Fans Comment
Kieran Kinsella

Money means nothing
14 January 2005

Paul Rideout: our 1995 cup hero cost a mere £500,000

With all the talk of Fortress and the on-again-off-again investment, everybody is looking at the cash as nothing more than first-team spending money.  My question is this: what happens when we have spent it all ?

If we truly want a successful club then we have to, for once, look at the biggerpicture.  Whether Fortress bring in £13 million or £30 million, that is still less than other top teams have to spend.  We can't and should not attempt to buy success.  Our focus should be on two things: investing in a new stadium to generate revenue, and investing in the Youth Academy.

Arsenal have had plenty of success and income from champions league appearances in recent years and even they realise that, to sustain their current level of success, they need a larger and far more sophisticated place to call home.  Bigger and newer stadiums attract more corporate sponsorships, are more family friendly so attract more fans, and open up other money spinning options such as restaurants, hotels and megastores.

Like it or not, the die-hards who don't want to pay more than £15 a week and will insist on sitting in a cramped dilapidated Goodison until the last chunks of concrete disintegrate into nothing, are not going to keep the club alive with nostalgia alone.

The Youth Academy, as we have seen at Ajax and closer to home at Manchester United, is the cornerstone to success on the field.  Look how quickly United have slipped off the top now that Fergie is hell bent on waving his check book around rather than visiting schools looking for the next Beckham.  Look at George Graham's Arsenal team: Tony Adams, Parlour, Selley, Campbell (!), Cole, Rocastle, etc etc — all home grown.  If you want to have sustained success you need to produce your own players.

Now, of course, there is always room to bring in one or two players to add a bit of spice, but if you look at most of the successful teams in the last 20 years that were more than five-minute wonders, you will see that the core of the team was homegrown.

"Look at Chelsea and what money has done for them," I hear you cry.  Isn't that what we said about Blackburn?  Once they won a Championship, Jack Walker soon lost interest and his family have long since stopped caring.  Roman Abramovich has enough money to find some other toy.  If he wins the Champions League then what?  You think he is just that much of a Chelsea fan that he will bankroll them year-in, year-out, thereafter — just for the chance to watch them maintain their success?  The excitement comes in trying to achieve something; once they get there, they'll soon pack their bags and head off to warmer climes.

Let's be honest here.  What has money ever bought us?  Vinny Samways, Daniel Amokachi, Tony Cottee, Duncan Ferguson (twice !!), Nick Barmby, Ibrahima Bakayoko, etc.  Hmmm....  Not exactly a Who's Who of Everton greats.  Realistically, if Moyes had been given money to spend last year, would Osman, Carsley and Martyn be in the team now?  Would we have any clue what we were missing as we watched the latest batch of over paid mercenaries going through the motions?

Which midfield do you prefer?  The current one of rejects and journeymen?  Or the sophisticated and sublime not to mention expensively assembled talents of Dacourt, Collins, Barmby and Hutchison?  For all the money we spent on Ferguson and Cottee, it was £500,000 Paul Rideout who won us the FA Cup — the only trophy we have one since the mid-eighties.  Let's not forget that Neville Southall was a garbage man and Kevin Kilbane was garbage before he came to us.

We need money.  Probably not from Fortress, who seem to have out-smokescreened Billy Liar himself, but we need to use it for the future, not for short-term gratification.  At the time, £3 million for Kevin Campbell seemed a steal.  Now, as we pay the last of his £30,000-a-week wages and send him on his way to West Brom, you can't help but feel that we always seem to get caught up in the moment.  Too busy out spending money to notice players like Gavin McCann slipping through the net.  History shows that we don't know how to spend money, so let's save it and instead put it to good use where we really need it.

Kieran  Kinsella

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