Moral Dilemmas
Rob Fox ponders the great challenges ahead for Everton FC

22 June 2004

Everton Football Club.  What does it mean to you?  If you are reading this then I assume you are, like me, one of the rank and file support of this Club.  In which case, like me, you could probably reel off all the criteria that show you to be a good blue.  Know your history?  Hate the kopites?  Name the 84-85 team without pausing for breath?  Know more about players who retired before you were born than most people seem to know about their team's current squad?  Turn the telly off when Wayne Rooney get's substituted for England?  Laugh when the kopite connection undo 89 minutes good work?  Remind the kopites at every opportunity that they are the mongrel offspring of Everton's evolution?  Proclaim loudly that you wouldn't share a twix with them lot, never mind a ground?  Get shivers when Rooney shows the world what he's all about, and proclaim that there will be blood in the streets of L4 if we sell him this summer?

My guess is you would all fervently agree with most of the above, but a few will be hesitating when it comes to to the parts about groundsharing and selling Rooney.  At the moment, it's like the eye of the storm at Goodison: we can't see much but there are signs of frantic activity going on behind the scenes.  Once again, the supporters are left in the dark.  Which is pretty much the situation everywhere else.  I don't see much consultation with the fans going on at other clubs either.  However, this lack of concrete information gives us plenty to think about and basis for endless conjecture and second guessing; optimism, pessimism, and in some cases apparent desertion.  But, most crucially, more than ever before, it has led to severe differences of opinions between Evertonians as to where we go from here.

The biggest concern for most Blues is whether the Board of Directors is still simply trying to ship out water or actually have a plan in place to actually repair the Good(ison) Ship Everton.  If so, then what is that plan?  Unlike most people who I've met in cyber space, my uncle's mate's barber isn't related to the doorman in the Legend's Bar, so unfortunately I have no insight into what is actually going on...  So, instead, just for fun, something to pass the time I've decided to try and get my ideas in order and come up with my own long term plan to make Everton great again.  Right, strap in, drum roll, here it is.....  (If at any time this article becomes patronising please bear in mind I have recently been drawn into the netherworld of EFC website forums; I'm not proud — it just happened.)

IMPROVE THE TEAM

The logic is simple.  If you improve the team, you will win more matches.  If you win more matches, you will finish higher up the league.  If you like, this is my short term plan.

I will go a step further.  Here is my long term plan.

CONTINUE TO IMPROVE THE TEAM

Again, simple logic.  If you continue to improve the team, you will continue to win more matches than before.  Eventually you will win more matches than anybody else and you will win trophies.  Lot's of them.

Sounds simple, but it works.  I applied this principle to various computer management games and it worked every time.  Damn, I've just realised I've forgotten something important.  In real life, people are involved, so it's bound to be more complicated.  If all this seems trite, I apologise, but reading and listening to some of the opinions I have heard lately from Evertonians has been interesting to say the least.  It's not just as simple as identifying players and then getting them, there are many factors involved, principally choice.  How can we convince players Goodison is the place to be?

So back to my plan.  In principle, it's hard to dispute that it is a good plan, but I suppose it needs fleshing out a bit.  One word thrown in should do it: Money.  Something everybody else seems to have but us.  Many Evertonians are beginning to feel like Charlie Bucket, nose pressed up against the glass, his only hope of salvation is to find a golden ticket.  I would say to Charlie, you have two options.  On the one hand, get a paper round, use a bit of enterprise and initiative and be patient; it might pay off in the end.  Alternatively, sell your soul in return for the opportunity of instant success and gratification of your desires. 

In a nutshell, this is where most Evertonians stand at the moment.  Some would say, chance would be a fine thing.  What golden ticket?  Sell our soul to who?  The answer to the first is obvious: we have one already, a young lad by the name of Rooney.  The second is not clear.  Oh, where is our Abramovich?  In the Far East perhaps, offering temptation from the path of righteousness, in the form of big wads of cash in return for control of Everton Football Club.  If they can't get that other club, that is, but of course that other lot haven't got a soul to sell.

So, money — or the lack of it — is the stumbling block.  This leaves us with two possible ways forward.

1. MAJOR INVESTMENT, PERHAPS A BUYOUT.

2. EXCELLENT MANAGEMENT OF ALL ASPECTS OF EVERTON FOOTBALL CLUB.

These, of course, are not mutually exclusive in a business sense, in fact the two together would virtually guarantee success.  If Jose Mourhino and Peter Kenyon are as good at their jobs as they would both seem to think, we are soon to see what happens when these two situations are combined.  Bring ethics into the equation and opinion can soon become divided.  I confess to not being very knowledgeable about Thailand's prime minister or Mr Abramovich, but I think it is fair to say their methods of acquiring the cash they have invested, or are willing to invest, in English football clubs are questionable to say the least. 

Imagine you were a Wimbledon supporter and the Milton Keynes move had led to major investment in the team?  Would you have gone or stayed true to your roots and built a new Wimbledon FC?  The next time the idea of a groundshare is mooted or Colonel Gaddafi offers $150M for us, think how much tradition and history really mean to you.  Only a few dissenting voices protested about the Kejian deal, given China's human rights record.  Let's face it, the Li Tie and Li Wiefeng fiasco was embarrassing. 

How much is our identity vital to your perception of what being an Evertonian is all about?  I don't know which saddens me more: the fact that a growing number of Evertonians seem so willing to make any compromise offered to bring money into the club; or the fact that we are likely to have so little say in what happens when such decisions are made.  All I ask, is that you all think carefully of the long term consequences for this club of any decisions that are made, and if you believe they are wrong try to make your voice heard.  Not much, but it's all we've got.

Should I be surprised the turnout for the first Evertonians for Change meeting was so poorly attended?  It's the human factor kicking in again.  And no, I didn't go; yes, I would have liked to, but it was impractical for me — not impossible, though; maybe I'm not a true blue after all?  If this sounds like I'm trying to belittle EfC's efforts, I am not, and will do my best to attend the next meeting, with an open mind.  Frankly, it often seems the only real influence we can have is to keep our money in our pockets, or at least threaten to.

Recently, I have tried very hard to detach myself emotionally from Everton Football Club, for the duration of the close season at least.  That Rooney lad spoilt it a bit, running France ragged for 73 minutes; I almost believed I was becoming an England fan until he was taken off.  Once Heskey came on, sanity was thankfully restored.  This detachment is partly to dull the pain of last season and anxiety about next season, but more so to keep a clear head and try to analyse what is happening and make clear decisions about what we should do to improve our situation.  But then he played even better against Switzerland, and popped in a couple of nice goals before he came off.  And last night against Croatia he was even more sublime — inadvertently handing the Club an ever bigger moral dilemma.

Even though the decisions I make may seem irrelevant as I am not on the Everton Board, it doesn't stop me thinking about what we should do, and I think that applies to most of us.  Do we have an influence on what happens at board level?  More than at most clubs, I think we do.  The reason for this is simple.  The vast majority of income generated by Everton Football Club comes from supporters who — and this is almost reactionary in this day and age — buy tickets and go to the match.  Therefore, if they upset us, they risk losing money.  It remains to be seen whether the decision to increase season ticket prices will have a Championship Manager effect and greatly reduce sales, or will the human factor of our addiction to EFC work in the club's favour?  At times, it seems the Board are banking on our blind loyalty.  More accurately, it seems the board don't mind us opening our eyes and even our mouths so long as we continue to put our hands in our pockets.

Once again, I've meandered.  I'll try to stick to the plan, I promise.  Where was I?  Yes, identity: very important to us Blues.  But just for a while, try and join me in my detachment.  It's quite liberating shedding my Blue skin and taking an impartial view of Everton Football Club.  I feel so liberated I'm going to pretend to be Trevor Birch for a while — he's a kopite, you know.  Just an observation, but the last kopite who got such a warm welcome was Peter Johnson.  Don't get the wrong idea; I have a positive view of Birch's appointment, but then I did about Johnson as well, despite the nagging doubts about rejecting a True Blue in favour of a Tranmere man.  If I'd known he was a kopite as well, I'd have...  well, probably welcomed him all the same.  That's human nature for you.

Anyway, now I'm Mr Birch, seeing things from an impartial perspective.  I'm now going to use a dirty word to describe the name of Everton Football Club.  BRAND.  There I've said it.  So, we all agree we need to raise more money?  Therefore, we need to persuade people to give Everton Football Club money.  Most existing Evertonians already give a huge percentage of their income to the club; not much scope there... maybe just a club shop in the City Centre — get a few more quid off them.  We need to attract new support and investment into the club.  So we need to look at the brand name and see how it is perceived and how we can change that perception.

So, given that Everton supporters are — against our better judgement at times — generally extremely loyal, Mr Birch has something of a dilemma.  Any decisions he makes need to be weighed against the likely reaction from supporters.  The one thing we are all agreed is on is that we want to improve the team.  Whether the motive is glory or making money, the end product is the same, and I think you will all agree that whether we like it or not money and success seem to go hand in hand.  Let's not be precious about it; Trevor Birch's job is not to appease the fans, it is improve the team. 

His role in improving the team is to bring money into Everton for David Moyes to spend on players.  You might think this is a simplistic view of his role, but I would argue that long term financial success is interdependent on the team's success.  If you don't believe me, then compare the situations at Leeds and Man. Utd.  Leeds are in desperate financial straits because they failed on the pitch; Utd are one of the richest because they succeeded on the pitch at the right time.  To me it is right that Utd should applaud the manager as the main reason for their success and a little bizarre that David O'Leary more or less escaped the Leeds fiasco scot free. 

At present, Chelsea are the exception.  It remains to be seen if the likes of Abramovich will become the norm.  To my mind the only two people who really matter at the moment at Everton are Trevor Birch and David Moyes.  Just as Moyes has clearly blown away a lot of cobwebs on the football side — although some believe a few should have been left in place — so Birch is charged with doing the same on the financial side.  Hopefully he will have the opportunity and the compunction to dust out the cobwebs in the boardroom as well.  Basically Trevor Birch's job is to provide the best possible toolbox for David Moyes; it's up to Moyes to use the tools to the best of his ability.  Don't forget, it's not always the size of the toolbox that matters, but how you use the tools.  Mind you, the toolbox Jose Mourhino has inherited looks top of the range.  I can't see us ever having one like that...

Brian Woolnough recently wrote an article on Wayne Rooney that included the following quote: "He's not fazed by being a teenage hero.  Not fazed at all.  I expected him to be a reluctant talker, to shy away from such questions, such has been the protection from Everton."  Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I can almost taste the disdain in his tone.  I could use plenty of other examples of media articles about Rooney or Everton that make our standing in the modern game clear.  Whilst individual journalists may have personal grudges, I don't think there is necessarily a media bias against us. 

The bottom line is people in general have limited attention spans and are only interested in NOW.  The goldfish effect.  To the vast majority of people in the country we are perennial relegation battlers, Merseyside's poor relations, a selling club with loyal fans.  Those with longer memories will more likely hate us for various reasons and take great pleasure in our demise.  Nobody's interested in 9 league championships, 5 FA cups, Dixie Dean, 100 years top flight football.  In fact most people I've spoken to think we've just celebrated our centenary.  When I start explaining, they either smirk at me like I'm making it up or their eyes glaze over.  Nobody cares except us.

Why should some foreign player have a desire to come to Everton?  Unlike the kopites, and largely thanks to them, we don't have a European tradition to play on.  Why should a promising young footballer want to come here?  Why would an out of contract player prefer us to say, Man City or Blackburn, if they finished higher in the league and can offer more money?  Sorry to break the news, but we are not perceived as a big club anymore, except by ourselves. 

One more thing: loyal we may be but our predominantly working-class support simply cannot afford to put into the club the sort of money needed for the club to be successful.  Hence the dilemma.  One the one hand we are jealous when we see clubs like Middlesbrough and Bolton bringing in players we can't afford, and yet we can afford to be indignant about moving to Cronton or sharing with the kopites.  You can't have it both ways.  Quite simply, it's a case of deciding which of our traditions we are willing to compromise to bring money into the club. 

Remember the hullabaloo about Dixie the liquorice allsort and Bad Moon Rising?  Yes, I cringed too, it's just not Everton.  But what is?  What would you prefer?  Patiently trying to build a successful team on a limited budget or playing Liverpool in the Champions League Final, having edged out Wayne Rooney's Chelsea in the semis, at the Stanley Park Arena with purple seats so as not to upset anyone?  A statue of Dixie Dean at one end and one of Bill Shankly at the other?  Chants of 'Merseyside' ringing around the ground as the roof is closed due to a little light drizzle?  President of both clubs, Colonel Gaddafi waving to his adoring public as the chant becomes 'Colonel Gaddafi's red and blue armies,' before a fight starts because red got sung first.  Hang on, it's alright, we've won the toss, they're coming out to Z-cars!  How much are you willing to compromise?  Me, I think I've just described a vision of hell, so my position is clear.  Would you be there?  Swallow your pride or stay home and watch Coronation St?  My guess is when push comes to shove, most of us would be there — if we could afford it that is.

Every decision the Club makes is weighed down by our traditions.  I doubt there was much soul searching at Southampton, Leicester, Bolton or Middlesbrough when they left all their (ha ha) tradition behind.  'Remember that game against Grimsby in 1972?  How can we leave those memories behind!'  It takes a lad I know less time to get to the Reebok from Blackpool than his mates who live in Bolton, but they've got Jay Jay Okocha so they don't care.  So when you have to move seats to make way for the Prawn Sandwich brigade or Goodison becomes Tesco's car park, smile along with the Libyan's who have come to see Colonel Gaddafi's son make his debut.  Before you e.mail Trevor Birch to castigate him for selling the soul of our club and to ask why we're offering Roberto Carlos a 3-year deal at his age, remind yourself that this is what you wished for...

So, how can Trevor Birch do his job without selling us down the river?  How can the Brand become a force in a competitive market place?  How can we promote the name of Everton Football Club around the world, make it synonymous with vitality, achievement, and romance?  How can we make it an attractive proposition to players we would like to sign?  To advertisers and sponsors?  To young football supporters with plenty of disposable income and no successful local team?  To football hungry fans and talented kids throughout the world?  Where's that golden ticket?  H'mm what's our greatest asset at the current time?  You with me?  Ah, yes ... Wayne Rooney.

At the moment, Everton Football Club is getting more famous by the day.  New people hear of it every day.  Every time someone sees Wayne Rooney (Everton) they are aware of this Brand that is synonymous with Wayne Rooney.  At present, everybody who knows what Everton stand for today, i.e. not a lot, are just counting the days until he leaves us behind.  Anyone who seriously thinks Wayne Rooney is not bigger than Everton needs a reality check.  Our history is only of interest to ourselves.  Brian Woolnough does not necessarily dislike Everton, just views us as something of a millstone holding Rooney back.

If he goes this summer it simply confirms to everyone, most of us included, just what Everton are these days.  And for the goldfish amongst the Sky generation, what they have always stood for.  Most people think the First Division is what Norwich have just won; what happened before the Premier League doesn't register on their consciousness.  If Rooney does stay, brace youselves for the criticism levelled at him and us when he has a quiet game for England.  M. Woolnough and his esteemed colleagues will remind us how he needs to join a big club to continue his football education.

In an ideal world, the decision whether to keep or sell Rooney would be solely down to David Moyes, based purely on football reasons.  To us, Rooney's choice is simple: stay at Everton, or take his thirty million pieces of silver.  In reality, it's more complex than that.  If Rooney agrees to a deal to stay at Everton considerably less than his market worth he will be an anomaly in the modern game.  As a supporter, I would hate him for leaving us now, but part of me would accept it. 

On a personal level, Rooney has the same dilemma as us.  Keep his identity or sell his soul.  Whether it is that straightforward is open to conjecture.  If we decide to pay him the going rate just to keep him we are taking a risk.  In one unsubstantiated report £80k a week has been mentioned, tied in with the Chang beer deal.  This would involve promotional work by Rooney in Thailand.  Ideally, I believe this is the way forward; it all depends how hard the Board are prepared to work and whether they possess the necessary vision.  Hopefully, Trevor Birch can have a major impact in this area.

The dilemma is simple for Everton Football Club.  We can either sell Rooney for the highest fee possible and use the money to try to restructure the club; or we can try to keep him and allow the club to grow with him.  I believe selling Rooney is the easy option for the club; keeping him would be much braver.

Before I continue, it is important to be clear-headed about it.  In a business sense, Wayne Rooney is an asset of Everton Football Club that has cost us nothing.  The responsibility of the Board is to optimise the use of that asset, whether that means cashing him in or using his talents to improve the Brand's image.  A good businessman would assess the value to the business of keeping him.  This will inevitably boil down to how much income he is likely to generate — whether this is by helping to improve the team, attract investment, or merely by sales of Rooney-related merchandise. 

Obviously the Club would need to consider the risk of his career declining, through injury for example.  So, if the market value — dictated by whoever wants to buy him — is above this perceived value, taking into account how much he will costing us in wages, a good businessman would sell.  This of course would ensure a return, rather than taking the risk of his value possibly decreasing or him even leaving at the end of his contract with Everton receiving a much reduced compensation fee.

One possibility is that his wage demands could price most teams out of the market, including us.  This would potentially lower his transfer value.  If only Chelsea could afford him they could afford to be patient and wait for his value to decrease as his contract ran down.  The key to all this, in my opinion, is to maximise the value of Rooney by keeping him at the club.  Easier said than done... but not impossible.

If we take the first option and sell him, this would immediately present a second dilemma: how to use the money.  Again this scenario would present two clear options. 

1. The first option would be for the club to invest the majority, or even all of the money, in the infrastructure to facilitate long term growth of income to eventually support team building.  Whether that means partly funding a new stadium, paying off part of the loan, developing Goodison and installing executive facilities, developing the training and youth facilities, or other means of increasing future revenue streams and improving the Brand's image is up to the Board.
    
2. The second option would be to back the manager and allow him to build a team now that would have to be successful enough to generate income to sustain its growth and attract funding to develop the infrastructure along the way. 

Trevor Birch may well decide the first option will serve the club's interests better than the short-term fix of spending it all on players.  Obviously such a decision would make he and the board unpopular but as I said before it is not his remit to appease the fans.  In recent years the vast majority of investment at Everton has been in the playing staff and look where that's got us.  It would be a huge task for Moyes to be solely responsible for generating income to the club by success on the pitch. 

Whichever option they chose, once the dust had settled on his departure, the club would be back in control and could work at their own pace, being as ambitious for success as they chose to be.  It would be easy then for the club to downsize it's operation, streamlined nicely for the possibility of future life in the Nationwide League if that's what they chose to do.  The anger of the fans would eventually subside into passive acceptance and despair.  Everton have sold their best players before and the team has suffered as a result, yet we are all still here.  That's loyalty for you. 

Again, this is a worst case scenario. I have always tried to be positive about the Board's role at the Club and given them the benefit of the doubt, but there is little doubt that there are question-marks over the Club's ambition.  I still have faith, but it's not always easy.  The bottom line is, however ambitious they may be, without Rooney it is hard to be too optimistic about us being anything but a mid-table Permier League club at best for the foreseeable future.  Just remember, once he has gone, he has almost certainly gone for good, leaving us far behind.

On the other hand, if we choose not to sell Rooney, this opens up a whole host of opportunities and inherent challenges.  If Everton Football Club are not bold enough to grasp the bull by the horns, they should sell him now.  I sincerely hope the club do everything in their power to keep Rooney and that maximising his potential is part of Trevor Birch's remit. 

So, if we decide to keep Rooney, what happens then?

First off, so long as Wayne Rooney is here, the fans have hope of regaining our former stature in the game and the Board will remain under pressure from supporters to find the right players to surround him with.  It may not be much consolation to some, but the fact we are continually linked with, and sometimes acquire, highly rated teenagers who can be bought cheaply, is at least one positive sign for the future. 

Although I am not convinced Everton Football Club have a clear plan as yet, I think work is going on to raise money.  this may take longer than we would like, but that's the nature of the beast.  Even buying a player can be a complicated, drawn out process these days, so I think it's fair to assume investment and sponsorship deals are considerably more lengthy and complex to negotiate and secure.  Given our current standing in the game and lack of finances, attracting such deals in the first place may be even more difficult than actually putting them into place.

This brings me back to Wayne Rooney.  Right, question time: Easy one first, who is Michael Jordan?

Ok, now a trickier one.  Which teams has he played for?  If you are not a basketball fan you probably don't know.  I certainly don't.  Yet I'm sure every team he has played for has profited by his presence.  The individual has transcended his team, even his sport, to become a global brand.  Somehow David Beckham has achieved a similar transcendence, for different reasons; Wayne Rooney is surely next in line.  Image rights may have reduced Everton's proportion of income of direct income from sales of Rooney merchandise, but this doesn't mean we cannot capitalise in other ways.  If part of this means selling England shirts, even with Beckham on the back, in our club shop, so be it.  Personally, it's a compromise I can live with.

The longer Wayne Rooney stays at Everton, the more our profile will rise.  Imagine if he is still here for the next World Cup.  By then he will almost certainly be a global superstar.  In the meantime, now he has found his voice, maybe he could be interviewed after scoring wonder goals for Everton.  Perhaps he could be encouraged to profess his love for Everton, how he is merely trying to live up to the achievements of his idols Dixie Dean and Graeme Sharp in bringing championships and cups to Goodison Park. 

Perhaps, and this may sound radical, he could even spearhead a worldwide radio, television or even newspaper campaign to promote the Brand of Everton Football Club.  This could be a 'Guess Who' series with Rooney's voiceover:

•  'Guess who are the only team to complete a 100 years of English Top Flight football?' 
• Footage of Dixie Dean in action  'This is the most prolific striker English football has ever seen.  He once scored 60 league goals in a season, an all-time record.  Guess who he played for?'

You get the idea.  Whilst this may have limited impact in England, imagine this being broadcast worldwide, in emerging football nations.  When I eulogise about Everton, people laugh; maybe Wayne Rooney saying it would receive a slightly different reaction.  These are merely ideas, but surely a commercial expert could think of many ways to promote the brand of Everton Football Club, School of Science, in line with the brand of Wayne Rooney? 

Maybe I'm naive, but surely keeping hold of Wayne would make a clear statement of intent and before long attract sponsorship, investment, supporters and even players.  After all, if this club is good enough for one of the biggest stars in world football, it must have some attractive qualities.  I think it would then be easier to celebrate our history and identity whilst becoming more relevant to the people who now are involved in football.

If you think all of this sounds fanciful then watch the adverts next time Euro 2004 is on.  Clubs like Arsenal, Real Madrid and Man Utd maintain a high profile increasingly because of the players they have, and the money they attract, rather than just their achievements.  Consider that the European Club Champions have just lost their manager to a club who's sole domestic championship came in 1955.  Whether we like it or not, paying supporters like ourselves are now a relatively small proportion of the income of a major football club.  Although it goes against the grain, football is evolving and leaving traditional clubs with traditional supporters far behind.

If we insist on staying true to our history and tradition at all costs, we are highly unlikely to be successful for a very long time.  If we embrace the changes and accept the artificial facade that surrounds football today we may yet be invited to the feast.  Ironically, if Wayne Rooney decides to stay true to his roots, it may result in us leaving ours behind and becoming part of the merry, Sky-sponsored jamboree after all.  Conversely, if he sells his soul we may have little option but to keep ours intact for a little longer yet.

So there you have it, my plan for greatness.  Keep Rooney, use his name to attract money into the club to stabilise our finances, generate future income and, oh yes, enable us to achieve my initial aim of improving the team, only now on a consistent basis.  No, I hadn't forgotten that bit!  If we are faced with compromising our traditions along the way, then we will have to face each moral dilemma as it comes along.

Alternatively, we can accept our place in the great order of things, sell Rooney to an ambitious club, and continue to struggle to take small steps forward.  We may achieve success this way, but it will surely be harder, and more likely to lead to compromise.  On the surface, receiving £50M for Rooney may make sense to some.  We could buy several players, sort out or training and academy facilities, and start thinking about replacing or improving Goodison.  But in reality, most people are generally quoting figures upward of £100M to put Everton on a sound financial footing with a decent squad of players. 

It would certainly cost considerably more than £40M to build a new stadium or redevelop Goodison to a level that could generate the necessary revenue streams to facilitate continued financial growth, improve our facilities and rebuild the team.  A rights issue may raise a further £15M — still nowhere near enough.  What then?  Where would extra investment come from, with Rooney gone? 

Would it simply be a case of 40,000 heartbroken Evertonians and back to scrabbling about looking for another golden ticket?  How many, Evertonians, bereft of hope, would still turn their nose up at a ground share as possible salvation?  Moral dilemmas indeed.  As a supporter, I want us to hang on to all of our traditions, keep season ticket prices low, keep Rooney, keep Goodison, sign loads of class players and win every trophy going.  As this is extremely unrealistic, I accept I may have to make some compromises along the way.

Of course things can change quickly in football.  Not so long ago, Rooney was a whispered name and the King's Dock was our route to glory.  Perhaps England will be banned from Euro 2004 for further violence.  This may lead to Rooney leaving for a club in the Champion's League to preserve his profile.  Alternatively, it could lead to a downward spiral as casual fans become disillusioned, more violence at Champion's League game leading to English clubs being banned.  Abramovich would be off, other big clubs would be crippled and a traditional English Club, funded primarily by loyal fans, would be in pole position to reclaim their heritage.  Well, I can dream!

Whatever happens, our future is certainly very cloudy.  My faith in the Club seems to take daily knocks, but I'm trying to remain positive.  If Wayne Rooney's head has already been turned, it may be too late, and this article may be largely irrelevant.  Maybe the club should have got their act together earlier, but that's not much help now.  If he still wants to be part of our plans, then I would implore the Club to do everything they can to keep him.  If the club decide to sell him because it is the easy option, my faith in Bill Kenwright would be almost completely eroded.  The sad truth is if he is sold we will probably never know the real reason and whether to blame Rooney for being disloyal or the Club for being greedy and shortsighted.  In my view, the sale of Rooney would be the loss of a fantastic opportunity to transform Everton into a successful, 21st century club.

Still, if Rooney does go, Everton will still remain.  Maybe with Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer up front and Nicky Butt in midfield, but still OUR Everton.  I would still be there and eventually the optimism would return.  After all, you never know what's around the corner.  You never know, maybe the club does have a plan after all.  Well, I can dream.

In the meantime I am just going to enjoy Everton's Wayne Rooney making me proud and raising our profile.  After all he may be somebody else's Wayne Rooney next year.  That's one thing being an Evertonian has taught me.  Enjoy the moment; you never know when it's going to be snatched away.  Enjoy the summer, see you all, yes you as well, young Rooney, in August.  You never know, we might even have signed somebody by then.

Despite the current feeling, my opinion is “The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Royal Blue” — and I don’t mean Chelsea.

Rob Fox

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