Best of Luck and Peace

Although players are paid a fortune these days, many clubs are also assembling a team of international superstars in their offices. These guys are also pulling in money akin to a FTSE 500 company. One recent CEO was on £1.8m a year, until an unfortunate lapse in e-mail protocol saw him fall on his sword. That's £35k a week - about what an "average" player at our club would earn. And that was before bonuses. Other EPL clubs have contracted in specialist agencies to improve their business operation, commercial reach, brand value etc. All of this costs money, but it is based on the returns they bring in.

When you look at the finances of Everton in any detail, especially when you compare them to other clubs, you realise that we are only growing revenue in line with the increases in TV money. In other words, if as the doom-mongers predict, the TV money falls in the future, so does our revenue. If we haven't got cost-control contingencies in place (like tying players contracts to the TV deal cycle in some way) then we would be looking at immediate administration, or worse.

We have a majority owner/chairman who abdicates all responsibility. The DK "vote", the "I'll listen to the fans" about the new manager. He isn't a leader, and consequently those below him are not being lead, so abdicates all responsibility.

Sorry Matt but one can't engage in debate without debating the personalities involved.

Now I am not suggesting that the average age of an Everton supporter is 6, in fact we know that isn't so from the published figures on the age of supporters in the Premier League fan survey a few years back - Everton had fewer young fans than anyone else. However none of us need to worry about running a football club, we just know what we would like for the start of new season and let KenDad worry about how to pay for it.

Its fun, it passes the time but under no circumstances should it actually influence the running of the club. Of course we will get the odd gift to make us shut up but not at the expense of being able to pay the mortgage, or losing our job or whatever.

So the next time we start to read countless moans on here about whether or not members of the club take any notice of what we write be assured that they will be aware, but not take too much notice.

More on story with the OP (yes I do currently have a 6 year old child sat next to me pointing at the TV) - I would hope that increased revenues coming this summer along with restrictions to spending on wages will free up enough cash to start getting serious on a new ground, or at least dramatically improving the old. Chances are though that there will be some new way to pay it to the players.

If we do magically come up with a way to have a new ground lets not take so much notice of groups of fans who complain that they will have to travel half a mile further than their dad and his dad did in the 18th century to get to the match, get a different bus, walk across a car park or even the halfwits who say we don't need better seating as we don't have enough fans. Indeed any old crap to keep the ground in Walton. Their idea of what a premiership football club is is about as relevant to the modern game as the picture of a thatched cottage on a box of chocolates is to modern England - a romantic, pretty, teary-eyed dream but likely to be eaten alive by progress.

Oh, and we didn't have a club in the 18th century.

This all seems a bit management speak/move & grow. It's fine to blame people who are responsible because it's their fault. If it's personality based, that could be because it's their personalities that have helped get us to this point.

You mention 'big corporations', why aren't we one of the big corporations? Could it be because we missed the boat and compounded our mistakes by not even trying to catch it up.

Stinks of Destination Kirkby only Falkirk weren't saddled with hidden debts in the multi millions,but hey it only 1/2 mile outside the city boundary.

One of the problems with the 'move' that didn't happen was that it seemed to be part of some sort of local obsession with churning up parks where kids play etc, and I hated that idea. But all of us (even though most of us are on crap wages), have to make tough decisions that many will not like.

My concern is that this great club could be torn apart by bitter personal attacks, not based on facts. I have been subject to such slander myself 'I heard this etc'. I ask everyone to keep arguments at a civil level aimed at our deeds, not the person doing them.

In other words, a group of investors with Everton at heart who will focus on improving the asset base, getting the trading position favourable, and then look to recover their investment with a subsequent sale, or partial sale.

I for one wouldn't berate a visionary board making a return on their ownership if they've earned it. This current board want a return for doing nothing other than make the overall financial position of the club worse.

Thomas, EFC are a Liverpool club; just because the Everton hierarchy normally do f'all about acknowledging or promoting that fact doesn't alter it

The turn the city blue campaign shows what can be done with a little effort, thought and imagination all, unfortunately, in short supply within the current regime of simplewicks, ex-kopite office boys and hangers-on

Shouting our name at Lime Street and JLA would be the beginning of a start

We supporters have acquired our passion for Everton through success and failure stories passed on to us by our forbears. Our own personal Everton experiences of joy, sorrow, good luck, bad luck, frustrations add to our truly great ongoing history.

So, when the manager does not get the players to play the Everton Way, we are rightly passionate in our condemnation. When the owners are selfishly exploiting 37,000-plus supporters for personal gain, then we rightly complain again with passion.
I believe our Club through the passion of its supporters will succeed. Let's for a moment think what it must be like to be a Man Utd supporter when they see a sacked successful coaching team being replaced by Moyes's boys: Round, Phil Neville etc, with a manager who will not get the players playing the "Man Utd Way".

I think Bill Kenwright is ready to find a manager to play the Everton Way now that the Club has the TV money. Like us, he too will have had a belly full of top 6 glory being described as 'success'. When he gets a manager playing "our way", he'll deservedly make his fortune and then I would say good luck to him.