of course it won't happen.

But if he truly was just Everton's greatest supporter he wouldn't care about making money off of the sale, given the club's current financial predicament and his complete helplessness in solving that financial crisis. The Blue Union is essentially requesting to act as the bankruptcy court, before the club actually enters administration and the banks who don't give a damn about the club do the exact same thing.

What cheeses me off is that the one rational plan that makes any sense for Everton to become a viable top club again - ie a location for a new stadium - is never found.

KD is spilt milk. I'm as amazed and angry about it as the next, but it's gone. But how can there not nbe land availble in a city that has depopulated as much as Liverpool, and yet Arsenal find a huge block of land in zone 2 North London? It's staggering.

Maybe I have missed something. But have BU or anyone else not found some spare land - including any land that has buildinbgs (retail, warehouse, ex factory or to be demolished housing) - anywhere?

Furthermore, the credit crisis - which will be with us for years - means land prices are falling. It also means the value of many businesses will be falling. I wonder if like so many in denial house sellers, we have shareholders hanging on to 2007 bubble prices, and are rejecting any fair offers as "derisory".

One thing I do reject of BU and others is that somehow the money is going missing - pockets or wherever. We simply do not make enough money, and matchday revenue has fallen for the past 2 and half years by over 20%. That is unsustainable.

Where has the money gone? There is no money people!

My one gripe with Moyes is that he has failed to cut his cloth in the past two years. Someone should have been sacrificed in order to get a striker in. But now, it's gllom, it's dull football, and the fire seems to have gone out of Moyes. It's leaked into the team, and it's dreadful. And I was a Motyes fan.

Michael #963, there seem to be many posters appearing lately that are either deliberately misrepresenting BU in order to cause mischief or they are simply not bothered to find out what they are talking about before they post nonsense.

While deleting such posts would lead to you being accused of not allowing anti-BU comment, can you at least put a header into the post along the lines of "Warning, this post contains complete bullshit."