Transfer Deja Vu

If we manage to keep Pienar and Arteta I will be delighted, but that I'm afraid is the best we can look forward to... I don't really blame any player of quality wanting to win trophies and play at the top level if he is offered the chance.

Kenwright has also been protected by the economic downturn because other clubs are not spending masses. He is now protected by this mantra of "well at least we're not Portsmouth / Leeds etc". This does not prove Kenwright is doing a good job.

What does show Kenwright is inept is the Gosling situation. This is pure bad management. Whether you think Gosling is any good or not, we are not in a position to lose £2 million in transfer fees. The whole financial set up at Everton stinks and it stinks more and more every summer, now to the point where most of us have held our hands up and resigned ourselves to another shitty summer.

Mark my words, we will never be successful as long as Kenwright is in charge. Moyes will keep us up there but, without proper backing, he'll always find himself falling at the final few hurdles. I'm not surprised he's commented this summer on not staying at Everton for the long term.

"Mikel Arteta's agent does not expect the midfielder to leave Everton this summer despite transfer interest in his native Spain.

The 28-year-old midfielder is believed to wanted by La Liga side Sevilla, with reports in Spain claiming they are ready to pay up to £13million to lure Arteta back home.

However, the agent of the former Barcelona and Real Sociedad midfielder does not expect his client to be on the move before the new Premier League season."

He must be the sort of bloke who loves to browse in charity shops and visit car boot sales in his free time, and haggles in Tescos because his tin of value baked-beans has a dent in it, so they should knock 5 pence off... No other manager would put up with this misery; put simply, he must enjoy being a Del-boy.

I honestly think that if he were in charge of, say, Man City, he would still be nabbing free transfers and rookie midfielders nobody's heard of.

Everton's off season always drives me absolutely mad. Like most ardent ToffeeWebbers, I virtually implode with anguish. Our best players are the subject of constant speculation. Our transfer targets are dangled tantalisingly just out of our reach. The club always conspires to mire itself in some form of inept controversy, this year the Gosling fiasco (I expect to see someone hanging from the gates of Goodison over that one).

Worse still Everton fans divide into the most absurd factions and argue the toss about how shit we are. Sadly the football product produced in the Sky era is thoroughly discredited.

We can all say "If we keep everyone fit, we can get 4th". But realistically ? if Spurs, City and the RS continually improve (and Cole will make them better), then us selling to buy isn't making up any ground.

We get told there's no-one suitable (AND never has been), wanting to buy us. I find that hard to believe.

So while we have been riding high on Moyes's transfer genius over the last few years, we now face a situation in which the Board have asset-stripped the club. We're spending our forthcoming TV money just to cover our arses. Then selling key players to rebuild.

I said in those previous articles that were posted on here in previous years, that we are in dangerous waters and our position is not sustainable. Every year, Kenwright relies on Moyes pulling in a couple of blinders for nothing. Only wealthier more ambitious clubs have cottoned-on to us now. They hijack our targets and tempt our best players with more money.

Yet some people believe we are in a strong position. Of course we have to cut our cloth accordingly. But the loss of valuable funds from the Gosling debacle only emphasise the gross mis-management of our Board and Execs. They are leading us straight back to where we had been pre-Moyes.

Have people already forgotten the words "World Class Stadium for nothing"? Kenwright has had almost 10 years to find a new guardian and a long term home for our club. He failed. Only Moyes has prevented us from sliding.

The fact is, Kenwright cannot attract investment. He was in charge well before the economic downturn and didn't attract any (FSF, NTL), even when football was booming, so we are far less likely to attract any now. Nearly every team that until recently ranked below us has ? Villa, City, and Spurs and those teams below us now ? West Ham, Sunderland and Birmingham.

Just imagine where we'd be if Moyes had had their money to spend. Kenwright has somehow managed to stay in charge because Evertonians are the most forgiving bunch of fans going but we won't progress with that clown at the helm. I'll be cheering us on for another 5th place finish this season. Maybe they'll do a 5th place open-top bus parade for us.

I can remember last year we bought Heitinga, Bily and Distin with the Lescott money and I think Fellaini was bought before the date In the article I've mentioned... so, yeah, I think it's about £2 mil a year.

I'm constantly amazed by comments saying what a fantastic squad we have and this is the best for sometime. If and when we actually win a trophy or at least Champions League qualification without falling at the first hurdle when we are in that competition, then we can start to claim what a good side we are.

So please, you guys with your daily dose of positivity pills, give it a fucking rest.

The only impact on the running of the club you and I have is to not go to the game. Time to put all the negativity to one side... just for one season have faith in your club, manager and team for it is the best you've seen since 1987...

There are 19 teams that won't fancy facing these lads at Goodison. Away from home, our first pick midfield is set up to play a German style game. Watch out for more performances similar to the one at Eastlands last season. There's something on offer for Everton this season and Moyes knows it.

Under Moyes, the transfer net spend is £16M, the club's profit line in this time is approx a loss of £17M, despite a profit in 2005 of £26M due to Rooney's transfer.

The one major step required, obvious I know, but it's CL cash. This wouldn't just reduce our debts, this would generate an operating profit every year despite re-investing to maintain this level. When you are £400M in debt and not in the CL but still pay weekly wages of £90k and £100k to a few players, then you got problems.

Without top 4, then it is a battle just to be best of the rest. Hey, it's a tough world out there, unbalanced by a few billionaires that have now destablised the national team. In the meantime we should appreciate the team we have and believe that this season, we crack the golden egg open in May.

Let's just keep on upsetting the applecart & spoiling things for the the BBC/Sky darlings. We have built a team to be reckoned with out of nothing... and mark my words, this coming season will be long remembered by Evertonians.