Newcastle Utd and Anthony Gordon

by   |   11/09/2023  29 Comments  [Jump to last]

With no footy to take my mind off Everton —  I don’t count watching England but was glad to see Mykolenko had a good game — I came across another fly-on-the-wall series on Amazon Prime about Newcastle Utd. 

About 30 minutes into the first episode, we get some of the background to Anthony Gordon’s transfer from Everton and Amanda Staveley’s perspective. Eddie Howe had been tracking Gordon since he got the manager's position but there were other priorities, such as Guimares and Trippier, to buy. 

So, at the beginning of the January 2023 transfer window, Newcastle’s attention turned to Gordon as they saw him as another goalscorer which they were apparently short of. They had already paid a club record for Izak and, 5 days before the end of January, they sound out Everton (Kenwright, I assume) and are told he will cost them £60 million.

This is too high so Staveley comes back with a lower offer as the clock ticks away. The ace up her sleeve is that she can pay £40 million up front with £5 million add-ons. Funnily, Newcastle Utd are worried about spending more because of financial fair play!

Article continues below video content


So, with a couple of days to go in the transfer window, Gordon signs and Everton pocket £40 million immediately! With no time to do anything and Dyche only just arrived, we can’t spend any of it! So we all know where that money goes — into the building fund for the new stadium at Branmley-Moore Dock, and we are one player short… even if Gordon was not going play for us. 

There is no mention of any Everton names and it looks like Staveley is the key negotiator who takes Bill's pants down! So when the new stadium needs another cash injection, there’s Iwobi’s money, Onana £50 million and Pickford £50 million in the summer — and another set of seats can be bought for our new stadium!

If only we didn’t need seats as we are an all-standing stadium!

 

 


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Reader Comments (29)

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Mike Doyle
1 Posted 11/09/2023 at 20:33:56
David. I've seen the first 2 episodes and, like you, noticed the “cash up front” point.

It seems pretty clear that without any new investment over the next 3-4 months, we'll be looking to sell one or two “assets” in the January window.

I would guess the prime candidates would be Branthwaite, Pickford and Calvert-Lewin (if fit) as Onana's higher book value would yield a lower profit than those three.

Mike Hayes
2 Posted 11/09/2023 at 20:41:27
I thought cash from player sales and cash for the stadium were separate – if so then money paid into the debts owed. 🤷
Barry Hesketh
3 Posted 11/09/2023 at 20:56:15
The cash from players sales is going towards the day-to-day running of the club, not to the stadium project. The £100m loan from MSP was to service the stadium build.

Although I have read, that as of last week, that loan hasn't yet gone into the club, but that might be untrue, who knows?


Mike Doyle
4 Posted 11/09/2023 at 21:13:49
Barry #3,

Paul the Esk mentioned last week on the County Road Bobblers podcast (an interesting listen - you can find it on the Esk's twitter feed, 8 September) that there remained no evidence of the MSP money having arrived.

Unless Mr Moshiri is putting in more funding for the stadium, then it seems likely that at least part of the money realised from the sales of Gordon, Simms, Iwobi, Cannon, Gray is going in the direction of the stadium - and part going to fund general overhead costs.

Unless this situation changes by Xmas then it's not too difficult to predict what will happen in the last day or two of the January window.

Mark Murphy
5 Posted 11/09/2023 at 21:23:16
For £40 million for Gordon, I'd argue that it wasn't Bill's pants that were removed! He wasn't and isn't all that!
David Cooper
6 Posted 11/09/2023 at 21:54:23
Mark you maybe right about whose pants were taken down! I think she took down Andrews pants more than once!
David Cooper
7 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:02:00
Mike, not sure I can stomach another episode! So much friggin positivity in a club that was maybe in a worse position than us 2 years ago. Now look at them it makes me sick. Thinking back which was worse a Saudi money man or a Russian oligarch?
Ed Prytherch
8 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:06:04
Mike 4, The player sales are hopefully keeping the club's head above the P&S water level. I doubt that there is leeway to divert any of it to the stadium and I even wonder if that would be allowed.
Les Callan
9 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:06:17
No one will buy Onana.
Mike Doyle
10 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:20:22
Ed #8,

To be honest, I'm not sure. But, depending on which figure we believe, we still need to find £250-350m to complete the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

If that money doesn't come from Mr Moshiri or external investor(s), it's difficult to see where else it can come from other than the sale of assets (=players).

Mike Gaynes
11 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:22:33
From the bits I know of corporate governance, I find it highly doubtful that funds from player sales could be diverted to stadium construction.

Almost certainly these are legally separate entities.

Sam Hoare
12 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:34:20
Les, Onana will almost definitely be our second biggest transfer sale ever. The lad is a step up from Lavia who just went for £53m.

I wonder if the people who don’t see a player in Onana are the same who didn’t fancy Lukaku or Stones? No player is perfect but best to try and enjoy these young talents while we have them.

David Cooper
13 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:37:16
I guess if all of Moshiri’s limited money is going into the stadium and none of it is paying for the running of the club, it doesn’t really matter if player sales go to one or the other. It’s going to pay off debt and not players!
Mike Doyle
14 Posted 11/09/2023 at 22:41:57
Mike # 11,

You may well be correct. But in your opinion, if Mr Moshiri isn't putting in more investment, we are maxed out on the overdraft and borrowing, and no investment arrives, how do we complete BMD?

Laurie Hartley
15 Posted 11/09/2023 at 23:02:05
David # 7 - about your comment - “So much friggin positivity in a club that was maybe in a worse position than us 2 years ago. Now look at them it makes me sick.” Made me think where we might be in 2 years from now.

We could of course be down the gurgler but I prefer to believe we will be in the new stadium, with new owners and a competitive team.

Derek Thomas
16 Posted 11/09/2023 at 23:27:44
Mike @ 11; "Almost certainly these are legally separate entities." or not, as the case may be and that's the trouble.

You used to see...'Xxxxxx' a wholly owned subsiduary of 'Yyyyyy'.

Can anybody provide cast iron proof of just what is the relationship between the 'Club and Owner' financial entity and the 'Stadium' financial entity?

Thomas by name – Doubting is the game. The cynic in me thinks that Moshiri's definition of 'a separate financial entity' is - Any profits (Ha!) from either or both will accrue to the column marked 'Farhad Moshiri Esq' and any debt will appear in the column marked 'EFC Co Ltd'

I know rules may differ between US, UK and Australia – just how much and in what way I've no exact idea.

A number of businesses here have created subsidiaries... Grocery retail expands into Liqour, then home improvement, then for whatever reason, sells them off, sometimes at a 'loss' sometimes for big cash.

Nobody knows; nobody knows what Moshiri wants to get away with... (as much as he can?)... what he thinks he can get away with... (even more than that? or maybe just with the shirt on his back and not tar and feathers?)

Nor for that matter what he actually can or can't get away with...(everything's legal if you don't get caught?)

As always with Everton: more questions than answers.

David Cooper
17 Posted 11/09/2023 at 23:40:17
Laurie,

I wish I could be as positive as you but I think we are close to the edge. The reason all the previous efforts to build a new stadium failed before they started was because we had no one to pump in the money.

Suddenly Moshiri & Usmanov come along and Blue Bill sees a new stadium with a stand with his name on, the Kenwright legacy! If Putin had not have invaded Ukraine, would we now be owned by Usmanov oligarchy money?

Does anyone know how long Usmanov held shares at Arsenal? I have a suspicion David Dien kept him away from the board and was very glad when he pissed off to us!

Paul Hewitt
19 Posted 11/09/2023 at 23:45:20
The new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is going to be the death of our football club. If we didn't have all the money ringfenced for the stadium, then we should never have started it.
Mike Gaynes
20 Posted 12/09/2023 at 00:37:14
Mike #14, have you heard or read anything implying that those three scenarios are the case? Or are you just speculating?

Derek #16, both the club and the stadium are non-public business entities with no public reporting responsibilities. It's not like they're traded on the stock exchange. So of course no one will provide "cast iron proof" to anyone whose only interest is watching games in the new stadium.

Paul Ferry
21 Posted 12/09/2023 at 07:32:50
Cheeky twats, "Tell me ma me ma".

But will they ever sing "we're going to Wembley twice" and "thrice" and be champions of England twice in three years?

My Sheedy, we could do with an Amanda Staveley type, couldn't we, someone who knows how to wheel and deal across borders in today's never mind Premier League but global financial/corporate worlds.

Instead, we have a bulbous walrus, droopy jowls impresario who she ran rings around in the Gordon deal, who belongs in the Peter Swales shaggy sheepskin, Littlewoods Pools, Spot the Ball, cigar and champagne bottle bigger than head, chopper bike, ker plunk, and podgy Franny Lee and muddy pitch era, whose unfortunate and sad personal long-term sickness is an abiding metaphor for his far too long time at our helm and the sick state he has plunged us into.

Laurie Hartley
22 Posted 12/09/2023 at 08:50:39
David # 17 – pure speculation on my part but I feel that the hard yards on the stadium build have been done. If that is the case the lofty cranes and big crawler cranes will be gone soon so the risk of cost blowouts will be minimised.

Once again – pure speculation on my part but some "entity" somewhere will have already run the numbers on completing the stadium and buying Moshiri out – provided we are not relegated.

If I am correct they will step in when we reach safety.

I have decided it is better for me to be optimistic rather than pessimistic about this.

Michael Kenrick
23 Posted 12/09/2023 at 09:00:26
I don't know if this helps but here are a few snippets from the last Annual Report and Accounts:

There are five subsidiary companies listed:

● Goodison Park Stadium Ltd
● Everton Investments Ltd
● Everton Football Club Women Ltd
● Everton Stadium Development Ltd
● Everton Stadium Development Holding Co Ltd

Together with the umbrella Company, Everton Football Club Co Ltd, they are referred to collectively in the Accounts as the Group.

It's stated that: The Company directly owns 100% of the ordinary share capital of all the subsidiary companies.

If you have any inclination to go through the accounts, you'll see they are sometimes split, showing Group and Company numbers; then they are combined as "Group and Company".

When it comes to Borrowings the numbers quoted for the Group and the numbers quoted for the Company are identical.

To me, this would appear to counter some of the claims made above by Mr Gaynes. It's tempting to say on this basis that they appear to be one entity at the end of the day — but I'm no accountant!

When it comes to paying for the new Everton Stadium:

The Group has a fixed-price contract for the development of the new stadium. The contract includes termination provisions which, although management do not currently anticipate will be enforced, result in the contract not being included as a capital commitment.

A lot more analysis of the numbers would be required to see if income from players and payments for stadium construction go through the same pot. But at the end of the day, all the numbers are totalled for Everton as a whole, which suggests to me there really is only one pot.

Happy to be schooled on this point by wiser minds…

Dave Abrahams
24 Posted 12/09/2023 at 09:01:46
Sam (12),

Onana will “almost definitely” be our our second biggest transfer deal ever.

How does that work out, Sam?

Mick O'Malley
25 Posted 12/09/2023 at 14:12:39
Les, I’ll bet you he goes for north of £50million,a Belgian international who has captained his country, just cos you don’t like him doesn’t mean no one will buy him, it’s the other pudding with his feet on the wrong legs (Docoure) who’s the problem, just because he scored the goal which kept us up all of a sudden everyone thinks he’s all that, hes bang average at best, if we put them both up for sale we’d be lucky to get 10 million for the “Duke”. ( embarrassing nickname) but we’d definitely double our money on Onana, Sam agreed, the stick Lukaku took was unbelievable, the lad was class for us as was Stones, meanwhile we have fans who laud DCL who has scored half a dozen in the last 2 years that’s when we can actually get him on the pitch ,
Mike Doyle
26 Posted 14/09/2023 at 20:10:28
Mike #20.

My comments at #14 above are largely based on information and comments provided in recent weeks by Paul the Esk, Rodger Armstrong and others with much more business and accounting experience than me.

However, the loan from MSP appears to come with an annual interest cost of around £9M pa – which added to the estimated £20M+ already being paid to R&MF, suggests more will be needed (from somewhere).

Kevin Molloy
27 Posted 14/09/2023 at 20:49:47
Why would we sell the remaining star players in order to fund the stadium? That would lead to a stadium and no team to put in it.

I don't think the money is going to the stadium, I think it's all going back to the fat Ruskie. He's getting the hell out of Dodge asap.

Christine Foster
28 Posted 21/09/2023 at 22:46:20
Michael, some digging on the great god Google gave an excellent insight into why holding companies are created to reduce liability for owners and allow the liability of the subsidiary not to affect the assets of the holding company.. it's actually a good and clear explanation oh how and why Moshiri has protected himself and the club
See link below and how holding companies are constructed.
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/using-a-holding-company-operating-company-structure-to-help-mitigate-risk
Don Alexander
29 Posted 21/09/2023 at 23:34:18
Er yeah, but, er like, Christine, who are these Wolters Kluwer folk, and their so-called expert American author?

Some of us will choose to think, "What do they KNOW?"

Interesting read though. Thanks.

PS; Is Philip "Mozart of Money" Green one of their consultants?

:)

Phil Gardner
30 Posted 24/09/2023 at 21:46:19
No idea why this subject is still valid. It’s like when the little shit’s face was still front and centre on the commercial pages six months after he’d gone. I’ve never been fond of the abuse dished out to former players returning, but I’ll make an exception for this badge-kissing rat. I hope he is vociferously abused with the chant ‘RAT’ everytime he turns up at Goodison.

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