The Mail Bag
Mid-table Mediocrity
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Another transfer window closes and yet again we have failed to make a mark on it. Signing only a unproven teenager from Greece and losing one of our best players to a divisional rival for a measly price places a grim look on how we may finish our season. Despite it only being half-way through, we usually have kicked in to gear by now; unfortunately, our roller-coaster campaign cannot end well at this rate, and with the window shut, it is only pure inspiration which can save us from a dismal outing in 2011.
In previous seasons we have done a remarkable job to get to where have, 5th and 6th place finishes continually have been a true achievement which David Moyes should take credit for. It is no secret we are an underrated club and usually shy away from the headlines unless we do upset the so-called big 4, (if we can even call them that anymore). However, the most disappointing thing is that, no matter how hard we try, how many cheap Championship players we buy, and no matter how big our hearts may be, we will never be taken to the next level without financial backing. The days of lion hearts, and underdogs are fast becoming history, with more and more clubs being bought out to cater for their financial needs.
The saddening concept of contemporary football is that it has become like a business, where money talks, clubs like Tottenham are able to offer £30 million plus for world class players such as Aguero, Forlan etc, yet only a few seasons ago we matched their achievements of a Champions League appearance with money generated only through the sale of Wayne Rooney. Only 2-3 seasons ago Tottenham and also money bags Man City were dreaming of achieving what we had.
Without money, we will never progress to where we need to be; players like Cahill, Arteta, Distin, Howard will not be around for ever, and we need to start thinking about our future, if we are unable to even land Niko Kranjcar,, how are we able to replace Tim Cahill when he runs out of juice?
How is it that an untried teen from Southampton has a price tag of £10 million? Ridiculous inflation is on the rise and to compete we must be spending our money; if Kenwright cannot do that, then I believe it's time he looked to cash in on foreign investment, because, if he was a true fan, he would put the club ahead of himself. Until that happens, I can't see us rising to our once great heights, and even further.
Goodbye to glorious Euro League evenings, FA Cup finals and feel good stories at Goodison Park and hello to mid-table mediocrity.
Yessar Daou, Posted 01/02/2011 at 05:23:13
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How fuckin desperate.... hahahahahahahahahahahaha...!!
It is time Blue Bill came out and told what exactly is happening at our once great club rather than hanging Moyes out to dry.
Fellaini will probably be sold for big money in the summer, and Moyes will use the money to make the team stronger. He may have his faults, but that's what he's good at.
At the time, it's always hard to see a key player leave for big money, but in hindsight, the money we've received has improved the team.
However, yesterday was madness. I personally think the RS threw £17m down the drain by buying when the market was high. If you'd have taken a straw poll on Sunday night and asked footy fans how much Andy Carroll was worth I'd guess most would say approx £14-15m. However, the RS desperation is a little nicer than our own desperation.
Given our current situation, the high stakes and how the financial bar has again been raised, I think med-table mediocrity will now be an achievement this season following the shambles so far.
This chapter in EFC's history can be sub-titled, "Hard Times".
The one upshot is than the Andy Carroll fee has hopefully inflated all other transfer fees. On this basis, surely Fellaini will bring in £25-30 million in the summer.
You said that a loan signing before 11pm was a certainty
Any chance on explaining why you got it so totally wrong???
No mad monday signing? No sane signing as well! (Hard to categorise the Greek signing at the moment...)
No buisnessplan.
No money.
No backers.
Skint Chairman.
Average squad.
Pissed off manager.
How fucking desperate is that.
No sign of glory days in this millenium, never mind round the corner.
Who's in a worst state?
Leave the kopshites to themselves, it's us you should be worrying about.
They will always come out smelling of roses as the devil looks after his own.
Gavin - Moyes used some of the Lescott money on Bily, he hasn't exactly made the squad stronger and given simple economics on football you can't sell one player and guarantee you can replace him with lots of better players for the same money.
Football player prices are ridiculous: say you sell Fellaini or Rodwell and let's say for arguments sake they are on £25k a week and replace them with four new players if you are lucky who will have to be offered £20k-£25k a week ? that means instantly you are paying more out in wages. The mathematics simply don't add up unless you replace a decent player with say an unknown Greek kid you might get away with paying £5k a week... hmmm maybe thats the master plan from BK.
You lose a decent player in the hope a kid not ready for the first team might make it, your results drop, your league placing drops but hey you've saved £20k a week but lost £500k per league place you've slipped...
Christ, I was sat in front of telly watching the Torres fiasco thinking, "Would a call to Chelsea to get Sturridge on loan be a wise move?" ? and yes it would have been, as proven by Owen Coyle! Carlos Vela, Bentley, O'Hara, Ireland ? even bloody Gudjonson or Martins I would have taken!
Every team around us has got players in to help them. At this rate, I would bite someone's hand off if they offered us a top 10 finish! (And that pisses me off!)
I don't care whether BIll Kenwright was in the Boys Pen or Walton Jail. I do care about the slow motion train crash we have all be watching for years.
We know what the problem is, and it has been the same for more than a decade now: it is lack of decent funding. We don't need to be the Shite, Shitty or Chelsea: much of their cash gets wasted anyway. We just need to give the manager £30-50 million, and I genuinely think he would then have a chance to sort things out, and not have to base our game on having what we hold and on defence.
So we need more cash; everyone knows this. So why doesn't the Chairman or someone on the board do something about it? They have had long enough, and the value of their investment must be beginning to fall now. To continue as we are defies logic. They seem to have their collective thumbs up their arses and their minds in neutral.
Suarez is a top class striker, and whilst they paid way over the odds for Carroll, probably £20M would have been about right, you can't deny the lad is a huge talent, and is still only 21.
Also, I find it funny that the shite are being slagged for paying (rightly so) over the odds, when on here, we have some fans saying Fellaini has got to be worth at least £30M, and Rodwell between £25-30M.
It seems to me that a firesale is pending as we need to get the club debt free first and foremost and in a position where the Sky TV money etc has not already been borrowed against.
I know saying this is all well and good considering that we cannot be 100% sure of the how deep the clubs debts run but in Moyes we have a manager who has the proven track record of unearthing diamonds and building competitive teams. I can only hope that the Board and the Moysiah have already come to this conclusion and the youth players that we are seeing arrive shows the start of things to come.
It's not going to be an easy ride but when has anything been easy on the good ship Everton!
Moyes used the Lescott money to buy Heitinga, Distin and Bily. Bearing in mind, Lescott mainly played at left-back for us (and we already had Baines), I think it's pretty obvious that the team is better without him!
Whether we like the idea or not, Everton FC is the second club in a comparatively small city. Not only that, but there are other huge clubs no more than half-an-hour's drive away as well as other single town clubs like Blackburn, Bolton and Blackpool nearby.
As much as we may love her, the stadium is an absolute tip by modern standards and while our ancient history is a match for anybody's, our recent history is nondescript and the famous name of Everton has slipped below the event horizon.
The club is run by an enthusiastic if incompetent supporter who is well-off but is not rich by Abramovich standards, supported by a few of his mates who otherwise have no emotional attachment to the club and certainly no motivation to improve the situation.
In light of all this, exactly who would be prepared to invest huge sums or buy the club? This is Everton's problem. It is in the least advantageous position of all the Premier League clubs in terms of attracting investment and that is why I can never understand the view that Kenwright is the problem in this respect (though he may be the problem in other respects!) because he won't sell. I can't see anybody wanting to buy the club except a billionaire Evertonian just as enthusiastic as he is and I don't think there are too many of those about.
An Asian consortium bought Blackburn. Why, when there is historically a much bigger club available down the road (Everton)? Simply because there is a business plan and business opprtunities. A single-town club with a huge Asian population and, together with traditional supporters, this provides considerable scope for growth. Where is the potential for growth as far as Everton FC is concerned?
Before it could start there is the problem of the stadium. The second problem is raising the brand image and that is difficult enough (ask Man City) but is made even harder by the proximity of the Shite. Shite they may be but a bigger brand nonetheless. To overcome that disparity needs consistent success and that would require considerable outlay but when the need for a new/improved stadium is added to the potential costs, is it any wonder investors would go to Sunderland, Blackburn, City, Villa, West Ham or Birmingham rather than to us?
These problems have to be solved one at a time if they can be solved at all. Manchester City used to be club in pretty much the same situation as ourselves. They had two advantages. One was being located in a bigger city which allowed for easier potential growth notwithstanding the presence of Utd. But the main advantage was the stadium. To an investor the stadium was a given. Not theirs yet, but there and standing. A shit of a stadium in many respects but modern and it meant one less problem and huge cost to contend with.
Utd and the Shite have shown that growth is possible outside of being a single-town club so that need not be an insurmountable problem. This means that the stadium issue is the one to be solved. Until it is, I cannot see anybody wanting to buy or invest heavily in Everton FC and, accordingly, whatever we may think of him, the idea that Kenwright is turning investors away in their droves because he wants to keep his toy to himself is just plain ridiculous.
There are just too many impediments that accompany Everton FC as far as investors would be concerned, and the biggest of those is the stadium. That is the problem to be solved before any permanent progress can be made towards returning this club to the status it once so richly deserved.
The fact is, Moyes used the Lescott money to buy Heitinga, Distin and Bily. The team is now better off because of it.
He also did the same with the Rooney money (Arteta, Cahill, Pienaar, Baines etc)
He will probably make the team stronger with the Fellaini money (who we all know will be sold in the summer, as he will only have 2 years left on his contract).
I know who I would rather keep! Fellaini is destined for the very top and I could quite easily see him playing for Madrid, Barcelona or whoever in time.
Rodwell is a totally different player and in my opinion is being totally stunted by Moyes. He is not an attacking midfielder by any stretch of the imagination.
The O'Neill money: £1M went to Athletico Madrid to pay the final installment on Heitinga, £3M down, £1M in 3 months and £1M in 6 months.
These are facts from people involved in the bank transfers of these sums.
He's tried to keep the squad together, it hasn't worked and won't work until we have at least 2 decent strikers. He doesn't have the money to buy strikers...... so there's only one option left.
Selling Cahill, Arteta and 2 others to provide him with £30M or so. With that he needs to pull in 6 signings for £5M a pop. Only problem is that they all need to turn out to be Cahills and Artetas..... and not Kroldrups, Beatties or van der Meydes.
What he absolutely needs to do is keep hold of the young players who are improving. The Rodwells, Fellainis and Colemans in the side. It's going to be tough, but the only choice is to call time on a squad where age is catching up fast and investment is a pipe-dream.
With no money, no drawing power /or interest for loan players and no ambition and a manager who has run out of ideas after 9 years, I believe it's going to be very rough until the end of the season and maybe into next season as well. We have young players who do not get a look-in even when the so called first teamers are playing poorly so why even bring a couple more in?
They very rarely have any future at Goodison. Rodwell now should stay in the team as the defensive midfielder/centre back cover as he is clearly not a forward player but has a lot of talent otherwise we will lose him. Fellaini should be the more forward midfielder. If Saha stays fit then he should start more with Beckford until Cahill is fit.
Do yourself a favour & shut the fuck up so you stop looking like a prize Penis, on this site! Or are you going to claim that Stellios from 'easygoal' is a real signing?
Well said mate - couldn't have out it better myself.
That shower of shite over the park are laughin' at us and that REALLY pisses me off. In fact EVERY fucker is laughin' at us. AGAIN.
Had me fill me.
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1 Posted 01/02/2011 at 07:34:48
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