So the RS have got their planning permission to redevelop Anfield. Couple of quick observations:

1. I understand they are to benefit from a £25m grant?

2. Nearby properties are to be cleared in the name of regeneration?

Just wondered if this seems like a another case of 'one rule for them' – for their favourite beloved team? Maybe I'm just paranoid?

I know people think me mad, but with the team across the park no longer desiring Stanley Park as a location for their new stadium, surely this is an opportunity to get an application in now?

Regardless of whether we actually intend to build there or not, some of the previous stadium plans applied to the this location would allow us at least to secure a prime site.

It would also put to test the council's perceived bias.

Would the Tesco stadium deal appeal, if now located in Stanley Park?

Should they approve, would it not also make it more attractive to any proposed buyer?

The difference is that the shite have got £152m to invest in redevelopment. We haven't got £152.00 . In any case, we had our chance with the Kings Dock so I don't think LCC owe us any favours. I'm sure Joe Andersen was wishing he was talking about Everton when he made his speech today as council leader.

Below is our CEO's veiws on this subject; how can they redevelop Anfield for 25% of the cost Elstone quotes?

"Chelsea FC recently did some work about the challenge of redeveloping and staying at Stamford Bridge, and it said their capacity would go down.”

He said the London club had been told it would be hugely complex and also cost £600m.

“There are similar problems to rebuilding Goodison.

“The only sensible option is land acquisition. I genuinely believe that the redevelopment of Goodison is not a realistic option.”

He said ideas to redevelop the Park End would still leave the other three sides of the stadium in desperate need of updating.

“We have to look for a new site and use the Kirkby funding model which involved 40% to 45% of the capital cost coming from retail uplift subsidy.

“I don’t think there are a shortage of sites, I believe there is a shortage of funding.

“I think our optimum capacity is around 50,000, which generates an extra £5m [a year]. That means it's tight, it needs a great naming rights deal or subsidy, or probably both.”

Everton couldn't even build an office block on the Park End site. No chance the useless twats in charge could build a stadium. We will be at Goodison Park in its present state for another 10-15 years minimum.

Have our safety licences lapsed yet?

The RS haven't committed to any sort of concrete time frame yet and haven't outlined in anyway how they are going to finance this. Considering they weren't willing to splash 7 mill on Dempsey I find it doubtful that they have a spare 150million in cash lying around, what if it comes in the form of a loan against the club that impedes on future transfer budgets. It is annoying though that the council have bent over backwards to help them out of whatever sitution they're in whilst we seem to get no change from them. they've had their deadlines on stanley park extended so many times and are now getting all their housing problems cleared up for them by the council who were just coincidentally redeveloping that area of Anfield anyway. Just like the countless deadlines they were given by RBS to pay back their debt whilst we have been at the mercy of the banks in the past. I'm sure it's only what Liverpewl football club deserve though, they've been through such a rough time and everyone seems to be working against them...vom.

Us and them ground share is the topic on talkSport now.

Quick, tell Martin Mason! Jason Cundy just said two 'huge' clubs!

I have just heard Ian Ayre Liverpools CEO say that they are proposing to look at redeveloping Anfield but they will still have the option of building a new stadium in Stanley Park should their redevelopment plan not come to fruition.

As I understand it they have not put a timescale on when they plan to start the development. So even if we get a billionaire backer in the next 12 months we still may not be able to put in a planning application to build on Stanley Park until after Liverpool have let go their application to build there.

Regardless of what our neighbours do or don't do, it leaves Goodison as one of the most old-fashioned facilities in the PL.

I love Goodison Park as a Football Stadium, but it is beginning to show its age. As a club we have neglected an asset that we were always very proud of.

To think only Agent Johnson spent any money on ground redevelopment in the last 20 years... Bill Kenwright does have a lot to answer for when you consider that the TV monies the club has received has been squandered with little or nothing to show for it.

Maybe LFC decided to remain at our old ground to kick into touch (once and for all) any possible notion of ground sharing.

This coming Christmas marks BK's 13th anniversary in charge of Everton, and what have we got to show for it?

Yes we have seen some good football on occasions and visited Wembley a few times, but we have also seen Goodison Park fall down the list of major stadiums from arguably top 5 or 6 to at least 20-30.

Failing to plan is planning to fail; over to you, Mr Kenwright!

As Kevin Tully illustrates with the CEO quotes it's a retail park or nothing, anything to avoid long term investment out their own pockets.

Undoubtedly it's a money spinner for Bill and co building a retail park with a half cock ground on wasteland worth 5 bob - but it stinks.

The only saving grace of Anfield being transformed into a 60k capacity marvel is the domineering shadow it casts across Goodison.

Finally, many more may realise what's going on.

Pisses all over the bonfire about how redevelopment will mean too big a reduced capacity during the building work. I wonder how the reds are going to do this given the fact they fill their ground every game whilst we are 5k short of our capacity most games.

Yet again another issue shows the lies of Elstone and Co. Or are the Red Shite going to share Goodison for a year or two?

Just exposes Elstone's statement, as the pile of shite and spin, that many Evertonians already knew it was.

James Martin

You say

"It is annoying though that the council have bent over backwards to help them out of whatever situation they're in whilst we seem to get no change from them."

Well the council facilitated the Kings Dock but our Dear Leader couldn't find the cash. The useless cunt that he is.

Why it is always someone else's fault? We fucked up Kings Dock — no-one else.

Still, we had a boss transfer window apparently.

Ryan I was just pointing out that they've had countless extensions to planning permission on stanley park and they've now smoothed the way for a redevelopment of Anfield. We on the toher hand can't find one suitable spot in the whole of Liverpool. I have as much idea as you about whose fault that is, yes we messed up the King's Dock, but we also had our park end retail project tied up in red tape whilst Liverpool are literally getting houses moved out the way for them. As ever the best any of us can do is speculate but it is annoying that we can't get our act together for a new stadium or a redevelopment, whoever is to blame.

Martin, Ryan's right, the council bent over backwards for us, they kept extending the deadline for the KD after being told by BK 'The money was ringfenced' only for it to be the usual Kenwright bullshit.

Also, I'm sure when Kirkby was going through the motions, the council offered to work with us over other other options, only to be told by the club they couldn't enter into any dialogue with anyone else because of stipulations in the Kirkby contract.

James, the Park End fiasco was nothing to do with the council, we started knocking walls down to build on land we don't really own and the gobshites didn't even know it allegedly.

'£3.80 for a pint of cider'??

I have not clicked on the link as I have just had my tea and don't wont to bring it back up but on the tv the report said Anfield was the spiritual home of the kopites which made me laugh as Everton won the league at that ground before they even existed!

Look if I win the euro lottery, I am happy to pump 95 percent into everton, I can't say fairer than that.

Jason Cundy also said that Liverpool have been around about 150 years and that Everton were formed when we left Anfield. When challenged by a blue who had rung to say that Liverpool were only formed when we moved to Goodison he said that he knew that - shame he chose to rewrite history in the true spirit of TalkLFC.

The guy knows nothing about football outside of London and was also a pretty useless player to boot!

Please stop suggesting we should throw in a random planning application for Stanley Park. I have a fairly good idea of how much we paid in fees for both KD and DK, and given we pissed millions up against the wall then, why go down the same route? A planning application process isn't a form filling exercise FFS.

LCC bent over backwards for us on KD, as did the NWDA and other agencies, it failed to happen because Kenwright was more interested in kicking the Greggs out of Goodison, than securing the future of the club, pure and simple !!

DK was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish and is more than well documented !!

The Park End development failed because there was already a charge on the land, as in a loan/mortgage already secured against the land, and nobody at the club bothered to check before proceeding !!

Now it may be me, but I'm pretty sure a pattern is emerging here, I think it's called gross incompetence !!!

What’s now apparent to anyone with any sense is that the management at Everton haven’t a clue and the fans are yet again right on the money when it comes to accessing money from the redevelopment hot spot that is North Liverpool. Keioc have been banging on about it since the last fiasco - Kirkby, no wait, that was the last but one, the last was the park end. Simply Clueless

Redevelopment in line with planning policies brings about council cooperation and grants, whilst this is happening Everton do nothing and miss the boat yet again, our lot talk about “enabling solutions” which were shown to be nothing more than a con for the club’s owners to attempt to benefit or talk about ridiculous solutions like building in Newsham Park!

Liverpool have a businessman with a successful track record running them, he's significantly incresased their commercial turnover to a point where it will soon surpass the total income of our club. At Everton we have an accountant charged with running the business. Someone who counts things for a living and doesn't it show - out of the top clubs we have the worst commercial performance, this kitbag deal stinks to high heaven.

We’re being left behind while we wait for someone to meet Kenwright’s asking price but not a problem, we've had a good start to the season and the shite are struggling so everything is fine.

Just read an interesting piece on the official website regarding Everton's first competitve match.
Apparently we played Bolton in the FA Cup and after arguing that Bolton played an ineligible player a replay took place , after further replays the Blues won the tie 2-1.

However , Bolton argued that some of our amateur players were paid and the FA in the usual fashion , booted the Blues out of the competition.
The more things change the more they remain the same.

Slightly incomplete story, Patrick. Everton proceeded to get knocked out in the next round - by Preston North End, I think - then the FA scrubbed that tie & disqualified Everton from the competition. But it was all academic as we were already out anyway.

Dennis, I bow to your superior knowledge, but there is no mention of playing PNE in the article or indeed the official stats on the Everton Website.

Even if the Council were to gift us Stanley Park and provide £25M in grants, our leaders would be incapable of proceeding to build unless ALL Kenwright`s mates could transform the area into a giant retail park.

In many ways I`m glad that BB preferred to use the limited funds the club generates on keeping the team in the Prem rather than blowing it all on re-development of facilities. But, having said that, the twat could have done both had he seen how vital Kings Dock was to the future of the Club. He fucked up big time and is now paying the price!

I really don't know why I bother reading these articles. All they do is make me more and more angry at what a complete bunch of muppets we have at senior management and boardroom level at this great club.

The fact that there are still plenty of Evertonians out there who lay the blame of Everton's stadium predicament and other failings (KD, Stanley Park, Park End development etc) at the feet of the council, and not our Board, would be quite funny if it wasn't quite so sad.

Oh what could have been.

Lee Smith (#762) — nothing else needs to be said, nail and head come to mind

James #661 you say "but we also had our Park End retail project tied up in red tape whilst Liverpool are literally getting houses moved out the way for them" but the failure of the Park End retail project was not down to LCC or planning permission but due to the fact that our Board have taken out loans on GP that effectively means they no longer control it and could not get permission from the owners (mortgagers) for a third party (Kitbag) to develop on the site.

Paul Jamieson - brilliant rant! Spot on in so many ways.

What annoys me about the current regime is the unwillingness to try and change things. A passive acceptance of this is it and we are stuck with it. Life is 10% about what happens to you and 90% about how you react to it. 'Grow some and look harder!' is my message to them.

Do the RS now have to re-build the sports centre that was knocked down for their development?

KD was a disaster for us, agreed, but look at the facts: Gregg wanted control over the whole complex for his company SFX in exchange for the guarantee. BK and the EFC board said no as this would hinder all EFC future earnings, in hindsight that could have been a mistake but at the time it wasn’t in EFC interests.

BK has no capital at all and was left wanting, but what gets me every time on this subject is we all know BK has no money, so nothing we can't slag him off for... but the Grantchester family, who have sat on the board and at the time were major shareholders, did have the money to bridge the gap, so the development could have got underway — but they refused!!

Yes, blame Kenwright... but don’t exclude the Grantchester family that stood back and did nothing. In my eyes, that’s worse than BK; he has and still is a patsy for the rest of the board.

The Elstone quote above says it all. There`s no shortage of suitable sites but nothing can be done unless a retail developer can be found to foot the bill. The present regime gave up on Goodison years ago so, all-in-all, we`re fucked!

Paul Jamieson (696) - Spot on, nail on head, etc.

"KD was a disaster for us, agreed, but look at the facts: Gregg wanted control over the whole complex for his company SFX in exchange for the guarantee. BK and the EFC board said no as this would hinder all EFC future earnings, in hindsight that could have been a mistake but at the time it wasn’t in EFC interests.

BK has no capital at all and was left wanting, but what gets me every time on this subject is we all know BK has no money, so nothing we can't slag him off for... but the Grantchester family, who have sat on the board and at the time were major shareholders, did have the money to bridge the gap, so the development could have got underway — but they refused!!

Yes, blame Kenwright... but don’t exclude the Grantchester family that stood back and did nothing. In my eyes, that’s worse than BK; he has and still is a patsy for the rest of the board."

This is complete and utter rubbish.

Why should anyone bail out BK and allow him to continue as Chairman? The sole reason why a bail out is required from Gregg/Grantchester or anyother mug is because of the mismanagement of BK and the board.

As for Grantchester doing nothing?! He opposed Kirkby, but why should he bail out Bill? He doesn't like Bill, but you want him to bail him out!

BK has no money then why does he think he's the right man for the club even though he has had no resources to invest in the club? We can slag him off for that and for the wretched state of the clubs finances and stadium.

Alan Williams are you a part of the Goodison Kindergarten? Letting Bill off the hook and blaming Gregg/Grantchester for not backing this charlatan/fantasist/liar. DK not in the clubs interest? Was Kirkby in the Club interest?

Complete and utter rubbish designed to deflect from the failings and failures of the board and Chairman.

Can we all please forget about the past and move forward, all of the above has been regurgatated over and over again, the last positive spin I heard on the whole future of the club came from 'Trust Everton'. What has happened with this? at least we as fans could actually make an effort and try to do things ouselves instead of talking about what went wrong, who's to blame, finger point, get depressed etc etc.

Philip, from TrustEverton.com:

"Trust Everton’s mission is to see the future of Everton FC secured for the current and subsequent generations of Evertonians. The initial rationale for Trust Everton is to explore thoroughly the feasibility of a supporters’ vehicle providing sustainable long-term funding for the real-estate assets of the football club. The two that spring to mind are the training ground and the stadium.

To progress beyond this first phase Trust Everton will need to raise and manage safely a considerable sum of money, and then run and maintain valuable property assets. Its infrastructure and management will need to be of “industrial strength” in order to do this. It was announced in October 2011 that the Everton FC training complex at Finch Farm had been placed on the market by the current owner, ROM Capital (Academy) Limited. Trust Everton is examining the feasibility of acquiring Finch Farm."

To move forward as one Philip, we need trust in each other. The rouble is, after Kirkby how can you ever trust the people in charge when we as fans were blatantly lied to?

Making it worse is that we were also taken for mugs on the ' effectively free, best transport links of any stadium, will be used for concerts, no other sites are possible etc, etc' spin we were repeatedly given despite it being questioned many times over.

Now we are led to believe BK is looking for a Buyer despite it being sworn on oath at the Public Enquiry that this was not the case at all. In fact, it appears he is hoping that Father Christmas is going to drop in, give him a new Stadium and a few hundred million for players in return for very little, before he sells the Club and the current Board trouser a Euro Lottery scale payout each and sail off into the sunset like David Moores at LFC.

And even if you, after all that, believe he is a Good Guy and the Board are all desperately working for the Club's good and not their own, the events since Kirkby such as giving Moyes virtually no transfer kitty and the farce surrounding the Car Park wall and the non ownership of that land, can only lead any sane person to think that the Board are incompetent.

Hard to move on with people who are either acting for their own personal interests, or are liars or are bunglers or even all three isn't it?

Whenever we discuss Everton's finances and the prospect of a new ground, the name of Lord Grantchester always crops up. I have followed the Blues for 60 years and I have never heard the man speak or be quoted on anything to do with Everton FC. We do know that he has been an Everton director, he is still a shareholder and is involved in helping ex Everton players.

I have been informed that he still visits Goodison on match days and the club is close to his heart. It is also common knowledge that the Lord is very, very wealthy but chooses not to become involved financially with his "beloved" Blues.

Rumours have circulated down the years of rifts between the Moores family, BK, Peter Johnson, Paul Gregg etc but the details never fully explained. What is clear is that the Lord has had ample opportunity to help us in our hour(s) of need and never felt the need to explain his position.

Our recent history has cried out out for a knight in shining armour riding to our rescue. One thing is for sure, it ain't going to be Lord Grantchester.

I don't think he actually has control of the money though, Brian, The Grantchester family have some sort of joint control and they don't want to spend money on Everton so I believe. Would you really want to let some of he people who have run Everton have millions of pounds of your money?

Also, I think the wealth is tied up in land and property so not in liquid form. I doubt Real Madrid would accept a few thousand acres of prime Cheshire farmland in return for Jose Mourinho somehow!

For anybody to come in with the sort of money needed they will want total control, not a place on the Board as BK seems to want to give them. For a start, you would question why you were the only one of the Board dipping in your own pocket as none of the others have given EFC a penny! There is a danger of getting the wrong person (a Gaydamak for example), but Bill plays on this one doesn't he....

......and so.as I keep on saying,we`re fucked and nobody can do a blind thing about it!

Yes, Phil. But, nothing is forever either....

Matt @686 spot on mate

Patrick #750 – Our 'Cup run' progressed as follows: Sat 15/10/1887 Lost to Notlob 1-0 but tie replayed due to their fielding an ineligible player; Sat 29/10/1887 Drew 2-2 v Notlob; Sat 12/11/1887 Drew 1-1 v Notlob; Sat 19/11/1887 Beat Notlob 2-1 but tie subsequently awarded to Notlob due to our 'irregularities' – however, not before on 26/11/1887 Losing 2nd round tie v PNE 6-0 [thankfully the match against PNE was struck from the records, hence not appearing in the EFC official stats].

It's all @ www.evertonresults.com

David, (#784), your rant makes no sense whatsoever. You are blinkered by your hatred of BK and miss my point.

We have a company Director/major shareholder that had the resources to bridge the funding gap for KD with no strings attached. It wouldn’t be a gift to BK, it would be a loan to EFC Co Ltd – of which they are a major shareholder. This practice happens daily in business when Directors pump in finance to prop up companies, so why vent all your anger at a man who doesn’t have the resources to leverage us and totally ignore somebody that does have the resources?

Your argument has no logic. BK played his part in the KD disaster – that’s factual and nobody is disputing that. What I’m saying is others contributed and sat back and did nothing. Please remember, BK doesn’t own EFC; he is just the major shareholder at 27%. There are 73% shares with other parties who for some strange reason never get mentioned on this site, hence why I call BK a patsy – it suits him and more importantly suits all the other major shareholders.

If you want to get answers, try lobbying the others; I guarantee they won’t have as thick a skin at BK does. In my mind, that’s why the BU never made any progress; they went for the wrong person.

Karl (798) is that a freudian slip or is there REALLY a Russian billionaire waiting in the wings?

We have a company Director/major shareholder that had the resources to bridge the funding gap for KD with no strings attached. It wouldn’t be a gift to BK, it would be a loan to EFC Co Ltd – of which they are a major shareholder. This practice happens daily in business when Directors pump in finance to prop up companies, so why vent all your anger at a man who doesn’t have the resources to leverage us and totally ignore somebody that does have the resources?

No Strings attached, Alan I run a voluntary group and I can't ask a charitable trust or LA and ask for no strings attached funding, so why do you think EFC a private business can? Your asking for a free lunch...no such thing as a free lunch. You object to Paul Greggs terms for KD, but you think that a businessman will just give the club money and ask for nothing in return. Everton football club is not a charity.

"Your argument has no logic. BK played his part in the KD disaster – that’s factual and nobody is disputing that. What I’m saying is others contributed and sat back and did nothing. Please remember, BK doesn’t own EFC; he is just the major shareholder at 27%. There are 73% shares with other parties who for some strange reason never get mentioned on this site, hence why I call BK a patsy – it suits him and more importantly suits all the other major shareholders."

This doesn't make sense and my counter argument is illogical! Everton football club is a hierarchical organisation and the buck stops with the man at the top. Grantchester owns 8% of the club but you think he should donate money to prop up Bk's share value? As for BK being a patsy your right he is a patsy, but he loves being the patsy. Its a part gives him a social/media profile that the theatre world can't provide. So my sympathy is tempered even if the rest of the board and his advisor hang him out to dry.

"If you want to get answers, try lobbying the others; I guarantee they won’t have as thick a skin at BK does. In my mind, that’s why the BU never made any progress; they went for the wrong person. "

Restore the AGM's is my considered response to that nonsense.

So there we have it from Alan Williams Everton football Club is a charity that relies on its small shareholders to make charitable donations to build a new stadium. Give Generously to this company with an £80 million pound turnover

David, look at what I say: it’s not a gift – it’s a loan to EFC Co Ltd from the Grantchesters that would have to be paid back and effectively they would be a creditor to EFC Co Ltd, or even they could have been a guarantor of some kind.

Nobody has ever mentioned a free gift –that is just fantasy.

Hopefully this will get us some kind of permission in principle shore Stanley Park. That along with our form would hopefully grease the wheels of any sale and then new owners can decide for themselves whether redevelopment or large scale SP is the best option going forward. It can only be seen as positive, and will hopefully mark another potential Kings Dock style opportunity, which will hopefully entice buyers.

Alan #887, the Grantchesters probably know even better than the fans how badly the Club is mismanaged and how close to bacncrupcy it is so that's the reason why they're not prepared to bail out BK and his merry men.

Better wait for them to fail and then buy the Club on the cheap?

If I had billions I wouldn't lend a fiver to Kenwright. I have been a blue for 35 years but unless I had Man City type money to take over the whole thing and move it forward, there is no way I would invest in it.

Eric, if it was just a business then maybe that would be the prudent thing to do but, as KD was over 10 years ago, they haven’t made any intentions of such an approach. I would also add caution considering what happened to Rangers.

They could have purchased Gregg's shares and taken control of the club but they didn’t; naturally it's up to them what they do but my point is they have sat on the board or been major Shareholders for many decades... yet, when we needed it most, they had the resources to bridge the funding hole – be that as a loan that would be repaid or just a cross-guarantee – they chose neither.

Which is their right but my whole point is, yes, blame Kenwright for his role in the mess but don’t exclude others that have the riches that dwarf BK, yet do nothing but still sit in their seats every game hassle free.

Again, Alan, why should they commit resources in any form to sustain the current board?

Shifting the paradigm slightly — is it not up to BK to convince them?

I find this shifting of the blame onto the Grantchesters and anyone else laughable. Funny how the powers that be have never made an any accusations towards them, nor have they ever explained the whole episode of the demise of DK. They never have because they know where the blame lies, and such accusations would land them in court. I attended all the AGM's at the time, and the ducking and diving was cringeworthy, as it was again a few years later for the Kirkby debacle. The club was offered the cash by one of its major shareholders...... the gift of a £2-300m stadium on a high profile development site, and the whole future of the club was up for grabs. There can be no justification whatsoever for the events that followed. The real effects of this catastophic failure and dereliction of duty will be really felt when LFC are regularly filling 60k+ seats with 1-200 boxes and thousands of premiere seats with vast hospitality lounges. If they then start playing decent footy too, we'll be so far behind we might never be able to catch back up. Not the rosiest prospect for the future.....