Fans Comment
Adrian Porter

Is Wayne Rooney bad for Everton?
25 August 2004

Being an exiled Blue, the only good thing about the recent turmoil at Everton is that I am actually getting to read some column inches on my beloved team in the Australian press and you know who not only dominates the football talk back home but the soccer talk here particularly now we have a couple of Aussies in the squad.

Having been one, who a month ago would have walked away from Everton forever should young Wayne be sold, my mind has gradually changed to the opinion that we must let him go.

The reasons for this are quite simple and apologies for the cliché but no player is bigger than the club and £30M plus would make a huge dent in our debt.  The debt most of which I believe is secured (a secured debt that four or five if not more clubs in the premiership have, but the press never seems to remember this fact when writing about them).  Any story about Everton however you can be assured that you will read somewhere “Everton are between £30M and £40M in debt”

For two days running the Daily Telegraph in Sydney has run stories on the turmoil at Goodison, the Rooney saga and our debt, if its making the sports pages down here during the Olympics who knows what damage stories like this are doing around Europe a continent that actually cares about football.

The fact of the matter is no-one would care in the media about Everton if it wasn’t for Wayne Rooney but unfortunately young Wayne’s talents seem to have catapulted Everton onto the sports pages of every paper in the globe and none of the press we are getting is any good.

So put yourself in the shoes of any top class footballer in England or overseas would you go to Everton, I think not.

There is talk of substantial investment being brought into Everton from either Russia or Ireland or wherever, if this happens we may survive for a couple of seasons or so but long term what’s £20M going to do?  But add the cash from Rooney’s sale to this and Everton have a base to build a team for the future.  Sure, it would be nice to build a team round Wayne but with what?  At least with substantial cash to spend Moyes can actually build a team.

Picture this scenario: Wayne stays at Goodison on the new contract, he has the kind of season he had last year — which wasn’t great — and Everton, who are virtually the same team as 2003-04, go down...  How much are we going to get for him then?  We would be on track to do a Sheffield Wednesday and a Leeds.

My view is we must cash in on him now.  Football is a multi-million pound business and a business that Everton cannot compete in at the moment.  With the proposed investment and the sale of Wayne we would have money to build a competitive side and take the Club forward.

Wayne Rooney through no fault of his own has become in certain sectors bigger than the Everton Football Club and if we don’t sell it will only get worse.

Adrian Porter