Why Everton must never sell Ross Barkley

Money and ambition has become the new culture of football and it is no longer a working class game with principles.

Realistically unless Bill and cronies put some investment into the club we are not going to be able to compete.

We didn’t make the top 4 this season and we already have Spurs and Man Utd with new managers and a bigger war chest than we have seen during Bill’s tenure.

The togetherness of the squad and enthusiasm of Roberto will not be enough to bridge the gap especially with the demands of the Europa League and players coming back tired or injured from the World Cup.

You can’t really blame any local lad that leaves, when that sort of opportunity arises.

Easy for us fans to say ’stay’... but to give up that sort of money is 99% impossible!

If Ross becomes part of that, great. But his career is short and Everton will go on forever regardless as long as we all still want it to.

By putting style of play,the right coaches and a winning mentality into the youth teams our manager will undoubtedly make the future better.

Even if it is only the near to mid future

Also I would class Pienaar as one of our bargains rather than the opposite.

Ultimately the commercial aspects of the game center around mega-stars and buzz of being associated with the best. Real Madrid spends £100M on Bale and £85M on Ronaldo. But, these mega stars keep the Real Madrid profile up with the fans, who in turn, buy Real Ronaldo t-shirts and all other paraphernalia. Madrid then attract higher paying shirt sponsors and so on – ultimately growing their revenues and financial power. The other day, I saw a young kid wearing an Everton t-shirt with Deulofeu on the back in the London tube. Gerard, for all his rawness, generated unprecedented buzz and excitement among fans. Heck with a motto like Nil Satis Optimus, why should we not target anything but the best ourselves ?

People say selling Rooney was good business for us. I refute that. In the last 10-15 years, Rooney has generated far more than £25M for Man Utd just by being there as an acknowledged superstar of the game (despite not ever really achieving his true potential in my opinion).

Thomas Lennon, right-ish, the progression has and may even still be happening ( Martinezes one season is too early to) form a pattern.

OFM,TGT, moved us up a bot 10 places or so and that took him 5 or 6 years, but for various reason ( done to death ad nausem ) couldn’t make the final couple of places come about.

The improvement task is geometrically harder, Moyes got us from Lev 4 - Lev 8 and took 11 yrs.

Roberto has to get us from Lev 8 - Lev 16 and he won’t hang around being Bill’s heat shield for 11 yrs.

*goes out on limb, if we don’t get 1 or better still 2 meaningful runs in the CL soon, it won’t happen, no matter if Barkley stays here until he’s 40.

There have been a number of threads of a loosely similar nature and the all end, for me anyway, with variations on a theme...

Over to you Bill.

The only doubt is whether we have the talent in the boardroom to handle it correctly. I suspect not. Ross could earn far more staying with us, not just in wages, but in image rights, endorsements, and a share in the global merchandise revenue. We could make it "worth his while" and in turn he would earn us the money we need.

The problem is, where does it start? Maybe he will do it by starring in the World Cup; if not, then the boardroom need to start it, by spending on good players around him, so the team can actually push for the Champions League.

Great sentiment though, let’s just hope he stays and we have our own Class of ’92 ready to take us to the next level.

Let’s say he takes the tournament by storm. What sort of price would be on his head? £55-60M? If an offer came in for say £60M, how tempting would it be to cash him in and clear the club’s debts?

Imagine Bill telling Roberto that he has £15M to spend and we might get a another Barcelona kid in on loan. Well, it’s all supposition; I’m hoping that Bill won’t have to sell and that he wants his club to go on and do great things.

Seriously though, if you sell your best asset at a time when there has never been so much money about in football, then we might as well all stay away.

And if he wants to go, ultimately the club cannot and will not keep him. Even if this doesn’t happen, without Champions League football, I doubt that we’ll keep him for more than one more season.

I don’t want to see him go, but every player has a price.

Everyone needs to understand this is not about Bill Kenwright; deals such as this are not brokered by him. This is just a business like any other for these people – do you really think Robert Earl gives two shits whether we sell Ross or not? As soon as the right money is offered, he WILL be sold.

Does anyone on this forum believe the people who make these decisions have a long-term plan in place to bring back the glory years to this club?

Wyness was sacked by Earl & Green because he was uneasy that Everton were being run out of Green’s offices in London – go and look for the story. Two times journalists printed this and we never heard another thing about it, just incredible.

Bill’s a patsy who loves the limelight – he’ll take all this shit he gets if it means he can remain Chairman of EFC. He’s a fame-hungry luvvie who shouldn’t be anywhere near the place.

Just remember, this is a club where every employee leaves with a pay-off and a non-disclosure agreement tucked into their briefcase. Why is that?

Doesn’t matter if your name is Ross Barkley, Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale or Cristiano Ronaldo. The cream rises to the top.

Even big Premier League clubs like Man Utd and Liverpool cannot stop their best players leaving for bigger European teams. You watch: it’s only a matter of time before Suarez leaves Liverpool for Madrid or Barcelona. I would say only Barcelona and Real Madrid can keep World Superstars happy by offering them huge amounts of money and all the trophies available. Only those two clubs have the prestige to prevent players like Messi and Ronaldo having their heads turned.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule and Steven Gerrard has shown incredible loyalty to Liverpool over his career but, let’s be honest, the huge sums of money have helped. Gerrard has also won many FA Cups, League Cups and one Champions League while at Liverpool. He’s also had the hope that Liverpool might win the Premier League someday. All those things have probably helped Gerrard stay at Liverpool but I imagine someday he might look back and regret he never pursued a move to Barcelona.

What can Everton offer Ross Barkley? Not a great deal of money. Certainly not as much as the European big boys. Can we offer him trophies? Well we haven’t won anything in nearly 20 years.

Let’s be honest: if Barkley is the world beater some say he will be and he gave us 10 years of his career, what could we realistically offer him? A good yet unspectacular wage, possibly an FA Cup win and maybe the chance of securing Champions League football?

Let’s be honest, if he’s that good, he’ll be playing alongside Ronaldo and Bale at Barcelona within 2 years.

Unless there is quality lined up, like for like, selling should not be an option for Everton.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are most probably the only two clubs in the world who can hold on to players as long as they want and that’s because they have the money, trophies and prestige to offer players.

Gerrard has also won countless trophies (including the Champions League) and always had the possibility of one day winning the Premier League. That certainly helps you be more loyal.

If Liverpool had won nothing in the last 20 years and had no chance of winning the Premier League then my guess is good old Crease Head would have been playing for Chelsea for the last 6 years.

Lineker could have been a hero, so could Rooney. But they did not stay long enough. Big Dunc was not good enough.

But Barkley could be forever associated with Everton if he makes an impact in international tournaments and stays with us for at least half-a-dozen years. We need that.

You can argue that these players have not been sold but it’s had exactly the same impact on the club. We have now ’sold’ two of our best players and one very good squad player.

And all three of those players will need replacing with a like-for-like replacement. Roberto needs to find more players now as good as Lukaku, Barry and Deulofeu.

I do not like the loan policy and question why Roberto seems to have so much faith in it. Loaning players is a short-term solution and should only be used in an emergency. Roberto can bring in Deulofeu last season and possibly bring in Adam Johnson next season but all that’s doing to papering over the cracks.

We have a striker shortage and we all know it. Lukaku plugged the gap last season but now Roberto has the difficult task of finding another striker to plug the gap next season. It would be so much better to find a permanent striker who can be developed over a number of seasons.

If we are to progress as a team, we need permanent players which Roberto can build around. Otherwise, every summer, loan players will return to their parent clubs and Roberto will continually be looking to plug the gap with more loans.

Gerrard is there still because of money, plain and simple; he must be getting huge payoffs and when he retires he will join up with JC (the other one) at Skypool and the master plan will be complete. It makes my skin crawl at the very thought, I’m going to cancel my package (not brown) now.

I hope Ross Barkley doesn’t sell his soul like the other cunt and knows when the time is right for him – not the board, not the fans, not his agent. If he stays because he loves Everton, then that will do for me.

Players like Barkley come along once every blue moon if you’re lucky. Make him Captain and build the entire team around him; he is that good. He is our Gerrard.

Let’s just enjoy his skills whilst we have them. As the Byrds used to sing ’For everything, there is a season’. I suspect it applies to Everton footballers, too!

Can Everton offer Barkley £150k wages? No.
Can Everton offer Barkley multiple FA Cup Wins? No.
Can Everton offer Barkley multiple League Cup wins? No.
Can Everton offer Barkley a Champions League win? No.
Can Everton offer Barkley a chance of winning the Premier League? No.

Let’s pretend Steven Gerrard continued his childhood love affair with Everton and signed for us when he was a kid. Let’s pretend he loved Everton as much as he now loves Liverpool.

Would Steven Gerard have been loyal enough to play for Everton for 15 years? Winning nothing?

No Chance. Gerard would have walked away from Goodison and joined Chelsea years ago.

It’s easy to be loyal under those circumstances. Not so easy to be loyal to Everton who have very little money and very little chance of actually winning anything, let alone multiple trophies.

BTW I think you’ll find that Everton FC have made more than a few players multi-millionaires along the way since the PL started. Sometimes I think you believe that Everton are tantamount to a non-league club and I wonder why you bother supporting a club with so many failings, especially when compared to our near-neighbours.

Anyone saying he should stay, to put it mildly are, what’s the phrase?

Err... except we haven’t.

There’s no ’argument’ about it. Everton have not ’sold’ 3 loan players. To suggest it should be viewed otherwise is nonsensical.

This whole ’Everton must repent for their evil loan pact with the devil’ rubbish has been going on for too long now.

Loan players going back to their parent club is not ’exactly’ the same as selling a player because all parties to the deal know, at it’s very inception, that it is an inevitable and agreeable outcome and can plan ahead accordingly.

You really think Martinez just went ’sod it, get them in for now and I’ll just try and phenomenally blag it when they piss off in the summer’? He’s had a full season to plan what he’s going to do.

We brought in 5 players on permanent deals last season, which is pretty much par for the course in two transfer windows for most clubs. Anyone else coming in on loan should be viewed as a bonus, brought about through clever manipulation of the current market. It served it’s purpose, so why the continual need to seek to put a negative spin on it? It’s not like bringing in a loan player prevented the club from making a permanent purchase. Gareth Barry didn’t cock-block Fernando from coming into Everton, for example.

Roberto’s ’loan policy’ granted us the benefit of players we wouldn’t have been able to bring in otherwise. Players we wouldn’t have possessed to lose in the first place, were it not for this very same ’policy’ being utilised.

Your take on Everton’s loan dealings is negatively skewed to support your pre-set stance on the system as a whole. ’We’ll be worse off for it in the long run, i’m warning ya’ is self serving scaremongering on a ’Witchfinder General’ scale.

For me, it’s simple: It’s not about what we’ve lost now that they’re gone, it’s about what we gained whilst they were here.

Much better to take a proven quantity on loan for a year because (a) you pretty much know what he will bring to the party and (b) it provides you with the luxury of time to conduct a thorough search for a more permanent solution.

What would you rather Martinez did last summer? Turn his nose up at the very thought of loans, take a gamble and stump up £9m for someone like Rickity Van Wasswinkle? That’s all well and good until you’re stuck with the useless (and now virtually worthless) sod a year later when everyone has sussed he’s utter shite and your only chance of shipping him out is to take a tip from ’Trading Places’ and tie him up, shove a fistful of tamaze’s down his throat, gag him, dress him in a gorilla suit and shove him in a cage on a Congo bound freight train, to spend the entire journey getting anally mauled by Mighty Joe Young.

You talk like he’s going to be playing with his big toe poking out of his battered old boots. They’ve already offered him the platform to become a Premier League footballer, a full international and a multi-millionare, after one full season. Throwing his career away if he stays here he is.

You’re right, John, it is simple. How anyone can’t see it is baffling

And when they do go, it disrupts the team structure and rhythm. I think we may be a bit like Man Utd in the 90s with a cadre of good youngsters - Barkley, Coleman, Stones, McCarthy plus one or two more to come through; if we keep them together for five years, we could go from strength to strength.

As for Barkley, I reckon we have one more season to convince him that EFC is worth staying with.

Roger (43), I don’t recall any trouble caused by the loanee to disrupt the team ethos last year. As far as structure and rhythm, every year is a new year and every year teams have to introduce new players into the team, so I don’t see the disruption there either. I do agree we have a great core that, if we can hang onto and add to, we’re going places that team hasn’t been to in ages.

I would make it an unspoken rule of loyalty and dicipline.

Moyes could not handle that but I think Martinez can inspire the new youngsters to do just that.

The whole point of producing your own youngsters is to keep them.

I agreed with most of what you said and not for the first time I finished reading your post laughing, . .but theres something I don’t see - which no doubt some will find, err. . "baffling"

If Martinez had decided to spend the 9 million on a permanent signing what makes you think he’d have signed A Rickity Van Duffswinkle ? I mean, he’s a smart guy. A man who clearly has contacts. The chances are he would have signed a player who was still worth £9M, perhaps even more?

I’m not crticising Martinez for using the loan system. The guy works for Kenwright ffs - but there is a gamble in using other clubs’ players on a short-term basis too. If we get to the Champions League, the gamble pays, but if we don’t, all we are left with is a hard luck story and three gaping holes in our squad.

I applauded the signings at the time so I’m not going to start shoutin that Martinez was wrong – he wasn’t; the gamble needed to be taken – but, well as the players in question did, we have to accept that, that £9 m is now spunked money and we are back where we started.

And if we sold him, we at least have a chance of getting SOMETHING back.

I would take Paddy McGuiness on a 12-month loan if the wages were not too high.

So the loan system is there to support us in the meantime, provoke a bit of a buzz around the club with the right loans, and make it easier to attract said permanent players. So what’s the big deal and angst? We should sign a championship winning team in the space of 12 months?? Really?

Off topic - trading places is amazing ’Yeah!’

Aside from the fact that the loan system enables big clubs to stock-pile young players, it’s also unfair giving an advantage to those big clubs.

For example, Mourinho doesn’t rate Lukaku, so he sends Lukaku to Everton. He’ll claim that move is to develop Lukaku into a better player but really what Mourinho is hoping is that Lukaku will inspire Everton to take points off of Chelsea’s rivals.

So Lukaku plays against Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Man City and Everton take quite a few points off of those teams. But of course he can’t play against Chelsea.

Chelsea effectively are cleverly inserting players into teams they don’t consider rivals in an attempt to make them better so they can take points off of Chelsea’s rivals.

How is that fair???

I’m sorry but that is not fair. That’s called cheating. Lukaku helping to take points off of Arsenal but not being able to play against Chelsea is cheating.

I do not like the loan system. I think it can be useful for developing young players (Luke Garbutt improved no end at Colchester) but I feel loans should only be allowed to happen when the teams are in different leagues or different countries.

Loaning players to teams you are supposedly competing against is wrong and hands a massive advantage to the teams with big money who can stock-pile players.

The £9m figure was just in there because I think it was around the figure Norwich foolishly frittered away on the Dutch danger man come Danger Mouse. I wasn’t suggesting the players Martinez brought in on loan cost the club that same amount.

I was simply seeking to counter the assumption that a permanent signing somehow ’safeguards’ the future of the club, whilst a loan signing flushes it down the shitter.

You’re right that, in an ideal world, a quality striker who would prove successful, signed on a permanent deal, would be preferable to, say, Lukaku on loan for a year but, we know from past experience, that trick’s a lot harder to pull of than it seems.

I mean, when was the last time we actually got one who found the net regularly for more than a few months? Probably Yakubu before he completed his transformation into Clay Davis from The Wire ("I gotta run? Sheeeeeiiit!"). Even then, he only gave us one good season and was eventually packed off (winched away is probably more accurate) at a massive loss.

We finished above Liverpool the previous two seasons and I enjoyed every single moment of it. Now this past season was terrific but, if there was a sour note, it’s that Liverpool finished above us.

So next season I want us to regain our crown as Merseyside’s Highest Finishing Club. And that’s not going to be easy.

Already Liverpool have strengthened. Rickie Lambert and that German lad have improved Liverpool’s squad already and I get the impression that’s just the start of it.

Everton on the other hand have lost two of their best players (Lukaku, Barry) and one very good squad player (Deulofeu). So already Everton’s squad is three very good players down (four if you want to count Traore). So without question Everton’s squad is weaker than it was last month.

So in theory Roberto has to find two players capable of being amongst Everton’s best and one very good squad player just to get us back to where we were a month ago.

While Liverpool have strengthened already, Roberto needs three pretty superb players just to get the squad back to where it was.

Talk about being counterproductive. Roberto certainly has his work cut out for him. First he needs three superb players to get us back to square one and then he needs two or three further superb players to improve us.

Effectively Roberto needs to find 5 or 6 top class players this summer if he wants to have a better squad.

But who the feck understands integrity in the bear pit that is football. It should be re-named Dodgeball!

The loans that Roberto made last year helped us to the edges of a top four place. Yes, Geri’s gone and Rommy may well have as well. Barry might become a permanent fixture... and maybe Rommy will as well. Without Barry at the back and Rommy’s goals, we would not have finished 55th.

I don’t think Robbie is a devotee of the loan system; I think it’s blindingly obvious that he is strapped for cash (unless Bill wins the pools). So it seems to me that he would rather be able to buy the players he wants so that we can get back above Liverpool. But he can’t. Some of the young lads might come in and do a great job but in my opinion that is asking an awful lot of young lads.

So, without the funds to match the usual suspects, we will struggle to get any further than we are doing.

As for Ross, he’s a young lad in a game where things can change overnight. I don’t think it’s a matter of us not selling the lad, although teams will be queuing up for him. I think it’s more a matter of him thinking shall I stick with the club I support, even if we don’t win anything, or should I go to a club that will be winning trophies most years. It would be hard for anyone to refuse that future.

As for Gerrard being loyal... that’s one way of putting it.

Now, Martinez will build a team around Barkely. He’s already said that Goodison is the best place for him at this stage of his career and I agree 100%. That wasn’t the case with Rooney as OFM didn’t have a clue in an attacking and creative sense! It was beyond his abilities.

Ross seems a really down-to-earth, level-headed, dyed-in-the-wool blue, who loves the club, it’s supporters, the Manager, the players and the coaching staff. He’s 20 years old. He’ll give us another 2 or 3 years minimum to build a team around us, get us in the Champions League and win something. If that doesn’t happen then he’ll move on to Madrid or Barcelona for a huge fee.

If we progress as we all hope, there’s a chance Ross will stay for a bit longer, but realistically he’ll be leaving at 25 or 26 unless Martinez has built a dynasty around him: Stones, Coleman, McCarthy etc by then.

I can’t see Ross kicking up a fuss to leave anytime soon and Martinez won’t cash in on him, he’s a football visionary and dreamer like most of us on here. Don’t panic, these are great times to be a blue and it’s only going to get better!!!!

I do believe that RM however has a great nucleus of players to build on and that, coupled with his quality management, can only serve to build this club into a viable contender. Obviously there will be changes to the roster this next season but we as fans have no reason to believe that the Blues will not improve even without Lukaku and Barry. The kind of football they were playing was more than a match for most teams and that was all down to RM and his coaching techniques.

Whilst it is great to see our boys in the England team, especially Barkley, I would sooner he sees little playing time preferring him to come back for the new season fully fit and refreshed. By the next World Cup he will be an automatic choice as Hodgson and his blue eyed boys (Gerrard etc) will be gone.

Some Blues still trust Bill cos he’s "one of us". And he did promise he wouldn’t sell Rooney for £50M – his words, and to be fair, he didn’t.

But as long as we’re doing okay in the league, any form of protest by the Blue Union and their ilk is "Koppite behaviour" apparently.

I seriously have given up. I’ll just focus on watching the football from now on.

Agree completely.

It astonishes me the amount of blues STILL seemingly prepared to close their eyes to the reality of who runs our club (and how) and to simply cross their fingers and allow wishful thinking to take over.

The blindingly obvious and the reality is that our business model is we sell our best players to keep the wolf from the door – that’s it.

Personally I’ll be made up if we have Barkley for another 12 months.

I am lucky I can remember when Everton were the club who could buy anyone they fancied, so I don’t suppose we can grumble now that our finances can’t compete with the richer clubs in our league.

If I was Bill I’d be thinking at least hold onto him until the 2016 Euros, by which time he will hopefully be established for England and as a PL star. With the premium on superstars ever rising if he lives up to all expectation, he might be the first player to be sold for over £100m!

Under the current shitbags currently residing in our boardroom are we ever going to afford that? Not a chance.

Sadly unless something major changes with that gang of muppets, he will be sold.

I’m not saying we will sell them, but you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be inquiries of how much do the club want for these players.

Problem for us is if a player WANTS to go for substantially more wages and straight into CL side, what do you do?

If the board decide to sell any or all of those youngsters, not only will we lose any opportunity of building a side that can last for a few years, but we as a club will be admitting that we are no longer to be considered as CL hopefuls and will have joined the ranks of the other also-rans whose only ambition is to retain their place in the Premier League.

Everton no longer sit at the top table when it comes to revenue and advancement in the modern game and, yes, the current board have made mistakes but, all in – apart from Kings Dock – all the other financial gains lost still wouldn’t have bridged the current gap.

People seriously need to have a reality check on what is expected from the Everton board; we have kids season tickets for just £95, we have a community charity that is record-breaking, we have a ladies set up doing well at all levels, Under-18s national champions and we have just hit our highest points total in the EPL and again Season ticket sales selling at the highest level for a decade. If, as a business, Everton are offered anything above £50 million for Ross Barkley, then we seriously need to look at the benefits this may bring... like the basis of our deposit for a new stadium.

The situation of whether we sell him or not will be determined strictly by how much is offered for him – simple – and is no different than the Bale saga at Spurs. It’s all about how we progress moving forward and not what we did 10 years ago; if he stays, we have to take advantage of the exposure and cash-in off the field; if we sell, we must invest the vast majority of the sale price into a new stadium and not more players. The future of our club is at stake and it’s the owner’s responsibility to cash in at the right time and re-invest the money.

I’m told the EFC debt has been reduced to £12 million (but again, that’s not official). However, for us to get closer to that top tier of earners, where the trophies go, we would have a far better chance on paper selling Ross for big money and using that money for a new larger stadium that can yield us much greater long-term returns than one player staying at the club.

Stopped reading here... as I do in every post that contains the same/similar apologist nonsense.

(See post 70 for a bit of sense).

As the board didn’t state who the partners are in the new stadium project at the AGM, citing confidentiality while briefing the press... Who are they?

I would like to hear, given our present turnover and outlay, other than a new owner, how fans would spend what is left. Yes, the Kitbag deal was terrible but as I understand that has still got many years to run so we are stuck with it.

This season we earned over £89M in TV revenue. Cardiff earned more money this season than Man Utd did for winning the league last year...

This is the issue: for the board to say we are skint now is a lie.

This bloody board is likely to see him go, sooner rather than later. One; because they will, as some excellent posts have already pointed out, be tempted to cash him in; and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Seamas and Stonesy be put up for auction as well.

Two, Even if he isn’t sold this year, we might get a couple of seasons out of him and if there’s no big investment forthcoming, I couldn’t blame him for going to a club where he’s much more likely to get the medals and recognition I think he’ll deserve.

I think that Roberto will make more good use of the loan system because he’ll have to if we want to see Everton contesting for Europe and domestic cups on a regular basis.

Then you will never ever move on with any thought process based on the future of EFC. As fans, we think differently than we would as businessmen but realistically it’s the next P&L account that matters – not the missed opportunity from 10 years ago. You don’t need to change your opinion of our custodians but you need to look what can be achieved here and now.

David, please explain "SMT @ Everton", if it’s the derogatory term then I don’t get what your saying at all, paranoid at best of everything people post.

The latest accounts published for season 2012-13 showed a turnover of £86.4 million which produced an operating profit of £0.74 million; this does not include any transfers either in or out.

Francis Jeffers hurt me when he joined Arsenal. Michael Ball (who I believed would be Everton’s long-term Captain) hurt me further when he joined Rangers. But then along came Wayne Rooney. And that fucker broke my heart.

Wayne said all the right things; Once a Blue, Always a Blue, we were told he had Everton wallpaper in his bedroom. This kid loved Everton and was going to be a legend for our club.

But then Rooney left Everton at while still only a teenager. Wayne Rooney the Everton legend left Everton after just a couple of seasons. Wayne Rooney who many predicted would break all Everton records left Everton after scoring just 17 goals for the club.

Wayne Rooney destroyed me and I’ve never had faith in young players since. I’ve never believe in a young player again.

Jack Rodwell came and went and I honestly didn’t care.

Ross Barkley, John Stones? I’d rather give my admiration to Leon Osman because he won’t break my heart.

Rooney changed me. I’ll never let a young player hurt me again.

The 2012-13 season merit payments for final league positions were worth just over £700k; in 2013-14 they are worth £1.2m and for next season, the TV pool revenue from sky, BT and worldwide goes into orbit...

Cardiff City earned more than £64m...! The RS earned the most, £97.5m from the media alone, £2m more than City, because most of their away games were televised...

Both Euro trophies have had their money increased from next season too. The EL cash has doubled, the CL TV money is frightening... Loose all your group games...? No problem if your an English club, here’s £45m...!

Bottom line is we have the money to offer Ross any contract... If he is worth it of course.

But this makes me wonder: just how he would feel if say a Spanish giant offered €100 mill for him (or the Filth)? Ok, his agent would be all over it and advising him to leave for an extra £100k/week (powerful argument!), but would he?!

ps: I actually think it would be great to get Rodwell back; Eto’o or Barry... hmmmmm?!

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I love to know just how many locals were shouting that. I’d wager none.

I think it’s an unfortunate result of being from a club who for decades has shown little ambition. I don’t blame the youngsters for going. Just maybe now, we have a manager who can entice young players to stay and be part of a club that’s on the up.

We still have a board, in my humble opinion, whose directors either can’t or won’t put sufficient funds into the club. So, the chances are, that young players will still leave EFC if Roberto can’t produce a winning formula from meagre ingredients.

After a thorough inspection of all hotel bathrooms, it was discovered that Leighton Baines had took a dump that, according to our in-house faeces professional, turned out to be one of those ’Bobbie Brown’s’ that stubbornly refuse to flush.

In his haste to be on time for the team bus, Mr Baines forgot to go back and have a second go at getting rid of the rancid floater, thereby forcing horrified hotel staff to have to clear up his mess.

The traumatised cleaner told our reporter how she was forced to stand and flush, four times in quick succession, as she watched the naughty little left-back’s log whirl about in the pan, seemingly disappear and then suddenly bob its head back up above the water with a sly wink. "Eet wasa horrible. Likea the bita at the end ofa ’Friday the 13th’ where Jason jumpers outa the fucking lake."

Witnesses to the incident were heard to mutter ’dirty bastard!’.

The rags have nothing better to do so they have to have a go at the players who replaced their idols: i.e. Jags/JT - Bainsey/Cole. They’re still in mourning for Beckham, ffs.

ps: I’m surprised there’s not a Fifa-related thread what with all these allegations of corruption and the possibility that it might extend to Uefa as well.

Gerrard was telling him to stay at Everton for life not so long ago. With the new TV money, we can offer Barkley whatever anyone else can. It baffles me why there is even a debate on whether to sell him or not.

Then BK gave him his budget, and he could only make that budget strech to 5.
So without diluting the quality of player he wanted to bring in, he said ’’Right I’ll bring in 5 permanent and 3 stop gaps on loan"

So basically he brought in the additonal 3 players on loan, with the intent of using next seasons budget to purchase (other) players for those positions.

Win Win, Thinking a year ahead... getting the 3 positions we need filled a year in advance to allow the current squad to transition to Robertos style. Now this summer, he will bring in 3 permanent replacements already up to speed with whats required of them.

I’m not sure I’m getting my point accross well here, so hopefully someone will understand what I’m trying to say.

But basically, Roberto needed 8 players to fit his style. He could maybe have brought in Lukaku last year as a permanent deal... but then he wouldnt have been able to get the other 7?!
So it would have been a 2 year transistion to get the team to play his style. As he would have to have waited until this summer to fill the other 7 positions.

Roberto was thinking ahead.

We ALL know what is expected now of whoever fills Gareth Barrys position.
Even the replacement will know why he has been selected.

We ALL know what sorta striker we are looking for and the movement/holdup play that is expected of them.

The loans allowed us to fasttrack the tranistion to Robertos style.

Alan Williams 71, so after all these years were still looking for a deposit on a new stadium?

Kenwright has told us twice that the money for a new ground has been Ringed Fenced. Cynical me mate, but if the debts getting lowered with this new telly money, what have I got to say to kid these gullible fuckers, for a few more years?

Blue Bill is the man who said that The Arabs looked at Everton before Man city, and if he was telling the truth for once, then he should have been lynched. Because only for his Ringed Fenced money disappearing, we would have had the new stadium, these said people suppossedly required?

John, bloody hilarious pal, and Colin nice follow up mate.

We’ve got a nucleus of a great young side who are really talented. I’d expect Martinez to add a couple of faces each year about the age of stones & barkley and perhaps get some experienced faces in too on loan, or use the loan system to look at some potential youngsters we can eventually purchase.

As for Barkley himself, I think to make big money off him we’d need to be a prominent club in the media, playing the big competitions. He also needs quality players around him to really flourish.

CL football is not far away. We need a bit of a lucky season or we need to improve our squad a fair bit. Fortunately in Martinez we have one of the best managers around and he will be given the stability needed to compete with richer clubs.

CL football and the cash it brings is the only way we’re going to be able to afford the wages that superstar players will demand.

Hodgson is right in his assessment of Barkley, he loses the ball, dribbles himself into losing the ball and he needs to score more goals to be a top attacking midfielder.

He also is inconsistent so I think he knows it himself that he needs to stay at Everton a few more years before making it anywhere else.

My main point is Barkley is more loyal then Rooney ever was, and Barkley will stay unless he is forced out.

Where have you been, while our superb manager and players have been setting new records?

We didn’t pay Gareth Barry anywhere near £120,000 a week as Man City were still paying a large chunk of his wages.

Stop the negativity and get just enjoy the football.

But this idea that the board wants to "cash in" on a player is nonsense. We sell when we have to – i.e. when the player wants to leave and is offered a great salary that we do not want to match – in particular if it causes disquiet with the other players on the payroll. With the current TV deal we really do not need to sell players to stay afloat... but we do need to keep a lid on salaries to stop sliding into a loss-making position year after year.

It is the salaries on offer to a player like Barkley that will lead him to leave eventually. However, I hope we can keep him for at least 5 years so that he can make his mark on the club and win things for us – and, if he does that, then maybe we can afford to pay the salary to keep him.