A deeper delve into Everton’s 2020-21 accounts, new £100m shareholder loan plus Covid impact

Revenues show a reasonable to poor progression and “other expenses” look as though they have been managed reasonably well, but how the salary bill for the very ordinary players we have has gone through the roof is - literally - incredible.

Everton has secured the services of exactly one world class (albeit over the hill and with a dubious reputation for commitment) player, James Rodriguez. The only other player of serious standing is Pickford, and goalkeepers are never the most expensive or best paid players in any team.

The rest are bang average but clearly are paid as if they were Kevin de Bruyne, Messi or Salah.

I suspect bankruptcy looms before long.

And what did Kenwright say? We are an example to the Premier League. What would Everton do when solving others' problems? The pair of them are totally deluded about where or what we have become.

We keep assuming it is 'his' financial commitment but he'd be nothing without Usmanov - who is now having all his assets frozen under sanctions.

The club is dead - it just hasn't quite stopped breathing. Make your peace.

Kenwright has played on a lot of Evertonian, heart-strings for years, and if this is his legacy, he’s done a better job than any Liverpudlian, could have hoped to do, in trying to help ruin Everton. We have become a club that doesn’t appear to have a professional bone, whatsoever.

This article shows the deeply damaging downward spiral that Kenwright initiated and has developed rapidly with the Moshiri/Kenwright into what is looking more and more like total destruction of the club.

Paul - what are the chances of Moshiri deciding enough is enough and looking to sell up - that on face value appears to best option here

We may be past the gradual stage now!

The Accounts don’t lie. They are a serial disgrace by any standard. They are the financial version of what we see playing out on the pitch. Both are caused by the same dreadful Board and management. The same culture personified.

Organisational change is often generated by an external intervention, ( Liverpool City Council, Yorkshire Cricket Club), a change of ownership, or a crisis. It tends not to be voluntary. It is rarely generated by the existing incumbents of the Boardroom, who are often incapable of driving any change or even capable of seeing any reason for it. That is why the first thing that has to change is the Board, in any change programme.

The Board has changed massively already in a short space of time. A revolving door really. The only survivors are Kenwright and the CEO, with Brands and Rysantsev, disappearing, Usmanov’s representative arriving then leaving. Ingles, introduced, still remains as FD, and Sharp has joined recently. Apparently there has been a Strategic Review, or is it still ongoing?

The thing is, these changes come from the existing incumbents. Are they likely to be effective, and do they inspire us? Or anybody? Is it just meaningless gestures? Is this what we would expect from a poor, complacent management?

The question is, what will drive the change at the top. What Crisis? Relegation? Change of ownership?

The real issue is, if we survive this season in the PL, then the chances are that this nonsense will continue and we’ll see more of the same next season and beyond. But sooner or later, it will have to happen, as the lurch from Crisis to Crisis continues.

If not now, when?

Three questions, what do you think of the rumours today too lawsuits from the relegated teams. Are we legally watertight ?

What does this mean for the summer transfer window ? Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin, Mina, Allan, all sold and replaced with small fee or free transfers?

Would this summer financial rebalancing affect any threatened penalties?

This is no defense of Kenwright but with the general feeling being he is part of the problem, what if he had stepped down, and Moshiri and his clique of agents where allowed to run riot...

Were we run more prudently in the Moyes era?

Dave - I think I will go and eat some worms.

So even if we survive maybe we might start next season with a points deduction and seeing Derby got a 21 point deduction if found guilty of transgressing FFP its hard to see how Everton could escape a similar points deduction. I really despair can anything else go wrong at this club.

The club is still commercially poor, but the playing side is equally nuts. We started the season with one left back in first two teams. One. In two teams. We bought in 3 attacking midfielders in January who couldn’t get in their own teams, whilst ignoring the glaring gap in the engine room. David Unsworth remains u23 god with no…….ah, you know what, I’ll just end here as this won’t be a post but a book.

Unfortunately I think we’re now so dependent on Moshiri we’ve missed any opportunity to force change. There is a really Scary crossroads ahead:

Best case scenario - we somehow escape relegation, moshiri holds on determined to finish what he started, Frank learns to manage and gets youth gems in, the stadium gets built and some new billionaire comes in with real sporting acumen.

Worst case - We go down, stadium gets put on hold, moshiri draws away tactically starting with an asset strip, we go bankrupt and have to do a rangers over next 10 years working way back up.

I’m currently not sure which is now more likely.

Let’s really make things fair, and force every team to have the same salary cap.

Moshiri is the owner so the buck stops with him, but its the people who he has put his trust in are the bigger culprits in my eyes.

However, Everton and its owner/directors did know the rules and from that perspective should have diligently stayed within those rules, regardless of how unfair they may have been seen.

I suspect that the grand plan last spring was for Usmanov via his companies would have underwritten much of the losses, but the world changed suddenly and that proved impossible. Why else would Ancelotti bail so quickly?

I've always called for a cap on the levels of debt that a club holds rather than a spending restriction based on your income, but that won't happen because most of the 'monied' clubs have such high levels of debt.

We are in a bad place on and off the pitch, but the club will stagger on until such time as new owners are found and perhaps rescue the club from the hands of the people who have gotten us into this mess.

I hear that Disney are linked with buying Chelsea if they really want to keep their Mickey Mouse branding they should turn their attention to us.

Whilst proffered as a means of protecting the long-term solvency of clubs, it is surely myopic in regards to it’s own inherent structural bias toward traditionally successful clubs, which skews spending capacity wildly in their favour.

How are other clubs, realistically, supposed to bridge the gap from a trailing start greater and more burdensome than a geriatric sprinters pendulous scraddle tapping knee to knee like Newtons Cradle?

Canny recruitment and investment in infrastructure would seem the sensible option, even if still likely to fall far short, but Moshiri and co plumped for the alternative. They thought they could motor past the patient approach and gain ground by overpaying to get players through the door and, when they proved to be a pack of galoots, doubled down by going down the same route again….and again. The number of highly paid players we have managed to pick up under Moshiri’s sovereignty who are simply not fit for purpose is surely unprecedented.

How one would even begin to start to right the ship…other than shedding dead weight…I do not know, but the club seem steadfastly unmoved by the situation. Pointing out, upon publication of the most recent accounts, a record turnover and a ‘unique set of circumstances’, asserting a secure financial position and stressing they are “in the initial stages of an investment lifecycle thanks to the support of its Majority Shareholder”.

Link

How can a professional businessman and accountant allow such a financial disaster? Why isn't he checking the accounts continually and why did he not lock up the company chequebook when it was starting to go wrong 4 years ago?

It can be claimed by the rivals (who I believe to have a very strong case) that Everton bought many players during this Covid depressed market for values less than their true worth, such as Rodriguez, Gray, Doucoure, Godfrey and Allan.

By attributing a higher real value to these purchases, Everton's losses would be much greater and as such, far in excess of the permissible losses. I fully expect a heavy fine and points deduction in time.

Nothing has changed, however; we have been on the slippery slope to the Championship for years. The signs are there for everyone to see and yet we are in a worse position now than I can ever remember.

Can anyone tell me one thing that has improved since Moshiri arrived? Believe me, we are in deep, deep do-do and sadly I can't see a way out. Still, look on the bright side – we get to enjoy cold nights at Stoke once again!

Kenwright has used his “ friend “ despicably, constantly taking and letting other people in the running of the club taking his friends money without the due care attention and consideration that a true friend really needed in a business he had been trusted with.

I am a 100% sure Kenwright wouldn’t have parted with one penny if it was his own money being used and wasted like his “ friends” has.

This season when has the chairman of the club, which he claims to love, come out and explained the changes which have occurred, really big changes, that have affected the way has been run, starting in the close season when there was little if any money being available for transfers, and players on big wages being released, was the manager Benitez told to sell these players or was it at the clubs command, who instructed the parting of the ways for Brands, scouts, fitness coaches along with the introduction of new personnel to the boardroom and why they were brought into the club, what special ability did they have, how much were they being paid and lastly who were responsible for the signing of five players and why were they signed particularly has two of them have hardly been used.

We the fans are the lifeblood of this club, a great asset to the club, maybe the only good and decent asset the club have got, yet we are treated like No Marks.

Give us a thought Kenwright and explain “ Why you, in the name of God, are still here”

Didn't someone get appointed at the club recently to streamline the business...?

Never been so depressed and angry about the state of the club and, sadly, I can't see an end to it.

A bad example... ffs can we sink any lower.

I’ve heard many posters saying Moshiri has no idea on how to run a football club, but then neither did Sheikh Monsour, who brought in people who did know how to run a football club. I’ve read Monsour wanted to buy Everton but our chairman said no, because he wanted to remain as chairman. Moshiri bought the club and let the chairman remain as chairman, and by the looks of it, overseeing every major decision at the club. So, in my opinion, it’s the chairman (and probably along with Li’l miss dynamite) who is solely responsible for the mess we find ourselves in.

SO FUCK OFF KENWRIGHT! Run a club, you wouldn’t know how to run a fucking bath!

P.S….Apologies to Kenwright if he’s not responsible for all the aforementioned!!

The five subsequent years have seen a revolving door of managerial appointments and with a couple of exceptions, a steady stream of bolt-on player additions to meet the understandably short term requirements of the incumbent manager. Little wonder we are in a mess, but it is a mess of Moshiri’s own making.

It would seem Moshiri has no choice now but to enter a long period of financial retrenchment. In the absence of exceptional management and coaching a loss of Premier League status seems inevitable, if not this season then next.

Anyone valued over 15 mil sold in the summer, to be replaced by the u23’s and u18’s playing prospects we have at the club already.

That is realistically the only avenue out of the cul de sac we financially find ourselves in.

The obvious result would be, if not relegation this year, most certainly next year.

It may be the only route to rid ourselves of the cancer infecting this club, and to reset the foundations.

We cannot carry on with the same-same approach. Nor the same chairman and the culture he cultivates and thrives within.

Very noble of you sir!

Pickford (£15mil)
Richarlison (40mil)
DCL (50mil)
Gray (10mil)
Allan (10mil)
Doucoure (15mil)
Mina (15mil)

The rest would probably fetch less than 10 mil each. The thrust of my post was really getting at getting the wages off the books. Players like Gomes, Iwobi etc will be the hardest to shift unless we take no fee!

It’s really the only way I can see out of this mess. Relegation would be heartbreaking! It’d more than likely mean 3-5 years out of the top division.

However, it may be the only way we see the changes we all want. I just cannot see a situation where we survive relegation, have the infrastructure changed, solve the financial woes and still stay competitive…can you?

Then, flog Bramley-Moore as an unfinished project to the RS, we'd be about clear of immediate trouble.

I have nothing sensible to add to the posts above, it's all covered. It's a shit show that could barely have been better accomplished if done on purpose. I really wonder about peoples' motives at times.

If FFP eventually "Respects" us in the same way refereeing officialdom does, we are in for a fucking nightmare.

Edit. Paul, thanks as always for your diligent work.

Catch 22 - that's where we are, right now. Get relegated and we are screwed. Stay up and we get more of the same horrendous leadership -( if leadership it can be called ).

A £170m loss due to Covid - they're having a laugh !
but no one with a blue heart is smiling.

“We are in the initial stages of an investment lifecycle“

I shouldn’t be laughing, but that line is from a parallel universe where everything is under control and going to plan. It’s cracking me up.

I was getting told Everton is still a decent prospect, but when you read articles like this, and others that say Everton could even be sued, it’s very hard to fathom out how?

I imagine the shadowy figure of Usmanov whispered to his accountant "don't worry I've got this" then as reality set in pulled the plug and convinced himself Benitez was the answer.

Another great part of this farago was blockheads crowing "it's not my money" as the club paid over the odds for dross and changed managers at monumental cost. The idea potential catastrophe from this lunacy would not affect THEIR club was ignorance at a whole new level perhaps fans really do get the club they deserve.

At least I've still got some orange club biscuits left - yummy

"Mike 48, I think you've forgotten the power of the Joseph Technicolor coat! Good times, eh? "

Dale, here's a blockbuster that will have something in common with the club and Bill should put it on the West End in time for the last day of the season:

"GONE WITH THE WIND"

Also, those players in Winston's list would look like peak Barcelona to what we'd have later, should we undertake a fire sale. "Kia Joorabchian - The Return".

All in all, a dispiriting outlook. Tomorrow night just gets bigger...

"Very grim but if we stay up we can recover." ???

We've got theatre lands deceitful luvvie equivalent of JR Ewing as our lifetime chairman, Mr Bean as our owner and a parvenue sales girl of the year as our CEO.

There's no recovering with that lot.

We can all sleep well tonight wondering if this is a possibility?

Kenwright and his muppets are close to being in the same place. Are we the only football club with a business plan similar to that of the government of Venezuela?

I have banged on about this for years but I hold Kenwright entirely responsible for this dreadful state of affairs.

He only sold out to Moshiri because he correctly perceived that the billionaire would sit back and allow him to stay on as Chairman. The great Blue would be able to continue running the club in the “Everton Way”, admired not only by the media but by many supporters who stupidly believed that he could do no wrong because “Bill is one of us”.

Moshiri is unlikely to be in a position to sell the club until BMD is complete. His only realistic option is to sack Kenwright and DBB and appoint a new board and he must be decisive and do it now.

I suspect that Kenwright has a written agreement to remain as Chairman; otherwise, Moshiri would have fired him by now.

At the start of this season, Bill was spouting off about how all the other teams in the Premier League ask 'What would Everton do?' as we are so well run – what an embarrassment that comment is given the state of the club which was already posting losses in the millions at that point, and it proves he has zero idea.

And they think a review of the football department will sort this out – the review needs to be of the entire club (and done by a third party) but the decision-makers are all delusional imbeciles or they care more about themselves and their power than they do the club (probably both).

But the majority of the fan base seem to continue to let them get away with it until it will be too late (if it is not already), so we will end up getting what we deserve.

Did anyone ever go in the Boys Pen with Bill? Does anyone, anywhere, ever remember Bill Kenwright, from going the match all those years ago?

Bill might have been an eccentric loner, but people always remember faces from yesteryear... I bumped into a few of them myself on Sunday after a 2-year absence from watching Everton away from home.

Seriously, who remembers Bill Kenwright? Surely somebody must remember him from going to Goodison all those years ago?