Sunday, September 4th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Tony Attwood
Phil’s comment in his Man U match preview that his boss was offering a bet that Everton would end up higher than Arsenal this season made me smile.
Of course my smile vanished in the light of the result in Manchester, but that did not change the fact that Bill Kenwright has recently been setting out the problems at Everton by admitting that they have issues with the bankers who are now effectively running the club – just as recently the bankers were running Liverpool, and how they are (seemingly along with Revenue and Customs) now running Rangers FC.
What made me smile, at least inwardly (for it was not done to be seen smiling after the Manchester result) was just how able fans are to ignore reality when pursuing their own vision.
I was particularly reminded of this today when looking at the various blogs around, which are still talking about “The player Wenger must sign” and “Wenger’s failings during the past transfer window.” Such evidence that we have suggests Mr Wenger was by no means the master of his own situation this last transfer window – and yet they continue (without debating the issue) to suggest that Mr Wenger is the master and the board and CEO does his bidding.
Anyway, my thoughts today turned to investment in the team – and I notice that the press and their anti-Arsenal allies in the blog world have continued to say been saying that we have not been investing enough. (And yet we have invested in Jack Wilshere over nine years, bought Alex OC, Gervinho, an extraordinary full back who apparently can’t be any good because he came from Charlton but who looks great to me), Frimpong (again over 9 years), Coquelin (if as I suspect he makes it through), Ignasi… Oh and quite a few players right at the end of the window to. I won’t bore you with the rest of the list. You know who they all are.
Against this Everton have invested in no one – neither youngsters of the Wilshere and Frimpong variety nor new players. The chairman of Everton said recently to supporters that income from recent player sales and the former training ground had been taken by those lovely people at Barclays bank to cut the club debt level.
Additionally Everton recently sent a document to the bank outlining their need to provide the manager with new players for the new season – and apparently Barclays told them where to stuff it.
The Everton chairman doesn’t give interviews now to the press because he knows he has nothing to sell – the club has made a thumping great loss every year since selling the Rooney creature – but he was reasonable enough to talk to fans – something you think they might have welcomed.
Instead it looks from the outside (and of course I am an outsider, with no detailed internal knowledge) that the supporters said they would not reveal the story – but then did, thus revealing how awful Everton’s plight is and dropping the manager and owner in the proverbial.
Kenwright admitted that Moyes has not had a penny to spend on players for three years: they are in fact in the same position as Liverpool were when the banks took them over. The owner is desperate to sell the club but no one wants to buy. You could probably have it for 1p if you wanted.
Worse, two people have offered to buy the club, but it is now suggested that these offers were either hoaxes by Liverpool fans or fishing expeditions by other clubs trying to see if Everton had indeed found someone with money who they could tap into.
Banks are now calling in their debts across the land of football, as Untold has been saying for two years, and Everton are in the firing line – as we have also been writing for two years. Blackburn has been pulled in by the banks, Rangers continues on the edge (I hope to produce an article on this shortly), and Everton seem to be toppling over. In lower leagues Plymouth seem to be hovering, and lower still just down the road from me Rushden and Diamonds were among many smaller clubs that went this summer.
In the seemingly illegally issued summary of the meeting with fans Kenwright apparently says: “What do you think our squad is valued at for insurance purposes? It’s about £180m but the banks won’t take that as security. You have to battle with your bank, daily for me. When David started I told him: ‘I’ll make you a promise, I’ve got no money but we’ll move heaven and earth to give you £5m a year.’
“On average we give him £5.6m every year. Nine years that’s £45m that we haven’t got. Add that to the overdraft and you can see what trouble we’re in.”
“We have just done a document to the bank which says you can’t stop the football club from trading. Do you not think the bank doesn’t ask me every week how we’re doing with the sale? They’re desperate. So what I’ve told them is: ‘Don’t kill us this season.’ No, I will not sell Jagielka, just as last year I was hung, drawn and quartered [by the bank] for not selling Arteta.”
And what is Mr Kenwright’s reward for not taking a salary and for desperately trying to keep the old club going? Apparently regular death threats.
That’s how it goes in football – and that’s the decision for all real fans of all clubs that don’t have big time owners, world-wide marketing (like Man U) or world-wide scouting (like Arsenal). You can issue death threats to a person who is working day and night to do his best, or you can support your team through thick and thin and just hope they are there next year. And know that increasingly they won’t be.
Arteta, when he signed his last contract at Everton, outlined a vision for Champions League football at Goodison Park sold to him by the club. That ambition was just PR talk of course, and finally Arteta realised he had been duped. He put in his transfer request.
Everton played the long game and lost seriously. They could have had far more than £10m for Arteta a year back, but instead they took Moyes word and gave Arteta a contract that could only be sustained with Champions League qualification – for which they required the collapse of all the clubs above them.
Now the banks have capped the overdraft at £25m. Blog copy follows saying “this is the worst team I have ever seen at Goodison and I have been there for 25 years.” Ring a bell?
Everton took £2m less for Arteta than Liverpool took for Raul Meireles because Everton are in the shit, and Arsenal knew it and exploited it. All those fans who moaned about how useless we were for waiting to the last minute should realise this. We played the situation, and got the player cheap. We played the fact that Arsenal is solvent and Everton is bust. Quite possibly we offered to pay the money over 1 or 2 years instead of 4.
Everton have no money for players and have failed to get their stadium project going, and have screwed up the training ground project by annoying local councillors, basically calling them a bunch of useless busybodies rather that democratically elected representatives of the people.
The business phrase is is “a spreadsheet in retreat” along with “PR at full speed”.
Every penny Everton get goes to paying off the bank – there is no future for this club unless they can do a Liverpool and find a new investor. I was one of those who thought Liverpool would not find a new benefactor, but they did. But Liverpool is a more iconic name than Everton.
Everton won’t finish above Arsenal this season because there is a strong chance Everton won’t finish this season – or at best will finish the season in the hands of the banks. And other clubs will go the same way. They have no world-wide scouting and so nothing to fall back on. We know we will have two new players next season because the youth team will produce them. And that’s before we spend a few quid on new players.
The game against Man U hurt terribly, but we are still here, still profitable. Everton is one of many that really can’t be sure what happens next.