No quick fix
Richard Parker mulls over the players' responsibility for the 2003/04 horror show and the financial challenges ahead to remedy the situation

21 May 2004

As an Everton fan of 20 years I can honestly say that the past season has been the most disappointing in my living memory. In the aftermath of the Man City Massacre, I really was happy that the season was over and I didn’thave to endure another embarrassment for at least 2 months. After the highs of last season, to a season consisting of virtually nothing but lows.We’ve been brought back to reality with a bump. The result of this season is that all frustrations are now reaching a head.

However, look back 12 months and we can see that all the problems now causing such a furore amongst the Everton faithful were already there. Had this season gone the way of the last, the world would still have that rose-tinted look about it.

But that didn’t happen. The players failed to reproduce those displays which gave us such hope last season. Now add to that the season-ticket price hike and you’ve got a set of seriously pissed-off football fans, all looking for answers and someone to shoulder the blame. Paul Gregg seems to have been one of those targeted by fans to receive a large amount of the blame despite the fact that almost £10M of his personal wealth has ended up in Everton Football Club. Bill Kenright has been blamed, Sir Philip Carter has been blamed, the board as a whole have been blamed and David Moyes has been blamed.Virtually everyone occupying a space in the Everton hierarchy has been blamed, from Sir Philip to the players to the tea lady.

There are 12 people each week that can be blamed for the sorry showing this season, the 11 on the pitch and the man who picks them. Now I don’t have any doubts about Moyes, the only possible negative point I would make about him is his inexperience. I certainly have no doubts that he is the man for the Goodison hot-seat. So that brings us to the 11 people on the pitch, who on 38 occasions represented our beloved football club. We know that they are capable of much, much more than was in evidence at virtually any point throughout this season. They did it last season.

So what went wrong? Even with no investment, the players should have shown more, as I said, they already did it once. Once we hit the 39-point mark, with the draws against Leeds and Chelsea, the players seemed to pat themselves on the back for not being relegated and go off on their holidays. The next 4 games, all winnable, were a disgrace. Unfortunately, the ideal solution of bringing in 5+ high-quality players and getting rid of some of the crap we have had to put with is fantasy.We all know that Everton must operate within tight financial constraints.

However, the overdraft is now taken care of. Although this means we are further in debt, that debt is consolidated and will be paid off in due course, albeit in roughly 20-25 years from now. But all these small wins are adding up, from the JJB deal, the Kejian deal and subsequent Asian marketing, the new superstore, season ticket price increases and so on. It’s only small beginnings, but the bottom line is now that football is a business with the 11 players on the pitch financed by a huge corporate set-up. So when all is said and done, we are on the right track as a business and a successful football club is now built upon a sound business. This is the key, firstly we need Everton Football Club to have a sound business foundation and start making profit .

We need our youth academy – there is no better way to success than creating your own superstars of the future (a la Man Utd’s treble winning side), plus it‘s license to print money, just look at our Wayne, worth in the region of £20M!! We need the full support of the fans, who need to buy our season tickets for 2004/2005 season, we need investment in the stadium. We also need time, time for Moyes to offload the old and bring in the players who will mould the future for Everton.

More than anything we need some money from somewhere to improve the team before next season, just to survive. There won’t be three teams as bad next year as there were this year. It’s going to take a lot of work, which I’m sure Bill & co. will gladly put in and it’s going to take some real magic in the transfer market from Mr Moyes. But most of all it requires those 11 players on the pitch each week to perform and restore a little pride in them, the shirt and the blue half of Merseyside after the utterly pathetic showing of the last month or so.

As a last aside, knowing our financial state, is £7M for Alan Smith really the type of deal we need to pursue? I have to admit the prospect of a Rooney/Smith front line pairing in the royal blue jersey is a very, very exciting one. But we have 4 or 5 strikers of variable, but ultimately sufficient quality (a contentious point I’m sure, but at least we’ll all agree that attack is not our weakest area). Unless there has been a windfall of some sort, then £7M probably represents the whole of Moyes
spending for the summer.

So where is the money going to come from? We all know that teams like Birmingham, Fulham, Charlton, Southampton, etc, etc are now ahead of us in league standing and financial terms. It may not be what you want to hear right now but it is my belief that we must continue to be patient. It has been said a million times before, but unless an Abramovich type figure comes in with a £100 million plus investment just for fun, there is no quick fix.

No-one said it would be easy, but in the words of the Great Blue Hope: “Once a Blue, always a Blue.”

Richard Parker

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