VIEW FROM THE BLUE

?Margin Call...? addendum

By Lyndon Lloyd   ::  22/08/2011

I have to admit that I'm a bit taken aback by the reaction to my most recent column on the current predicament at Everton... as if the majority of it, including the various rumours and conjecture, wasn't already kicking around the Web on various Everton websites and forums and has been for a while now. Much of it lay behind the Blue Union's line of questioning last week.

Rumours are just that... rumours and it would be dangerous to take too much stock in them. The story about Sheikh Mansour approaching Everton before Manchester City has been circulating for a few months now and was raised again by a shareholder on the BBC Five Live's 606 programme last night suggesting it was fact, but I can make no claim as to its veracity nor to the one about Randy Lerner.

Nor would it be prudent to hold up the two emails cited in the article as some sort of smoking gun ? they're not proof of anything on their own, just one side of the story from someone who may or may not have had an agenda of their own. I included them not as something to point to and say, "See! Here's definitive proof!" but as one more facet to the narrative I was trying to establish in making sense of all this.

The Board may well have had very good reasons for not wanting to sell Everton FC when the pressure was building on them to do so. After reading the transcript of his discussions with the Blue Union, I can imagine that it was Bill Kenwright's fierce ambition to bring the glory days back to Goodison, that he be at the helm when David Moyes lifted his first trophy as the Blues' boss. And until a year ago, that was still a tangible dream and we were all along for the ride, demanding big-money signings and high salaries to keep our best players.

Likewise, if they couldn't counsel a sale while Destination Kirkby was still alive because they were bound by the terms of the proposal then it's clear why they might have thrown obstacles in front of any negotiations with potential buyers.

But as we're squeezed into the thin end of the wedge, with our borrowing capacity frozen and Bill Kenwright at a loss as to why the club can't be sold, we Blues, desperately worried about the current predicament, just want to know the reasons why none of this was explained at the time and to get some of the answers that the Blue Union went in search of but didn't get.

With the exception of the Club's shareholders, we're not entitled to answers by any means but if Bill wants to count on the support of the supporters in what is shaping up to be a very challenging time, he may need to start filling in some gaps, particularly if some forced sales of our best players are required in the coming months.

No one should be under any illusions that running a Premier League club without the millions at the disposal of clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City is anything but a massive challenge and that the cost of doing business in those treacherous waters often entails questionable practices and keeping the fans in the dark.

But Everton needs the support of its fans right now, it needs them engaged and on board with the vision and the plan for avoiding the looming crisis and they can't do that if they don't feel like the Board is being open with them. That is all we ask at the end of the day.

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