Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Lay off the Scapegoats

No, not of Bill, not of the Board, not of Moyes... but enough of the continual slagging off of the above as scapegoats for our current situation.

I think most Everton fans would agree that, as a club, we are not in a good position at the moment. We have run out of credit at the bank, cannot sign a player (even free ones!), have an old stadium and basically have an unsustainable business model. The easy analysis to make is to look for who got us in this situation (BK & the board) and blame them. Being a regular ToffeeWeb visitor, it seems that this is the majority opinion. However, in my opinion, this is a very simplistic view.

When David Moyes was appointed manager, BK said that he would do everything he could to provide him with transfer funds. This has been achieved through outsourcing operations, borrowings/mortgages, buying and selling players, selling Bellefield etc. This did help us to build up the quality and value of our squad (and our debt). On the field, until the last couple of years, we have probably been the best and most consistent team outside the "Big 4".

In terms of funding, leaving out external investment (dealt with separately below), I think that BK's strategy was understandable. The only other option really was to live within our means which effectively would mean borrow much less, have a cheaper squad but probably struggling against relegation each year.

Over the last few years, I haven't heard many fans on here screaming out for us to be prudent and spend cheaply in the transfer market! Nor do I hear any of the fan groups calling for that now!!

On the stadium front (that old chestnut), BK & the board figured that we just did not have the money to build a new one or rebuild Goodison. So, the best offer (financially) was DK. Now, I know that many people objected strongly to the location etc but, from a pure money point of view, I think it was the the most affordable option. As we all know, the stadium plan fell through but I should point out that this was a government (political?) decision and not related to Everton as such.

It is also a bit ironic that BK & the Board stated that if we didn't move to a new stadium we would likely die a slow death at Goodison and are now being beaten up by the very people who opposed the move!

The other big area of contention is that of investment. The general consensus of ToffeeWeb and Evertonians for Change etc is that for some reason BK is holding back investment. However, there is no evidence that investors are being turned away. Everything is rumour and innuendo. AFAIK, there have been no serious offers and in a way that is understandable. Liverpool is not a very wealthy city. We live in the shadow of our neighbours, have an old stadium and lots of debt. Given the current economic situation, why would anyone invest in us?

While I do agree with some criticism of BK & Co ? his exclusion of fans from the AGMs is a disgrace ? and I agree that Everton need to engage with the fans to move forward. Still, I don't think that getting rid of BK and the board will change our dire financial situation. The bottom line here is that our mainly problem is money, THERE IS NO EASY SOLUTION and using BK as a scapegoat is a cheap shot.

If you think that things could be run better then please answer the following:-

+ Do you think the club should sell players and try to live within its means? This effectively means we would move down the EPL pecking order.
+ If not, where you would get additional income to fund transfers etc?
+ Provide any evidence that investors are being turned away by Everton

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