We recently received this critique from a reader going by the name
of Royal Blue Toffee:
First of all, may I congratulate
ToffeeWeb and its contributors as one of the most informative sources
of useful and up-to-date info on Everton. However, while I’m not
‘scared’ of bad news or the ‘reality checks’ espoused here, I am a
little weary of the occasional manipulation of the facts that can be
misleading to the ordinary Evertonian. One of the most annoying is
'Now, this tripling of Everton's debt under TBH, despite the sale of
over £40M's worth of homegrown talent...'.
In order to get anywhere near ‘a tripling of … debt’ I must presume
the level of debt it refers to is that from the recently published
accounts which were to financial year end May 04. To refer to this
figure and state it is despite receiving £40M is a gross
misrepresentation. The only way to arrive at a value of £40M for home
grown talent is to include the Wayne Rooney sale. This clearly is not included
in those accounts figures as it occurred later than May 04. I would
also note that it appears to value Wayne Rooney at £23M (£17M for Dunne, Jeffers
and Ball), a figure often ridiculed on ToffeeWeb.
Of course you may have a view that the debt is unchanged or has
increased since May 04 despite the sale of Rooney. I doubt however that that
could be substantiated as most other indicators suggest quite the
opposite (though admittedly mainly due to the sale of Rooney, an improved
league position, increased ticket costs and a reduced squad).
As a second point the statement also conveniently ignores the fact
that we have also bought players during that period. A simple analysis
using the transfer dealing figures from the TW’s own pages for the 4
full accounting years under TBH indicates around £44M of purchases
against £31M of sales. This suggests a nett loss of around £13M, not
accounting for agents’ fees, loan costs and other levies which, for
these sort of figures, would be substantially over £5M. We can, of
course, criticise those purchases though that still doesn’t
substantiate inferring that the debt ‘tripling’ is despite receiving
£40M.
Don’t misunderstand me I vehemently agree that we should have begun
sorting our finances long before now and started recovering these
losses. I’m also sure that you’re fully aware of the inaccuracy of
linking the statements in the above remark (similar figures were
pointed out as long ago as the EGM which presumably is more
accurate?). My request on behalf of all those searching for the truth
about our beloved club is if you want to accuse others of spinning the
truth please don’t twist it yourself, you’re better than that… and no,
I’m not a Bill Kenwright supporter, far from it!
Some good points raised there, Royal... or should we call you Blue?
Anyway, taking them in turn:
