Season 2011-12
The Mail Bag
A few suggestions
21 Comments: Firstly, for those that are not aware, I fully support the agenda of the Blue Union and in particular The People's Group. However I do see a number of obvious issues the club could be active on immediately to try and show leadership and demonstrate to the fans that, although some things take time and will be difficult to achieve, i.e. a sale of the club, there are plenty of things that should be done to deal with the situation of having a £5 million deficit per annum.
My suggestions (none particularly original but useful none the less) are as follows
Remove Keith Harris from the selling process of the club;
Appoint an interim board to sell the club whilst bringing a fresh, business-savvy approach to maximising earning potential, turnover etc;
Get an undertaking from Earl and Woods and Carter that they will invest personal wealth into the club to the tune of £10 million if this is the amount Kenwright claims to have invested also ? show the fans that the board is committed and that we are ?in this together? and not just out for a quick buck.
Proactively and openly commence discussions with the Council and with Liverpool FC to bring clarity over the issue of shared stadia, and a football quarter, development of Goodison;
Look into naming rights sale;
Fully consider a share rights issue;
Move quickly to bring clarity around the Park End development and in the meantime brick up that damn wall!!
Actively look to reduce the wage bill in January. If we need to lose some of the more expensive earners to reduce overheads then do so. The likes of Heitinga, Neville and Cahill are not contributing enough these days to justify wages £60k and above.
Grant Smith, Posted 26/08/2011 at 13:33:42
Comments
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I understand and accept that people have the right to express their ill-conceived ideas and appreciate that in some cases they do so with the best interest of our club in mind.
However, invariably these such posts lead onto negative responses towards the club's management which are just splitting the fanbase and will be more responsible for accelerating the decline of EFC than any short-coming of the management team.
If we can't stick together at this crucial juncture in our history then we will end causing self-fulfilling prophecies.
I am not advocating a "head in sand" stance but FFS let's look for the positive unifying aspects that can allow us to get behind the club, TEAM and MANAGEMENT.
I suspect my plea will fall on deaf ears as this site seems inhabited by the soothsayers who are only too willing to jump on board negative posts (vis a vis Lyndon's crock of crap).
COME ON FFS, get behind our beloved club at this critical time.
This means we have to sacrifice £5 million of funding per year to start with - but that is already happening this year.
Then we have to start a fund to ultimately support loans to radically improve our stadium, either by moving or redeveloping. Possible cost is another £5 million a year from the club - a further £5 million a year compared with this year - a huge cut realistically but the long term outlook is a gradual erosion of our standing.
This fund would also be a suitable place for directors and others to make donations in the knowledge that it is for bricks and mortar rather than going into the pockets of players & disappearing. Perhaps they could even be buying a percentage of the final stadium that they could sell on in the future. Also an ideal fund for supporters to donate to/buy part of.
At the moment it is more important that we have improved facilities and majority ownership rather than complete ownership - these are desperate times.
The stadium underpins everything else, we can't go on as we are.
Where would we find £5 million a year? Savings on operating costs and the first team squad would have to be made for the long term good.
£5 million is the wages of 3 top first team players so it will be tough and we must not risk relegation. Everything over and above that fund must still go to Moyes, stability will be crucial and Moyes is a huge part of that.
It's not a great situation but other than wait for the mythical big investor it is important now to be proactive on a stadium.
This would allow some younger squad replacements in and hopefully cover their wages, without affecting the main first team as these guys are not regulars.
On a slightly different note, I like Moyes a lot and have great respect for how he lifted us for the first few years. Him moaning about not having pacy wingers and attackers in the side is not good. He spent £9m on Bily and he is blatantly not a quick winger (though on You tube he looks rapid - may have been an impulse buy after seeing a DVD!).
This could have gone on someone with real pace who would make a difference to our very one paced midfield - its not rocket science, we have needed pace for years, any regular fan could tell you that.
The money we save from selling these players may go to improved contracts for Neville and Fellaini though!
Did that come across as mean git, or someone on minimum wage, pissed off with where this club is going or not going?
If anybody had suggested selling Cahill, Jags, Rodwell and Arteta this time last year, let alone Pienaar, they would have appeared crazy. Now it seems perfectly reasonable.
On a good day you would get £40m for the above. Food for thought...
Mmmm' lets see, 4 players x £40,000 pw x 52 wks x 4 yrs contract. That's a saving of £33 million. Go for it!
Maybe we could sign a brickie to fix that hole then hire him out at top rates. If he could kick a ball that would be a bonus. A brick laying player must be worth that bit extra..
Because you, sir, are falling for the Club and Echo rhetoric; we are all behind the team and mostly behind David Moyes so quite why you want us to close our eyes and hope everything goes away by cheering the lads on, I find alarming.
Because we have blindly cheered on the lads and Moyes and failed to see the big elephant in the room, is precisely why we are in the trouble we are now.
He's no financial Einstien, granted, but he is a businessmen, as are the other Board members, who, believe it or not , are better placed to sort out this mess than the plethora of 'amateur accountants' on here.
There's a very good reason why we won't be raising magical figures like £30 and £40 million by selling the likes of Heitinga, Bily, Yakubu, etc... NO ONE WANTS THEM!!!!
I'm just going to play another game of Monopoly (Everton Edition).
David#3, it's not negative comments that split the fan base but the board and their (in)actions
Like I said, I'm no fan of BK or the Board but I'm even less of a fan of some of the pie-in-the-sky 'remedies' that get spouted on here on a daily basis.
We are where we are and will remain so until some rich donor either comes on board or buys the club as a whole. It may not be to everyone's liking but it's realism and not some blind faith in a football club that hasn't challenged for major honours in a quarter of a century (an FA Cup aside).
So we can be realistic and patient or sell half a squad and be in an even bigger mess this time next year.
2) Make the players wear shorter shorts and short sleeve shirts to save on material costs. There is no reason why Howard shouldn't play bare chested.
3) Get rid of the players coach and make these over payed numpties travel to the ground in their own vehicles. (Although, better organise a taxi for Beckford)
4) Ask Ken Loach to make a film about Tim Cahill (call it the golden oldie), but keep the rights to the film.
5) Arrange a sponsorship deal with Disney, then allow Pixar to make a 3D film called 'the little wags'.
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1 Posted 26/08/2011 at 14:23:51
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