ToffeeWeb Viewpoint

The Tinderbox

The club is wading through enormous debt, another successful battle against relegation is only just behind us, the fans are disgruntled and considering whether or not to renew their season tickets, and we face losing out two brightest prospects for many years.

The press is full of Walter Smith's comments aimed at the representatives of Michael Ball who have gone public so early in the contract negotiation process, and with friction apparently building between the two parties, there is a very real possibility that Ball - who, like Nick Barmby last year, has just been named Player of the Season - could be alienated sufficiently that he does the unthinkable and leaves Goodison Park this summer.

There a few facets to this latest Goodison controversy. On one level, you start to wish that Smith and the club would just shut their mouths for a while and not respond to baiting in the media by player "represenatives". If the board is not due to deliberate further on Ball's future for another fortnight, what possible good an come from inflaming the situation in the media.

On another level, Ball has spoken of the agonising decision he faces if his talks with Everton fall through; in other words, he would have little choice but to leave the club he has supported since his childhood.

Where's the agony, Michael? For any true blue-blooded Evertonian, the agony would be in not playing for Everton, not being being able to pull on the royal blue jersey but having to wear the colours of a rival club.

Apparently, unlike Francis Jeffers, who is happy to jump ship in search of filthy lucre and the prospect of silverware, Ball desperately wants to play for Everton. Yet if his desire to play for his club was so strong, would he be holding it to ransom in the worst financial climate in Everton's history?

However, does there come a point where Kenwright and the Everton decision-makers throw up their hands, accept that has changed irrevocably in the past decade and use the proceeds from Francis Jeffers' sale to give Michael ball his £30,000 a week. Money has taken over the game and corrupted its every facet. Players can and do demand exorbitant salaries and the clubs have little option but to pay because that is the way things are these days. To compete, you have to be prepared to stump up the necessary cash.

If it weren't for the malignant influence of player agents and advisers, these situations might always come down to compromise.

If Michael Ball would take a step back and see his beloved Everton in its knees, he might reduce his salary demands, if only for the fact that he has just three quarters of a season of stellar performances behind him. That makes him relatively unproven.

If, on the assumption that the money worries will have eased by then, Everton were prepared to leave the door open to a renewal of Ball's contract in a couple of years time with the promise of a lucrative offer, the player might be more inclined to sign now and the club could hold on to a prized asset.

There is, however, something that sticks in the craw of this whole issue, and also that of Jeffers' desire to leave Goodison Park, and that is Walter Smith.

Alex Nyarko's revelations of Smith's lack of man-management skills, the dressing-room methods of Archie Knox and general disharmony among the squad could provide the clues as to why these home-grown Evertonians are feeling compelled to leave.

Certainly Smith's less-than-friendly comments in the press this week about Ball especially underline what many people suspect; that some players have lost respect in their manager and that it is Smith's influence, combined with obvious problems with his management on the pitch, that his pushing players away.

What is clear is that as long as it is insinuated that Smith is control of the contracts being offered to the players and the more he makes antagonising comments in the media, the greater the revolt the club will suffer from the fans if both Jeffers and Ball are sold this summer.

The threat of season ticket holders voting with their feet by not renewing this summer - with the prospect of just 15,000 season tickets sold by the start of next season - and landing a body blow to the club's finances is all too apparent. The board should be mindful of the symbolism surrounding the Michael Ball situation, because they may have to do everything they can to appease him to avoid an explosion of fan anger that has is quite evidently escalating with each passing day.

©2001 ToffeeWeb, 31 May 2001