With no footy to take my mind off Everton — I don’t count watching England but was glad to see Mykolenko had a good game — I came across another fly-on-the-wall series on Amazon Prime about Newcastle Utd.
About 30 minutes into the first episode, we get some of the background to Anthony Gordon’s transfer from Everton and Amanda Staveley’s perspective. Eddie Howe had been tracking Gordon since he got the manager’s position but there were other priorities, such as Guimares and Trippier, to buy.
So, at the beginning of the January 2023 transfer window, Newcastle’s attention turned to Gordon as they saw him as another goalscorer which they were apparently short of. They had already paid a club record for Izak and, 5 days before the end of January, they sound out Everton (Kenwright, I assume) and are told he will cost them £60 million.
This is too high so Staveley comes back with a lower offer as the clock ticks away. The ace up her sleeve is that she can pay £40 million up front with £5 million add-ons. Funnily, Newcastle Utd are worried about spending more because of financial fair play!
So, with a couple of days to go in the transfer window, Gordon signs and Everton pocket £40 million immediately! With no time to do anything and Dyche only just arrived, we can’t spend any of it! So we all know where that money goes — into the building fund for the new stadium at Branmley-Moore Dock, and we are one player short… even if Gordon was not going play for us.
There is no mention of any Everton names and it looks like Staveley is the key negotiator who takes Bill’s pants down! So when the new stadium needs another cash injection, there’s Iwobi’s money, Onana £50 million and Pickford £50 million in the summer — and another set of seats can be bought for our new stadium!
If only we didn’t need seats as we are an all-standing stadium!