FAN ARTICLES
What now for Everton?
Comments (52) : Any club could pick off our star assets and there is nothing we can do about it. The speculation has already started and I for one can?t wait for the end of August. If we just manage to keep the squad together I think that will be a major achievement.
I?ve read articles linking us with a few players, and everyone sums up with the fact we?ll never afford them. The recent article regarding N?Zgobia really highlights the point ? the vast majority of fans want him, think he?ll add something to the team, but at £10million it?s never going to happen.
I think this is the summer we must speculate to accumulate. Borrow the money to invest in players to take this club forward. We can probably generate £4 ? 5 mill in sales (Yakubu, Yobo, Vaughan) and need to raise maybe £20 ? 25 million in loans to bring three players in. I?d be happy with N?Zgobia, a forward is an absolute essential and a left footed-defender (if Baines is injured, we are fucked).
We know the club isn?t really for sale, and people keep citing the fact that we need a new stadium as the stumbling block. It's not... or Liverpool wouldn?t have been sold twice in the last three years. A new stadium would be nice, and it would generate extra income, but football has moved a long way from gate receipts ? money comes from TV & more importantly the Champions League. I seem to remember Destination Kirkby promising an extra £5 ? 10 million income... the Champions league is £30 mill plus.
In my opinion, we have to gamble on qualifying and we have to gamble now. This has probably been the worst Premier League season for a while, Man Utd just scraping over the line with a pathetic 77 points & only 5 away wins. Man City, for all the money they?ve spent, looked very average; we beat them twice & they looked far from convincing against Stoke on Saturday.
We have the core of a great team, but we have to take the next step. It is a massive gamble ? all six teams currently above us will think they have a right to the Champions League before us ? and if we fail to qualify, we?ve just added 50% to our overall debt and are no further on.
But if we don?t go for it, we?ll continue to be a nothing team. Maybe the odd cup run here and there. Our top players being picked off ? Rodwell, Baines, The Big Fella ? and not being able to do anything about it. I just hope somebody at the club has the balls to carry this off but I?m not holding my breath.
Reader Comments (52)
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2 Posted 16/05/2011 at 16:30:00
3 Posted 16/05/2011 at 16:37:34
4 Posted 16/05/2011 at 16:59:04
The perilous financial hardship that prevails, a fact supported by the last three transfer windows, would suggest that Everton do not have financial means or wherewithal to secure, borrow or have funds underwritten by guarantors (inter alia Green, Earl) in the foreseeable future.
Bill Kenwright has no cards left to play and we are listing in terms of a business model or future strategic goal for generating income other than producing and then selling on home-grown talent.
The wealth, greed and monopoly that exists within the EPL in terms of financial power and the ability to pay ludicrous transfer fee's and afford obscene wages means that we are feeding off the crumbs from the top table.
My own conclusion is that the game that we love is dying before our eyes, hijacked and promoted by those with previous in other areas of their business i.e Rupert Murdoch. If what is currently being bandied around is true regarding Manchester City and their next potential forrays into the transfer market, then we are looking at further proof of the death knell of the game being sounded. Yaya Toure is earning a reported £250,000 per week and if what I am hearing is correct they are talking telephone figures upwards of £500k per week for any potential marque signings.
Next season will be interesting no doubt, one that I am increasingly looking to be watching from afar as I steadily become disenfranchised with not just Everton but the game in general.
5 Posted 16/05/2011 at 17:26:41
I'd settle for a breakthrough on the stadium front and a change of ownership. That would be like winning the Champions League for me.
6 Posted 16/05/2011 at 17:49:28
7 Posted 16/05/2011 at 17:48:14
As for the original post, let's just say we did get some money in, and spent it on decent players. Do you think the squad would have the belief in themselves to finish in the top four or win a trophy? I'm asking myself that question a lot lately, and the answer is no.
The current setup seems to just do enough ? and that is good enough for them.
8 Posted 16/05/2011 at 17:58:53
I also agree with the idea of taking a chance. I'd like to see a short-term financial strategy which gave us two seasons to get to the top level by investing to a level comparable with Spurs or Liverpool. This is probably a pipe dream but the problem is that we have absolutely no chance of doing this without money.
If we don't invest, Moyes will always be at a disadvantage, something which some on here do not appear to recognise. Your point about having the core of a good team is essential and indeed is something Moyes has always managed to retain. But again this is something which gets completely ignored and lost in favour of secondary bleatings over team formation and how Moyes uses substitutes.
9 Posted 16/05/2011 at 17:56:27
Well nothing now, but early July we'll see the first of 37 "'Blues raring to go!' says Neville" articles.
This will be followed throughout the summer by numerous positive space-filler pieces in the Echo about how this feller or that feller is over an injury and feels 'stronger than ever' etc blah.
We will be 'linked' with all sorts - good, average, shite and MIGHT pick up a free or two (nb: bums).
We'll win a couple of pre-season games, draw a couple and lose one (nb: if Vaughan doesn't go to Palace, he breaks both legs against the Mississippi Oven Chips)
Late July, the first post to TW along the lines of "With Fellaini fit and if Arteta finds his real form, I really think we could..." will (depressingly) appear.
When the season kicks off, we'll win a few 1-0, loose a few 1-0 and have a few draws.
If we get the 'rub of the green' we'll finish 7th or 8th, if we don't 14th or 15th.
We probably won't go down and we almost certainly won't win anything.
Depressing in the extreme.
Basically, Everton FC will still be 'run' by cunts and 'managed' by a man with the imagination of a coat-hanger.
Well...you DID ask.
10 Posted 16/05/2011 at 18:30:06
When you go to the theatre do you keep standing up and saying, "listen everyone, that's not really Hamlet on the stage, it's an actor with make-up and a wig"?
Hope it's snowing in Sweden.
11 Posted 16/05/2011 at 18:34:52
Eugene @ 8... made me smile. Shit media, fililing shit papers with shit non-stories, what can you do? It's all part of the leviathan which keeps the status quo. Moyes ain't the problem though.
12 Posted 16/05/2011 at 18:37:37
13 Posted 16/05/2011 at 18:21:05
Anyway, enough of that. What next for next season? Thing is, with following any team, you never know quite what is around the corner; how many Stoke fans would've foreseen their club would be in the FA Cup Final back last August? There's one example.
It does look like 7th place this season, but even then we could be overtaken on the last day but I'm quietly confident of hanging on. Next year, top four looks out of the question, hopeful maybe of a European place by some other means; further cup embarrassments may be lurking somewhere, the FA or League Cups may well be the only way we will get our hands on any serious silver and what we don't need is any repeats of Reading this season, or past upsets involving lesser teams... why can't Everton overcome these damn fixtures, then we may get somewhere.
OK, keep it short, next season, pushing for an outer Uefa Cup place, higher mid-table, some consistency, avoid any further cup disasters and see where it takes us. I do think sometimes Moyes has had a good innings here but maybe after nine years and no end product it may be time to look elsewhere and try a new face. I have no issue with Moyes but the club comes first, I'm sure people will realize the need for a trophy to arrive sometime soon.
Each year that goes past, I think it will be our turn again, and it only disappoints. 2010-11 was no exception.
14 Posted 16/05/2011 at 19:16:29
15 Posted 16/05/2011 at 19:18:49
16 Posted 16/05/2011 at 19:21:30
It is very hard following a mid-table club with no expectations and no chance every year.
17 Posted 16/05/2011 at 19:20:55
OR if we're all very well behaved fans we might just get the long overdue mumblings from BK, making a rare appearance on TV... Oooooh, watch this space!!!
18 Posted 16/05/2011 at 20:03:20
So,here we are, most of us struggling to get by,but caring so much about the club while Bill and his cohorts treat this club as a toy.
"What now for Everton?" I've become slightly more hardline and less inclined to do nothing. Scarves, protests, bombarding his facebook page... doing anything possible to get this odious, phoney, two-faced, money-grabbing, slimy impostor out of our club.
19 Posted 16/05/2011 at 20:16:32
20 Posted 16/05/2011 at 20:20:15
It is not that worrying as Everton don't have any star players.
I would not shed a tear if any player left as they are clearly not as good as they think they are.
21 Posted 16/05/2011 at 20:21:45
22 Posted 16/05/2011 at 21:11:03
This means we are probably 4-6 Top 4 quality players short. A top 4 team needs a core of 8 -10 top players supported by another 8 - 12 players ? normally including 3-4 up and coming youngsters, and 3-4 older experienced lads.
How can we possibly afford another 4-6 top players (full back, centre half, wide left man and at least 2 forwards) ? costing at least £50m? We'll be lucky to get 2-3 of these and that will be on the back of selling Fellaini or Rodwell or Baines or two of them to bring in £30m or so.
So it's a never-ending vicious circle: we need more players but can only fund it by selling our best current crop. There is no way Bill & Co will ever get anything more than a couple of million, and that's absolutely useless.
As someone has stated above, the best news we can hope for is for a buy-out to happen. There is no other way this club will be able to compete again at the top table.
23 Posted 16/05/2011 at 21:47:13
24 Posted 16/05/2011 at 22:07:19
25 Posted 17/05/2011 at 02:37:42
Maybe, but he still has more money than Bill. However, Everton don't see a penny and Bill keeps telling us he want's to find investors who care for the club, very strange.
26 Posted 17/05/2011 at 03:36:55
27 Posted 17/05/2011 at 07:41:08
And as it happens, I DID stand up and shout out (if I remember correctly, I shouted "He's beyiiiiiiind you!!").
Sweden?
Well not snow but cold and wet, however when I look out of the window each morning and look at the pissing rain and hear the wind howling, I think..
"This? This is nothing, this is like a beautiful, balmy, sunny summer's day".
My Swedish colleagues, who complain about their climate, ask "how can you nøt be annöyed aboüt the weather, höw can you löøk so positively at it?" and I say (in the same way Steve Martin does in Trains, Planes & Automobiles about Del Griffith) "Because I have watched Everton during the Moyes era. I have watched Kenwright's Everton and after that everything in life is...a breeze".
Hardly negative.
28 Posted 17/05/2011 at 08:49:24
Sweden. Ah, beautiful women, snow tyres, your hosts all over you because you brought a bottle of whisky through Customs for them, the overnight boat to Finland for a tax-efficient company meeting (ie, debauched piss up).
I was offered a 12-month assignment in Sweden once (I had worked there a few times). Never trust a people who, when you?re having a conversation with them as you?re walking along on the street, suddenly start running. They tell you later that it was because they have heard a rustle, and they all learn as children that the rustle is not Billy Dainty coming up behind you, but an imminent fall of snow from an adjacent roof. Or maybe they were running because of my conversation?
Billy Dainty sounds like a winger who should have played for the Shite.
No, you are right, history will probably repeat itself this Summer. Except that without an injection of money soon we are in terminal decline. Manure, Shitty etc will be over the hill and far away. And we will be lucky to cement our status as a feeder club for the Champions League boys.
29 Posted 17/05/2011 at 09:07:56
Come on billionaires, where are you?
30 Posted 17/05/2011 at 09:12:42
Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks!!!
31 Posted 17/05/2011 at 10:11:41
The quality I have ALWAYS looked for in members of the opposite...erm..'number'.
You've guessed it, it's that sexiest of attributes, the 'hint of availability' (nb: I learned SO much at the Gravvy)
Basically, given they look like them and I look like me, I barely give them a second glance.
They probably think me stand-offish.
If only they knew that one glimpse of an average-looking sort with drink and/or psychological problems and my heart would start racing and I'd be sweating like Neil Lennon's postman.
32 Posted 17/05/2011 at 09:52:26
I see it written in the stars that, while the RS talks about refurbishing Mordoc, Kenwright backed by new found gazillions stakes a claim on Stanley Park. Construction of our new ultra modern 65,000 seat stadium begins in less than 40 days.
The RS ownership that by now includes Baseball, Basketball, Grid Iron, and Ice Hockey players plus Popcorn makers, Film stars and snake oil merchants, make enquiries about a ground share. Dear old Blue Bill tells them all to get stuffed.
What really gets up their noses is our new stadium's name is Dixieland.
The only fly in the ointment is Moyes gets a transfer budget of £100 mil and uses it to sign four backs, half dozen defensive midfielders and a striker from the Conference.
33 Posted 17/05/2011 at 10:48:57
34 Posted 17/05/2011 at 11:15:28
35 Posted 17/05/2011 at 11:40:20
All that's left now is to sell off some assets and get rid of the crippling debt.
Rodwell is gone and possibly Baines. As are Yobo, Yakubu and Vaughan.
Some of the money will go towards Fellaini's new contract maybe a bit for David Vaughan or Jay Bothroyd too, but that will be that.
A few seasons of rebuilding our finances await. At least we play better when we've been written off.
36 Posted 17/05/2011 at 11:27:45
Why not do the opposite, sell our wagecap crashing "stars" to the Champions League wannabes, pay off monies owed starting with the frighteningly structured mortgage-on-mortgage loans, reinstate the wage cap and wait for it all to go "BANG!". Then we can start again. Yes, we'll have to endure a few seasons of mid/low placings with Hibbo and Ossie, loanees and promising Championship players, but we're Evertonians, we should be used to lack of recent success.
We don't have the staff for Euro-pleasing football either, so that could be our next project once the loans are paid. Start developing our coaches in non "old school" tactics.
"A gritty reboot of EFC" as the media meme goes.
37 Posted 17/05/2011 at 11:54:05
38 Posted 17/05/2011 at 12:26:10
And I fully agree with the author ? a new stadium won't get us the necessary money; a successful team will.
39 Posted 17/05/2011 at 12:35:37
Can anyone help myself or Eugene with the key to seducing beautiful Swedish women (although I'm probably beyond help)?
40 Posted 17/05/2011 at 12:56:20
With Scandeswegian girls, you can't hurry love, no, you just have to wait
or look like Sammy Davis Jr or Peter Sellers (not as they are now, of course)
41 Posted 17/05/2011 at 13:54:05
'We might hang on to 7th'.... yeah, if we lose and Stoke win away at City who are going for 3rd and if they get it will bypass the qualifying round of the CL
Overly aggressive portions of this post were removed by moderators
42 Posted 17/05/2011 at 15:22:39
Exactly the same stuff we've had for years - mediocrity.
43 Posted 17/05/2011 at 15:45:20
As for our beloved club, I'd like us to be richer and more competitive too but, as an accidental shareholder in Stockport County, their relegation to the Conference has given me a sense of perspective. I know they've never amounted to much and have a history rather like Tranmere's, but their fans are suffering much more than we are!
45 Posted 17/05/2011 at 16:39:21
46 Posted 17/05/2011 at 20:50:55
47 Posted 17/05/2011 at 22:31:01
48 Posted 18/05/2011 at 06:33:15
Everton FC financially need to sell the highest earners, it's madness to keep them, we can't afford them, not now and probably never until we have a sugar daddy.
If you tie up all your money on contracts which it appears we have or about to do, then it leaves us with no money to strengthen anywhere else. People need to get real and do the simple math. We have no money, these high earning players add to our debt.
Whether we like or not until such time as we aquire wealth we are going to have to put up with Moyes or anyone else trying to do wonders with mediocre players..thats the only viable way forward, or else we'll end up with a walter smith team, of old useless farts..just look at the current age of the first team most are already in their late 20's early 30's.
49 Posted 18/05/2011 at 06:49:21
50 Posted 18/05/2011 at 06:52:30
We know Fellaini's best position is just in front of the back four, he had a really good half season, last year, but this year in the advanced roll... sorry, but Moyes needs to get him back to his best position, and try to work our some sort of strategy to keep him as injury-free as possible.
Until he is back in his natural good position and can last a season, then he will never be able to deliver at the top end (key word is consistency, which this season, compared to last and out of position has been mediocre to say the least).
51 Posted 18/05/2011 at 09:41:16
52 Posted 18/05/2011 at 12:44:27
To criticise a player for being injury-prone, I am inclined to think of when their body breaks down with no outside help. Fellaini has been booted everywhere and the injuries were caused by another player, not because his body wasn't able to take playing games.
53 Posted 18/05/2011 at 22:23:00
I thought Greta was German.
So we're shagging Swedes and Germans now.
Leave it to the supporters to expand the fanbase.
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1 Posted 16/05/2011 at 16:23:41