Nice work Drew.. If we didn't live in Kenwright's fantasy land, it could happen.

So, we get Neville, Cahill off the wages bill. That saves £120k a week. I fancy we will be getting Baines and Fellaini off it as well. That must get another £120k a week off... easy. Total wages saved £240k a week (not transfer fees!!). So we get this Pranjic fella and Naismith in on freebies pay them £30k a week.

Must have enough left for Van Persie then... only got a year left on his Arsenal contract, and that lad from Portugal we have been trying to sign for about 5 years, Mountinho could come in as well. Piss easy this transfer lark... Happy days.

Or in reality... we will just pay Barclays back.. at their 'dodgy bankers making the interest rates up as they go along' sort of deal?

'Poultry budget'? Are we looking at a Venky's takeover, or possibly going after that dribbling wing-wizard 'Bernard Stanley Matthews?'

Cahill - £50k. Expires 30.6.2014
Neville - £30k. Expires 30.6.2013

I get the theory, but it's logic is flawed in the same way that my wife's is.

If she fails to blow $100 on junk like she does most weeks does she have an extra $100 to spend?

No. We couldn't afford that spend in the first place. We now just have $100 less debt.

Good news - since fat arse Yakubu and 'Chicken Kiev - Bilyaletdinov' have left our poultry budget has gone down - though the KFC on County Road has laid off half a dozen members of staff.

Rumours that Kenwright has bought a deep fat fryer to entice Naismith with fried Mars Bars and battered pizza are thought to be wide of the mark.

Thats exactly right, Ernie! We should not be paying these neanderthals and mediocre players obscene wages in the first place!

I've been quietly hoping that the Cahill to middle east/Chinese superclub rumours might come through but they seemed to have died down now. Much as I appreciate his work for me he is somewhat of a luxury at this point on 50k+

Think the OP has a valid point in there somewhere in that we are well quite well positioned having shifted a fair amount of deadwood to pick up some of the many talented players around for minimal/reduced transfer fees.

Like it or not - it's about the only way forward for this club of ours.

Sam Hoare, agree with you on Cahill. I'm hoping that there is still a strong chance that Cahill goes not that players' holidays and the Euros are over. With so many clubs due to cal their squads back for pre-season training this week, I am hoping that we will see some of our older players move on.

Drew, a good way of looking at our finances. At this stage it is a very sensible and valid way of Everton managing their transfer business. Sell players, free up their wages replace them with players on free transfers. It takes the pressure off Moyes in terms of a transfer budget and keeps the banks that little bit more off our backs.

There is quality out there on free transfers. These players know they will get a decent wage at Everton and the chance to play first team football, something many of them will have badly missed over the previous season as many have been out of favour at their previous club.

While not Barcelona or Madrid attractive, the club is also attractive in that we are in the top eight of the premier league and will challenge for Uefa Cup places. e have also had reasonable success in domestic cups as well.

This is where we are at anyway. We pay reasonable wages to a small number of players and we have a small squad to facilitate it. The squad couldn't be much smaller.

Mark, I see what you mean but we don't have the cash to pay for more players. If we build a larger squad around a smaller wage structure, we won't get the same quality or even the same type of loyalty. You rarely see players at Everton demanding to leave and throwing serious sulks. With the exception of last January's transfer window players, most of the squad have been at the club for at least two or three seasons. All of the players seem to be happy and settled and you never see them or their agents agitating for a move. We get the usual paper talk around our better players but that's all it is. We don't get anything extra.

Fine, we don't have Arsenal's squad or Chelsea's squad. However we don't have Fulham's squad and their turnover of players or Stoke's squad and their turnover of players. A settled squad is a valuable one and while we may moan about the style of play at times, we are punching above our weight in terms of finances and have been consistently in the top eight, and at times the top six, for a number of seasons now.

If we spend less on players' wages we still won't have that much more cash to put into the transfer budget. We would also have a lower quality of player to sell on and this will also affect what seems to be our best revenue stream at present.

It's one strategy, though I think it's more part of an overall transfer strategy which involves paying a fee for the right player, where possible (notwithstanding player sales etc).

To depend entirely on free transfers I don't think will allow us to improve. Had we waited and Jelavic was on a free now, I don't think we'd get him. The same reason why we wouldn't get the likes of Kalou.

A free transfer, even a player not coveted by the top teams, will still require a hefty signing on fee which may or may not include the agent's payment. You may also be paying over the odds on wages. So to say you can ignore our CapEx as chicken feed (sorry) and put everything on OpEx is flawed - you still need both.

Of course we can hope for "new investment". After the pay off of DK didn't materialise, perhaps the new TV deal will tempt someone to pay the price being sought.

Don't these so-called 'free' players come with massive signing-on fees? I mean Pogrebnyak is reported to have banked a £6 million signing-on fee and £65k a week wages to move to Reading, so I don't think it is as easy as mentioned to just get Neville and Cahill off the wage bill and spend the £100k a week saved on wages on free transfers. First, we need buyers for those two... and second, where are the signing-on fees coming from? Although, looking at all the players we're linked to, my guess is we're in line for a load of PPI back from all the loans and mortgages taken out.

Why do we waste whatever money we have available on giving 'jobs' to the likes of McFadden, Hahnemann and Weir and then compound the situation by going on pre-season jollies to far flung shores instead of staying in Europe and preparing properly? Every season we start off as relegation candidates due to the lack of meaningful games against decent opposition in European conditions.

The club MUST provide a transfer fund as part of their budget to freshen up the squad and at least try to improve the team. It's no wonder that players with any ambition at all want to move on to clubs with genuine goals. I predict that, if Jelavic has a good season, then he will be off to greener pastures.

One free signing not coming is Manny. I see he has been named Besiktas captain for the new season... Per his twitter...

I think we will see one or maybe two expensive players leave during this window, the club has been setting us up for it for months and so have a few of the players, signing Naismith signals the end for Tim Cahill imo, I also think Baines will be sold for the right money and possibly Jagielka as well, some of that money will go directly to the bank I suppose, but I think we will also see quite a few new signings this summer.

Moyes has been voted manager of the year simply because he is already the master of what we are talking about here - survival, with some success, on a shoestring in EPL terms. So to go back to where Drew started -

"this world of oligarchs and sheikhs" - robber barons all of them, and I wish there was something we could do to face the future without one of them coming along. But to me, this looks like the year we might just attract one of the bastards. Reasons? (and each one has a big IF attached):

- our best squad since the 80's
- players like Fellaini looking like they're ready to give it one more try
- optimism in the camp for a good start to the season

and then a bit of strengthening built on, for example, Rangers' misfortune.

So yes, managing the wage bill is a very important component of where we are, but it has been for a decade now.

(Phew - managed to get through this without using 'elephant in the room' or 'deck chairs on the Titanic'.)

@Michael Guy (767) Love the PPI claim back reference on Everton's catalogue of loans and mortgages. Very clever haha

Some opinions on this, please -

£30m for Fellaini
£20m for Baines
£5m for Cahill

Bring in Naismith and Pranjic for nothing. And Manny if he's still available.
Pay back £30m to the bank which gets our debt to a more manageable £10m

Spend the remaining £25m on wages for new players, Donovan for £4m and Pienaar for £4m. Still gives us around £10m to recruit another couple of players (maybe a central midfielder if we can't get a good 'un like Manny for nought).

Here are my thoughts

http://www.championshipmanager.co.uk/

Alasdair #819
I see what you are thinking, but Jordi Alba just went to Barca for 14m Euro, so I doubt if Baines would go for more.

Alasdair, no one is going to pay us £30m for Fellaini either.

Guys.. it's paltry not poultry .. let's at least get our grammar correct

and a poultry £5m for Cahill !

Paltry's what oi read to moi mrs on vaaaalentoines day

Why do we always think negatively about the value of our players?

If Glen Johnson was worth £18m 2 years ago, then why is Baines not worth upwards of that figure now? He has statistically been one of the best full backs in Europe for 3 seasons; is remarkably consistent and about to enter what is generally considered to be the best years of his career, plus he has 3 years on his contract. Quite frankly if we don't get £20m then we don't sell!

Similarly Fellaini has genuine and confirmed interest from super-rich clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid. He probably wasn't worth what we paid for him when we paid it, but is certainly worth a profit now. He is still 24, is proven at both Premier League and international level, he is versatile, strong, tall and hard working. I would imagine that the bidding would start at £18-20m for him and finish around the £22m mark if we were looking to sell or he had handed in a request - neither of which are true. He has 4 years left on his contract! And if Henderson is worth £20m as a "promising" midfielder, then Felli as an established midfielder with time on his side and a queue of admirers is worth at least £25-28m. With the length of contract - £30m.

Cahill probably isn't worth £5m as a player anymore, but as a merchandising tool he carries enormous value to any prospective buyer from the region he is being linked with. His wages will reflect that, so why shouldn't our fee?

I don't think any of my figures are unrealistic, but I do think there is potentially as much value in selling them as there is in keeping them if the money is used well.

Steve 780, I really can't see Moyes letting 2 of his starting full backs leave. If 1 goes the other won't.

Alasdair, sorry but I think you're miles out. Transfer values are not really comparable when they involve different players, clubs and contracts.

If Everton say to Chelsea 'we want £30m for Fellaini because Henderson cost £20m' I would imagine the response would be 'why don't you wait for king kenny to get another job then?'. They wouldn't have paid £20m for Henderson so it has no relevance to their transfer policy.

Also you appear to be forgetting that we are not really the ones holding the aces in these situations seeing as the world and his dog knows that we're skint.

Rob 829
Vocabulary. Not grammar.

Danny I think that was supposed to be irony due to how comes his grammar wasn't correct neither.