FAN ARTICLES

Summer 2011-12:? Operation Drastic Overhaul

By Matthew Lovekin :  22/04/2011 :  Comments (26) :

Everton have got themselves into a situation where every penny that comes into the club is accounted for and goes straight back out again. There is no cash in the bank and ultimately there is no transfer budget for the manager ? not last season, not this summer, not ever! ? unless something drastic changes (a billionaire investor is extremely unlikely and makes the club live outside their own means).

On the last financial accounts, Everton?s income was close to £80M. However, staff wages were £54M. Other operating costs accounted for £21M ? and the board should provide a detailed analysis of what these ?other operating costs? were. However, let?s say this £21M other operating costs are genuine and that Everton have to pay this money out. The target is to have a surplus cash flow every year to give the manager a transfer budget.

Everton can try to increase their income, which they are trying to do with the new building (when it gets started!) by the Park End. They could also build more hotels, restaurants, executive boxes, casinos ? anything that generates money ? but space is limited at Goodison and it all takes time to build. The quickest and easiest way to produce a transfer budget is to cut expenses, namely player wages.

In my opinion, the Board should limit the wage budget to 50% of the income to stop this current situation happening again. Nothing should break this budget, no player is more important than the future of our club. Therefore, if our income is £80M, our wage budget should be £40M per season or £770k per week. With our current situation, it would mean trying to save £14M in wages per season or £270k p/w.

With a squad of 25 first-team players, it averages out at £30k p/w per player. This may not seem a lot but it is the average. We normally have about 5 or 6 youngsters in the squad that probably earn no more than £5k p/w. This means the highest earners can earn £50k p/w, similar to what we pay now (apart from Arteta). I believe the Board have mis-managed over the last few years in constantly increasing player wages. I understand the idea is to keep the players at the club but feel we have increased wages too early and in some cases, unnecessarily.

The quick way to reduce wages is a fire-sale. Not good youngsters like Fellaini and Rodwell, but part of Moyes?s golden generation like Yakubu and Yobo that are on higher wages and haven?t justified them. A clear-out is needed, and I would quite happily sell Yakubu (£5M, £50k p/w), Yobo (£4M, £40k p/w), Bily (£6M, £40k p/w), Heitinga (£8M, £55k p/w), Mucha (£1M, £20k p/w) along with Arteta (£10M, £75k p/w) as we can?t afford his wages and Anichebe (£1M, £20k p/w) and Vaughan (£1M, £10k p/w) who I feel simply isn?t going to make the grade. Now all these figures are purely subjective and roughly what I believe to be true, but if it were the case would raise £36M and more importantly save £310k p/w in wages.

However, if Everton did sell those eight players, we obviously would need to bring in replacements. These replacements are where Everton can rebuild and save money as youngsters generally cost less in wages as they haven?t established themselves yet.

With a decent transfer budget, Everton should be looking at signing the best British youngsters. Players like Connor Wickham from Ipswich (£15M, £15k p/w), Alex Chamberlain from Southampton (£10M, £10k p/w) are players to target. Obviously other clubs will want to sign them, but I believe the ?Sky 4? won?t move for them as they won?t be tried enough to put them straight into their first-teams.

Even clubs like City and Spurs can?t afford to take a risk on a young player from the lower leagues and drop an established player from their line-up. A promising youngster will look at a club like Everton and see that they can break straight into their first-team and play for a good club that can be challenging for honours in a couple of years, given the right management. It is also a good chance to change the style and formation that clearly isn?t as effective anymore. Promising wingers like Dale Jennings from Tranmere (£1M, £5k p/w) and Kazenga Lua Lua from Newcastle (£1M, £5k p/w) could be purchased.

In terms of increasing the squad numbers, I think a club like Everton should play the Bosman and loan markets even more. A lot of Bosman signings went in January this year as clubs preferred to get something rather than nothing. However, there are still a few gems out there like Matt Gilks (£10k p/w) from Blackpool and Jay Boothroyd (£15k p/w) from Cardiff to fill the ranks.

If Everton accomplished these signings, it would be a net spend £27M and only an increase in wages of £60k p/w. There are also plenty of loan signings to try for, especially youngsters from the ?big? clubs. Players like Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs and Henri Lansbury from Arsenal or Daniel Sturridge, Gael Kakuta or Jeffrey Bruma from Chelsea would be good signings if their clubs wanted to give them a year?s experience in the Premier League. Sergio Canales of Real Madrid is another hugely promising young player that is unlikely to get many, if any, starts for the Spanish giants. Everton should use the maximum loans available to them to boost the squad numbers.

Everton have always been a club that likes players from the youth academy to come through into the first team; players like Shane Duffy, James Wallace, Adam Forshaw and Ross Barkley look like they have enough about them to at least be given a shot in the first team. Generally, you can tell if a young player is going to make it or not when given an early opportunity and Gueye and Vellios have impressed so far so why not try a few more youngsters rather than sit them in the reserves and loan them out?

If all this wheeler-dealing went through, Everton would have £9M left to throw at the debts and save £250k p/w in wages which is close to the target of £270k p/w which as mentioned would generate a transfer budget target of £14M. Everton could start next season with Howard; Neville, Baines, Jagielka, Distin; Fellaini, Rodwell, Cahill; Gueye, Chamberlain, Wickham, playing in an attacking 4-3-3 and keeping Cahill in his preferred position with two wide forwards cutting inside. The bench would comprise of Gilks, Hibbert, Coleman, Osman, Barkley, Saha, and Beckford. There would be plenty of options, especially in attack with Vellios and Boothroyd competing and getting chances if we change to a 4-4-2 and a couple of back-up wingers in Jennings and Lua Lua. Coleman would also be encouraged to become a right-back and take over from Neville during the season.

Admittedly, this is all not a quick fix, but sorting out the finances to allow for a transfer budget and signing some of Britain?s most promising youngsters is certainly a step in the right direction. Another massive bonus about signing youngsters is that hopefully you won?t have to sign another player for that position for a long time. For example, if Everton sign Chamberlain from Southampton to play on the left-wing and he turns into a success, providing we can match his ambitions, that?s the left-wing sorted for about ten years! This in turn means there are fewer positions to spend money on. It is a domino effect if Everton carry on signing youngsters, do the same again the following summer, although not as much drastic change is needed.

If Everton saved £250k p/w in wages from the 2011-12 season, that generates a £13M transfer budget for 2012-13. With that £13M budget and sales of Saha (released, free, £50k p/w), Cahill (£2M, £50k p/w) as I wouldn?t have a bit part player on the bench for £50k p/w, Neville (make a coach, £40k p/w) and Beckford or Boothroyd, whichever has been least impressive (£2M, £15k p/w) makes a total transfer budget of £17M and another £155k p/w into the wages budget! This domino effect then makes us able to sign a world class youngster.

A player like Bojan from Barcelona would be excellent but his wages could be a stumbling block, or Romelu Lukaku from Anderlecht who is certainly an option with £135k p/w available in this budget. Obviously if players like Wickham and Chamberlain start fulfilling their potential their agents will push for bigger contracts, but if we can sign Lukaku on say, £60k p/w then there is still £75k p/w in the wages budget to play around with. As long as Everton stay within that budget, then we will always have a transfer budget, unlike the current situation.

Everton could start the 2012 season playing 4-4-2 (now we don?t have to accommodate Cahill) with Howard; Coleman, Baines, Jagielka, Distin; Chamberlain, Fellaini, Rodwell, Gueye; Lukaku, Wickham. Now that is a hugely promising and attack minded team with Duffy, Barkley and Vellios on the bench. Both full-backs, Coleman and Baines can bomb forward with two great box-to-box midfielders (Fellaini and Rodwell), two out-and-out wingers and two potentially fearsome world class strikers. The captain would be Jagielka alongside the ever-fit Distin who I believe could follow the likes of Beckham and Giggs and play into his late thirties.

It all may sound a bit too surreal and even Championship Manager-esque and we may miss out on a few players or the players that we sign may not be exactly the ones mentioned above, but the main point is there needs to be a plan in place for the good of Everton Football Club, and that is strict financial restrictions. Everton may lose some players, à la Rooney or Pienaar, but, as long as we have that set plan in place, we are always going along the right road; and if we invest in youngsters, whether British or worldwide, then we could even turn out to be the next Arsenal. Better still, if we invest more in our own academy and focus on youngsters, we could be the next Barcelona! The academy at Barca, La Masia, costs £5M per year to run. Instead of Everton having their £14M transfer budget per season, we could have a £10M transfer budget and put the other £4m into recruitment and training in the academy.

It is all possible, with a little bit of common sense and a good managerial running of the club at Board level which unfortunately seems to have been lacking recently. I feel as though Everton have to act drastically this summer in order to get the finances in check and not fall further behind the opposition. We simply can?t go on as we are now and fans, the manager and the Board that believe otherwise are simply burying their heads in the sand.

Reader Comments (26)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads