ToffeeWeb - Season 2009-10

The Mail Bag

Statement of Intent?

If rumours from 'respectable' journalists (if such a being exists) are to believed, Jack Rodwell has agreed a five-year deal with us. If true — and they say we will find out in next 24/48 hours — then for me this is a huge statement of intent from Everton to keep hold of their best players and challenge on all fronts next season.

Some may say that the Pienaar extension is more important... I disagree. I like Pienaar a lot but his departure would be cushioned with a £10-£12m replacement with hopefully less baggage.

No, for me, to convince one of the brightest prospects in English football to stay with us and not succumb to the riches of other teams (a la Rooney) is a huge coup for us and I for one will see my season ticket renewal as money well spent and would look forward to next season with great optimism.

Arteta loves Everton — I am sure we can convince him to extend; Jags also is a different animal than Lescott and, if Rodwell signs, the players must truly believe that we can push on and end the barren trophy years with a nice shiny Cup next season.

If the journos are correct, Rodwell will be on his way to true legend status so early in his career and we will have on our hands (dare I say it..?) the new Gerrard and someone who could be just as influential (let's hope he shares his luck)...

If I am wrong and he leaves... well I was not bothered anyway! :)
Steve Callaghan, Liverpool Posted 21/05/2010 at 21:26:22

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Eric Myles
1 Posted 22/05/2010 at 03:21:47

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Rodwell will be on his way to true legend status so early in his career and we will have on our hands (dare I say it..?) the new Gerrard and someone who could be just as influential (let's hope he shares his luck)... but not his diving cheating and thuggish beahaviour.

James Flynn
2 Posted 22/05/2010 at 03:25:49

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Steven - Your post brings to mind something we don't talk about much in here; what the players think of the organization, the locker room, and their chances next season. If we think, and it seems most of us do, next season holds tremendous promise, the players must know next season could be big. Interesting to see the reports of key guys re-upping or about to. Remember a while back Moyes talking about retaining players as the key to the off-season? It looks like he meant it.

Maybe ownership understands it's now or never with this version of EFC and must roll the financial dice. Moyes has built this squad. These are his guys and they're good. If not next year, then when? How else can a "small-market" club compete at the top other than the way Moyes has built EFC. If the best he can hope for is building a feeder team for rich clubs, how long will EFC be able to retain him?

Which means at some point ownership has to take a deep breath and start writing checks with the idea that big money (CL, merchandise, increased media coverage, etc) follows top clubs.

In the same vein as your post, I think Moyes should take one last crack at Pienaar after securing Arteta, then announce all negotiations off until after the season (avoid distractions don't you know) when EFC will bid for Pienaar against whatever clubs pursue him.

Not much Pienaar could do but play his ass off, right?

Craig Taylor
3 Posted 22/05/2010 at 08:36:42

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Yeah statement of intent, just like when Rooney signed a new contract the year before he left.

I expect him to stay this season, but if we are in te same old position financially this time next year, he will be off to Man Utd.

Mark Pendleton
4 Posted 22/05/2010 at 08:50:58

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The Premier League in it's current set-up means that no club can afford to have a tilt at spending big and gambling on a top 4 place unless they have a bottomless pit of cash. The league structure in terms of finance is completely wrong and the gap between Europe League and Champions League riches is unhealthy for the game. Plus an overhaul needs to be made so that clubs can only spend a certain percentage of their turnover on salaries. If they want to then spend big they can — on investing in academies, developments in poorer nations and their club infrastructure to encourage organic growth.

It is with the above in mind that EFC can simply not afford to "roll the financial dice". And I wouldn't thank them for such irresponsibility either. If we lose Jack in 12 months time, I'll be disappointed but so be it. Few could really argue that the Rooney cash generally improved the squad. After the initial problems caused, few would argue again that the squad is better after the Lescott cash. And if Jack goes (like most of our players) it certainly wouldn't be on the cheap.

We are envied by many a club and as long as we keep finding gems and developing our own gems then we'll continue to grow. If we keep them, great, if we don't we'll find others like Pienaar, Cahill, Jagz, Heitinga and Arteta etc. that we can buy three of for each of the Rooneys/Rodwells that move on.

IMWT COYB

Mike McLean
5 Posted 22/05/2010 at 11:52:26

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# 4: I agree with most of this but with two caveats: in what sense exactly do we continue to grow? And, while I applaud his admirable efforts to get the team playing proper football, "IMWT" is one of those cheap slogans which don't bear even the slightest examination, in my opinion.

David Hallwood
6 Posted 22/05/2010 at 11:49:34

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I agree with Mark Pandleton (#4) about the cash distribution, the irony is that one of the main movers & shakers in the formation of the Premier League was Philip Carter — talk about being hoisted by your own petard.

But, to get back to the post, I’m pleased Steve put 'respectable' in inverted commas because they don’t exist, certainly not in close season. For instance, we’re being linked with Citteh’s Martin Petrov... why? Has Moyes said that he’s interested in him? If so I’ve missed it. What the journalists are doing is what we do as fans on websites and in this case we need a winger Petrov needs a club-no brainer, or Fabregas is on his way to Barca (is he!?! When?) and he’s going to be replaced by Arteta.

Now when this musing comes from me or Doddy or Michael Kenrick it’s a wish list, when it comes from a journalist, it becomes holy writ and is discussed and debated on fan’s websites ad infinitum. A suggestion to the webmeisters, sack the rumour mill and delete any post that has been generated because of an‘exclusive’ in the papers.

Antony Matthews
7 Posted 22/05/2010 at 14:12:11

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Most contracts now have clauses built into them by the players' agents. Me thinks a £30M release clause will be activated if the Blues go backwards next year.

Christopher McCullough
8 Posted 22/05/2010 at 14:17:09

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Anthony — I don't have a problem with such a clause. It shows that: a) he is determined to pursue a successful career in football; and b) he cares about Everton.

Alex Kociuba
9 Posted 22/05/2010 at 16:37:25

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Everyone, including myself, has no idea. Its all private and confidential and speculation or blind guessing is all anyone can do.

Michael Kenrick
Editorial Team
10 Posted 22/05/2010 at 17:33:03

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David (@ #6): Rarely (for me!), I agree with you totally regarding the rumour-mill, speculation, so-called transfer links, and all the rest of the utter drivel that fills the papers and the internet ad nauseam throughout the silly season.

However, we're pissing in the wind if we want to pretend or hope that more than a handful of Evertonians is going to steadfastly ignore all this bollocks for three months through the summer.

Ironically, I started the rumour mill on this website years and years ago, with the intention of documenting a demonstrating how 95 to 99% of all such stories were just total bollocks. That sad fact has been reinforced every season... but it still does nothing to counter the other sad fact — that our most popular pages are those which feature transfer speculation. If you want independent proof, just look at the top stories the NewsNow Everton webpage lists, and count how many of the top-linked stories are pure silly season bollocks,

In short, it's what The People want. Far be it from me...

ps: I should add, however, that we do exercise some restraint:

We only put stories in the Rumour Mill that have linkable sources which can be followed and reviewed by our readers — who are of course free to make up their own minds regarding veracity... or lack thereof;
Mailbag items (and rarely Fan Articles) responding to transfer links appearing in our Rumour Mill will usually be published to provide discussion space for publicly linked players;
Wish-list type FM posts to our Mailbag about the player(s) you or I or anyone else might want at Everton, but who have NOT been publicly linked, are consigned to the recycle bin;
The "sister's friend's mate's brother's uncle" type tales are allowed as comments to other threads (be it upon your own heads!) but will not be posted as Mailbag Items or Fan Articles.

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