Yet another summer where we all plunge down the Everton financial rabbit hole.
The Blues have thus far managed to hang on to the players that they want to keep hold of, but unfortunately they also still have on their books the ones that David Moyes wished to move on to raise some transfer funds, most notably the Nigerian pair, Joseph Yobo and Yakubu Aiyegbeni.
We all know that as the club stands it’s a very clear case of selling to buy – or even selling to free up a bit of cash flow, possibly pay off a little bit of debt and then hopefully have enough left to buy. It’s been that way for ages, and there was a feeling at the end of last season that in order to shake the squad up a bit, Moyes might sacrifice one of the players who could attract a decent price – most likely Leighton Baines, Jack Rodwell or Marouane Fellaini.
Thus far that hasn’t happened though – whether that’s because Moyes is determined to hold onto those players or simply hasn’t received any particularly tempting bids is not clear, although there is still plenty of time for that situation to change.
At the moment though, with the corruption scandal at Fenerbahce scuppering Yobo’s move to Turkey and Yakubu and his wages making him look like a high risk investment, we appear to be stuck at something of an impasse. The one player we are consistently linked with – the admittedly exciting Charles N’Zogbia – is valued at around £9 million by all accounts, so unless something moves quickly for Everton he looks destined for one of those clubs like Aston Villa or Sunderland who have already made some big sales. The Black Cats’ latest spree has been quite remarkable, but it’s worth noting that they are to an extent recycling money generated by the sales of Kenwyne Jones, Darren Bent and Jordan Henderson in recent seasons. Similarly Villa, bankrolled initially by investment from Randy Lerner, have parted with Ashley Young, Gareth Barry and James Milner for substantial fees.
Liverpool have been hurling decent dough about too, over and above the £50 million they received for Fernando Torres, but you can rest assured that Fenway Sports Group won’t just keep throwing money at them.
In short then, everyone sells to buy to a certain extent – only Rafael Benitez thought that you could just keep amassing players endlessly until you had to start storing them in the cupboard under the stairs or surreptitiously cram them into the recycling bins at the supermarket in the dead of night, in the hope that no one would notice.
However, the extent to which Everton have no flexibility whatsoever in the transfer market is quite marked in comparison to the clubs around them, and it’s that which is at the root of this summer’s – and indeed every summer’s – supporter frustration and, to a certain degree, unrest.
That agitation has manifested itself in the creation of several internet-based groups with varying aims, but broadly speaking they are all focussed on trying to either affect change at the top at Everton or at least highlight the ongoing financial issues that the club faces. The latest, the People’s Group, want to see the national media pay more attention to Everton and are lobbying journalists to that effect.
The problem they face though is that for something to be news, by definition there has to be some aspect of it that is new, and that’s not the case at Everton, a decent-sized club that, like almost all the rest in the Premier League, has borrowed continuously in order to buy players and pay them increasingly massive wages. The club’s earnings have not grown in line with those outgoings though and that increased debt burden – two stillborn ground moves are the most notable testaments to that lack of expansion – and nobody has come forward willing to inject any of their own cash or buy the club outright from the beleaguered Bill Kenwright.
None of that is news. Most Evertonians are sick of hearing the ‘Kings Dock, NTL’ mantra by now, and so the footballing public at large certainly couldn’t give two fucks. The front page will never be held for: ‘Everton have good manager but their board are skint and a bit clueless’.
The only area where there could be something worthy of investigation is the continually rumoured involvement of Phillip Green behind the scenes. The main reason that no one ever gets all Woodward and Bernstein on the Arcadia Group owner’s ass though is that it has never been made clear just what his nefarious role actually is. His name gets knowingly thrown into conversations all the time, but it’s always as a vague, non-committal punchline, a bit like when someone reaches the point where they’ve exhausted their limited knowledge of foreign affairs and enigmatically signs off with, “Well, it’s all about oil, isn’t it. Everyone knows that”.
The most popular theory is that the shares owned by Robert Earl were purchased with Green’s cash, but how you would prove that is anyone’s guess, and it’s actually hard to fathom what the implications are if you could. For a start, it would mean that we actually do have a billionaire in charge and it’s doing us a fat lot of good – whether it’s Earl who has no serious wealth in football terms or Green who obviously does, whoever bought Paul Gregg’s shares has proven unwilling to put any more money into the club.
You would presume that if he had any long term interest in the Blues, an individual as rich as Green would be inclined to ease the pressure on the manager, and indeed his mate Kenwright, with the kind of sums that while almost lifesaving for the club would represent ‘walking around money’ to him. So if he is Everton’s silent investor he’s clearly not in it for the long haul or the love, which can only mean that he’s looking for a quick score, and that can only happen by selling his stake, and that, as we all know well and good, depends on the existence of a willing buyer. And given Green’s connections and standing in the business world, it’s hard to think of many people better equipped to find a sucke…er, potential new owner for Everton, either in the UK or abroad.
To boil it down then, either Green isn’t the man behind the royal blue velvet curtain, contrary to the constant whispers, or if Kenwright is lying about Green’s involvement, he is almost certainly telling the truth about the difficulty in doing a deal to sell the club.
Whatever the truth, the upshot remains the same. Everton are going to have to keep operating on a comparatively tight budget for the foreseeable future and Moyes will be required to continue doing the things that earned him his handsome contract at the club in the first place, i.e. get good results with relatively limited resources.
Until there is some significant change, which can only be brought about by the emergence of new, extremely rich owners who are not really concerned about any realistic return on a massive investment – not in the short to medium term anyway – we will continue to listen to the convoluted conspiracy theories, sign the online petitions and have these circular debates during every single transfer window.
Same as it ever was.
