Frustration and Fear

As for Billy Liar, what's the point of him now? Get out of our fucking club and take Moshiri with you, you fucking frauds. I can't believe there's one person who doesn't believe he's a cancer in the club – and the quicker he's cut out, the better.

Fingers crossed that MSP can stand with the "Fifty Feet of Craps" that they un-earthed during their Due Diligence of Everton and still go ahead with the investments.

MSP might not be the perfect messiah, but they are our best chance to move away from the status quo and head towards NSNO.

The silence has been deafening. Of course the scenario of no incoming players will undermine the morale of the team.

We escape again by the skin of our teeth and can only wait in hope for something positive.

The trickle of news about our youngsters signing pro forms is very poor PR when everyone is waiting for a striker.

They take us for fools.

I'm at a point of just constant anger with Everton. There is literally nothing likeable about us as a club anymore.

If you wanted a microcosm for this board and how it's run, the strategic review is it. A review into how badly run we are by the people who are running us badly. Without a hint of irony. You couldn't make it up.

Eddie (5) hate to disagree but our FFP and P&S situation doesn't change with MSP coming in. Apple, the Saudis or Netflix could buy us and we wouldn't be allowed to make signings that will go anywhere near placating the fans.

That's my ‘fear' – the fact that we're in this situation and even getting rid of the board and getting a new chairman and new investment doesn't change the landscape in terms of signings for the coming season.

They've absolutely ruined us and somehow they're still there.

When I said to "placate" the fans, I was thinking of a fairly low level! Even someone like Ings, Vardy or another journeyman will surely be an upgrade on the likes of Maupay or an absent Calvert-Lewin.

I'm still hoping to see something before we suffer yet another Deadline Day anticlimax.

The only commercial entities that borrow short-term at 12% are ones deeply in trouble, at risk of disintegration. It certainly does not suggest a club willing and able to invest in player assets.

I imagine the delay with MSP may have something to do with re-considering their options and maybe negotiating better terms (including levering more control away from the incumbents). It would not entirely surprise me if they ultimately walked away.

Probably the best thing that could happen to us right now would be for evidence to appear that Usmanov was/is indeed connected financially to the club and the government oversees a Chelsea-style auction.

The one silver lining is that, given our lack of cash, we would, in a couple of years, likely have a very rosy P&S position, and maybe a new stadium driving increased revenues, giving some hope for the future. Whether we have remained operating in that period – and especially remained in the Premier League – is moot.

Pickford, Patterson, Keane, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Garner, Iwobi, Gueye, Doucoure, McNeil, Calvert-Lewin (if fit).

Bench: Virginia, Godfrey, Coleman, Branthwaite, Dele Alli, Cannon, Mills.

Everton FC are gonna have to start again from scratch – just like Rangers and Accrington Stanley.

What we have is the same regime with the same objectives employing the same methods. That is where the frustration comes from. The despair comes from knowing the capability and past history of the regime.

The reality is that Moshiri has secured a loan to continue as majority shareholder, continuing to fund his real estate developments, and he has continued his continuous support for the Chairman running the club.

The club will be run as before: realising player value where possible, part-exchange players, buy potential young players to profit from their increase in value, loan in players and make do with existing players. Expect little change in structure and be totally dependent on Dyche to get enough out of the players to survive in the Premier League.

This is the way it will continue: more loans and financial adjustments, most indirectly from God knows where, with Moshiri in control, thinking it will all come right in the new stadium and eventually a greater fool will come along or his true backers are able to surface again. Prophecy is an affliction of the articulate anyway.

The only solace for fans is that, out of frustration and despair, both transient things, a person is reborn with new words and new powers. Roll on the next 30 years.

We do appear to be in a mess and we will have to wait and see how much of a mess it is. As for giving us information on what's going on inside the club, when has that ever happened, but there's only so much they can divulge I suppose.

As for that risk quote, there is always risk even if you know what your doing, less risk granted but nothing is risk-free.

20 years later ….. 20 fucking years of suffering all the lies, mistruths and broken promises just for one man's ego. I hate to say I told you so, but I fucking told you so.

That is certainly the big risk. I think that would mean bankruptcy, as in running out of cash. It all hinges on Dyche's ability to make a silk purse from a sow's ear and keep us up for a couple of years, something he does have form on.

It also leads me to think he perhaps has rather more power than he might imagine, to the extent such power actually can deliver much in these circumstances. Imagine what would happen if he walked away…

Not so much an elephant as a woolly mammoth in the room.

Unless the club magics up huge money from somewhere, this new build will slowly strangle us.

Well, they have, between them, totally broken a club. But they have cemented a fanbase against them. There is no doubt also that the chairman has schooled his pupil well, taught him to despise its fanbase just like himself.

They are an utter disgrace. The con man and the fool.

Why? Why are they doing this? The three sacrificial lambs are probably glad they are out, one wonders of the severance package, don't they realise they were just tools used by the con man to cover his back?

We hear nothing from MSP, hear nothing in the media, see nothing coming in, only those going… and still silence. The only news is exits, the only updates are youngsters getting contracts.

This is the esteem we are treated in, it is the opposite of any experience of good management. We are heading for a squad of 16 first-team players. Nobody cares.

It’s a clever way of kicking the can down the road. Then hoping we come good with a few transfers, get a few wins and become a mid table outfit. The theory being this new found stability will then dampen the protests just enough so the Chairman can stay on. Moshiri will even say, “look it’s justified! It was a good decision by me”.

If it is indeed short term and the rumours are correct, I’ll be delighted but I’ll believe it when I see it, and only then.

The reality is that the new signings won’t matter if Kenwright is still at the club. The disunity and anger will tear the club apart, divert the focus of players and manager. Ultimately it will unnecessarily lead to another game of Russian roulette with the relegation revolver.

There’s only so many times you can play that game before the odds catch up with you.

Now I'm sure that Mr Moshiri personally is not about to run out of money, but it strikes me that that Everton the Business is trying everything it can not to run out of money. High interest loans, low receipt player sales, zero wage directors (?) etc etc and appears to be struggling thus far.

A points deduction would almost certainly mean relegation but a fine I reckon could signal the end of Everton the business as we know it. I've done my bit by ordering a new shirt for my son's 40th birthday next week (despite the eye watering cost) and beyond that I just watch with trepidation as events unfold.

For better or worse.

Paul, fantastic article that captures the sentiment amongst an increasing if not all of the support base. I would say the vast majority now, although I obviously can't vouch for every Evertonian.

They can't hide anymore. Non-communication apart from me getting marketing offers from the club. The silence is deafening.

They couldn't learn from the self-imposed so-called strategic review despite what was staring them and everyone else in the face. A review that was effectively marking their own homework and agreeing they were on track, no doubt with a few backslaps and friendly headlocks. Well, it put us on track to go even closer to the trap door.

I won't even accuse them of poor leadership. Because there is none. The lack of leadership on a scale of the biggest military blunders in history. Everything shrouded in secrecy. Cloak and dagger. I would say mysterious, but it isn't, it's just missing. As they have been.

His tenure shouldn't be temporary. It should be over and should have been over years ago.

There is no return. Treating us with utter contempt and disrespect. Accusing us of things without evidence that the Police shot down. Verbally accusing us of betraying the club and caught on camera doing so outside Goodison.

How can he ever come back to Goodison Park or Bramley-Moore Dock? Simple. He can't.

Go and don't come back. Go to the Boys Pen, which I am becoming more convinced is the one that used to be on the piss drenched terrace on Walton Breck Road.

Meanwhile, can they just give us something to cling onto? We have a season starting in several weeks and a team to support. Which we will. But unless that individual is removed or retired, it's going to remain toxic. I don't want that. We don't want that. We want Everton.

But we will stick with the team as we always do. I think some of us might be playing at this rate.

That would show utter incompetence of the highest order and an inability to learn from past mistakes.

We're going to leave it until the end of the window, aren't we?!

I’ve no idea, what Everton's plans are, and the lack of any meaningful communications, aside from the stadium, doesn’t help the plight and the hopes of Evertonians.

There’s a rational that says at this rate of selling players and players out of contract the preseasons games could make the numbers available for the 1st Team squad, at the start of this season, even tighter.

But I’m not taking too much interest in the transfer stories, until a players is wearing the Everton shirt., the Everton press room.

Sadly piss poor communications from Everton, shows the arrogant contempt for Evertonians across the World.

Interim in terms of a decades rapid decline, makes no change to the plummeting appeal of joining an unstable football club, in Everton.

It’s crackers that this being allowed to happen, but it is.

Direction, and which way, God only knows, but Everton, must surely learn the lessons, from the last two seasons.

I’ll check out BMD, in the morning, it’s not fantasy, it's majestic, but there’s the cold reality, that Everton, are seriously on the ropes again, before the season has started.

Hopefully Kevin Thelwall, will be delivering some positive hope soon., in terms of transfer deals, with incoming players.

UTFTs!

Brentford and Palace before Christmas as well as Tottenham on Boxing Day.

You'll be there.

There was an enormous amount of work put in by Everton over a year to use it to out-manoeuvre the fan protests and hijack the fan-led review. Does the fan-led review have any statutory bearing?

Haveing set up the FAB, can Everton then ignore it by not engaging, without consequences? Things seem to have gone sour since the FAB called for Kenwright's resignation and Board replacement. I know there have been recent elections for new members.

Maybe they should be contacted and backed by whatever means possible and maybe some accountability and answers may be more forthcoming…

Obviously I am hoping our worst fears prove unfounded. It is early days in the transfer window but if we have failed to sign anyone by the end of the month the writing will be on the wall.

You are not wrong.

“You are not wrong.”

Exactly Ray, if only those who own the club and run the club were as passionate as Christine and cared about the club as she so obviously does, we'd be in a much more comfortable position.

The benefit in announcing how abysmal our transfer kitty is and admitting what a financial millstone the new stadium is eludes me. Plus in my more deluded moments, I believe Moshiri may have some serious buyers up his sleeve and repeatedly telling fans how shite we are serves no purpose in that respect.

Imagine considering buying this club amidst a fanbase in high dudgeon about anything and everything. Very off-putting, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Personally I'd press on with the stadium build and sacrifice the team for now. The increased revenues from the stadium will be the reset we need. Unfortunately many fans cannot take a long-term view.

Paul, great post and so apt. I really thought the MSP involvement was being held up until after the end of June in line with the financial year end but it is now 7 days into July and not even a press leak to suggest the deal is going ahead.

I think it's almost unanimous that, if we proceed with these two fools in charge, then we are doomed. Both have egos much bigger than their ability and what they know about football can be written on the back of a stamp.

All we hear about is enquiries about players and even that is from the totally unreliable press.

Billy Liar has form in player acquisitions for leaving deals until the last minute to save pennies and for proposing paying on the never-never which has caused many a deal to fall through and yet we are told it is his expertise.

The only expertise he has exhibited is how to line his own pockets at other people's expense.

Enough has been written – let's just hope we see some action in the near future.

We can only hope and pray that things will get better.

You're right I think in the diagnosis and also in the priority but only in the sense that 1) it's what Moshiri is going to do anyway, we are a real estate play for him; and 2) Even if Moshiri wasn't on the scene, it still likely would be the priority simply because so much has been sunk into it, it can't be stopped at this point (short of actually running out of cash, which seems at least possible right now).

Now we know what we know, I would, in contrast, say I wish we hadn't started it. Why? Because if the squad is going to be starved of funds and basically decimated as a result, the chances are, we go down because everyone else is doing the opposite to us.

And I think our position is such that it might not be going down only one division, I think the club's survival might be at stake at that point, at least in its current form.

Someone said elsewhere, I think partly as a joke, that Moshiri, having filleted our club, will end up selling the stadium to Liverpool. I wish I didn't think that is less far-fetched than it ought to be...

I still believe it will be MSP who will invest and that they are savvy enough to wait until the end of the transfer window, before officially coming on board, which means they'll have no responsibility for any errors made in the market.

The last x2 sections of the top of the East stand North -East corner, were on ground level.

It’s crackers, some one tell the Everton Board, “How & Why?”, they have run the club, to a very fine limit of existing.

No one knows.

But for sure seeing the stadium, and realising the state of the Squad, and the club, I reckon any new investors and owners will want some home truths.

But the clocks running 5 weeks tomorrow. Transfers, needed but what’s really likely to happen, we can all guess.

“ This is the Everton Way,” as he alludes, but it’s no way to run a football club, more how to kill the club.

But hope eternal and a magnificent evening, to a fine Friday and scorching sun..

All have a Ball this weekend.

UTFTs!

I

UTFTs!

Anger and frustration… although in truth over the last almost 20 years of posting here, my words have been fuelled by the lies and deceit we have had to endure from those who have dismissed any notion of guardianship of our club in favour of self-interest and personal gain. They are not fit for purpose.

Moshiri and Kenwright gambled with players and managers, ignored fans and shareholders, closed ranks when faced with the reality of their actions, and ultimately taken to task for breaching financial requirements.

Disgust is a deeper emotion borne by years of fruitless anger and silence. I'm watching a club slowly dying and feel helpless to stop it.

I wish to God that all those who sought to deflect criticism of Kenwright, his associates and deals, were still posting on this site, for they have all gone. In shame, I hope.

Realization by all does not bring power to change, it brings disbelief to some, anger to all, for it's something we love, not follow; something we believe in, not just support; something we carry in our hearts, not in fine weather. We are family.

The sheer incompetence of those running our club has me thinking that one day, out of the blue, Everton will declare bankruptcy and find itself in liquidation. I think there is more to this than meets the eye, hence the absolute silence from the club as well as the lashing out at the fans from the board and Kenwright.

A change in ownership cannot come soon enough.

A change in the board chairman cannot come soon enough.

I honestly think this is the year we finally go down.

Barret Baxendale who was not a Chief Executive in reality, but a Personnel PR assistant, has gone. All pretence of communication with fans has gone. This could be because it does not serve any purpose in Everton's present difficult situation.

We will probably get a bland statement at the beginning of the season, if we are lucky.

The incompetence of this Chairman, and his various boards over time has seen to it.

Getting the billionaire owner, has sadly taken Everton to the point of its able competitive existence.

Reality bites, and hurts. This season, as it stands Sean Dyche must be building up his psyche for the greatest escape.

The preseason fixtures, will stretch the squad to its limit, and any serious injuries, if there’s no new players brought in, will add to the woes.

The squad size and lack of key players, strikers, CB, etc, makes the odds, stacked against Everton.

Everton. Is life and eternal.

I’ve stated how great the BMD, stadium is, I visit it every week, take photos, for my record and sanity, and I’m in awe. It’s looks majestic, set in a unique location, with fantastic vista.

I’ll be honest and I’d rather have a consistent team, competing than, the finest stadium, in the land.

Balance, structure, strategy?

BK, and Moshiri, have taken the club to hell, and hope is eternal, but who knows, what the next days and weeks, will bring, for the fortunes of Everton?

The club, drains the hopes and aspirations, more than ever, as an optimist, in matters Everton, but like my Dad, sadly nothing in life, is invincible.

The cold reality bites. This stadium is going up, and there’s a massive burden,, of the impact on the footballing side.

Is this the way it is, or should be based on what happens, when you build a new stadium?

The club has languished for decades, but the zest to go, and support your Team, can never be extinguished.

God only knows, what the real time facts are at Everton, in terms of ownership, strategy and liability. So it’s become, a mirage, but hopefully salvation will arrive soon.

UTFTs!

Seems to me a lot of organisations are not fit for purpose but are not brought to account.

EFC amongst them.

On a more positive note, you don't have to spend zillions on players to improve the squad, we've proved that more than most of late, but a few diamonds will be out there so it depends on Dyche/Thelwell/club scouts to convince them it's worth a punt.

We will never own so much as a brick of the new stadium anyway as Chairman Bill and Farhad will likely mortgage it to a third party. Like Coventry some years ago, we would be faced with either paying an exorbitant rent or playing at Tranmere or Haig Avenue in League One. (Ticketmaster mark up probably 200%)

Administration will mean the club going on the market at a knock down price, but it just might attract competent buyers. If the gruesome twosome remain we will cease to exist altogether anyway. It is just a question of how quickly the end comes.

Most of us likely expecting a slew of signings suddenly before season, but this time I'm not sure they're coming.

They're either bamboozled by complexity of new investment deal or hamstrung by it. Either way, right now we are in limbo. For a club that finished one goal outside of relegation limbo might be a disaster.

If there is no movement in next 2 weeks, I think the fans need to come out again in force. Sack the board!

Que Sera, unless, any Evertonian has a group of people with half-a-billion quid to spare, we'll have to put up with what we're given, which has been the case for supporters since the late 19th Century.

Perhaps it's because I am lucky enough to have seen a number of Everton teams actually win trophies since my first visit to Goodison in 1961 that I cannot accept the level of mediocrity to which we have descended thanks to Kenwright and more recently Moshiri.

The one thing we have left is our proud record of top flight football. Why would any Evertonian accept relegation?

Never ever will I accept relegation or mediocrity.

I grew up being educated on the tales of the 60s teams.

I watched the 80s first hand.

So despite the barren years, no one, especially our still Chairman is beating down my expectation for my club.

We are getting ready for the season ahead. But it doesn't take the pressure off those who take us for granted.

They need smelling salts to wake them up and realise their is no place for them at our club.

Maybe one player and the rest made up of loans or potential youth. The top 5 to 6 clubs have made the rules to keep the rest at bay. The market is firmly fixed.

Find a very rich owner or get in real hard nosed professional and business minded people, with a well thought out genuine plan, because as it stands, it looks like way too many clubs, are getting it badly wrong.

We know it's not a level playing field anymore, so it's imperative that to have any kind of stability, the first thing required is to get the football club organized and professional.

It's sad that when I used the ‘s word' it was to talk about stability, rather than success, but because this was viewed as being a real success for many years under Moyes, then I don't see no reason why Dyche, can't have similar success, because I'm certain he will slowly bring about a lot more professionalism into Everton football club.

First we have to get rid of the final massive dose of mediocrity, given to us over a lifetime, by the clever but deluded pathological liar, Mr Kenwright, and then hope that Moshiri, does what he should have done when he initially purchased Everton, and leaves it to people who have a genuine thought out plan (Zzzz, I know) whilst having the skills and desire to run a successful football club.🤞

As soon as the three board members resigned, I just knew Bill would somehow still Cling on, long before the 48 hour decision, as soon as the announcement came that Moshiri asked him to stay on. My heart sank.

2 years ago, even at 2 nil down, I still believed if Everton pulled a goal back, the fans would drag them over the line, the last game v Bournemouth, I was still confident we would find enough and get the result we need.

We had a good pre season in America where the youngsters where concerned, Mills did well, as did price, neither where then given any chance as squad players, with Price now leaving to chance his luck elsewhere, Simms has left, Samuel Smith gone, more youngsters will leave, and who can blame them.

We still have a few weeks to try to land players so still time for things to change, but would not be suprised if the likes of Mills, Warrington, Dobbin and Cannon step up to the mark and through sheer desperation, rather than choice, these turn out to be a godsend.

If things remain the same, and the youngsters get pushed out on loan again, and we do not at least get a couple of strikers in, for the first time, I really fear relegation, something I have never ever believed possible before, my reasoning of Everton always find a way, I am not so sure this season, unless those changes come,and quick, or we get lucky again with three worse teams than Everton.