Louis

Please tone it down. A prick? The guy is only doing his job, he may not be doing or saying what people want to see or hear though. You have to look at this objectively. What was the blog written to achieve? In my opinion, it was put out to diffuse what the likes of the People's Group and to a (much) lesser extent Evertonians For Change have achieved. Robert Elstone's blog sidesteps many of the points the awareness/pressure groups have made, they're largely evaded as the 'kitchen sink'. In my opinion, it's down to lack of transfers that has spurred people on to voice their grievances. Other failings are happy accidents which gives gravitas and lends authenticity to fans' said grievances. Fans don't care that there are 14 mortgages against the club. Also, there is an acknowledgement that the current corporate facilities (which include 12 boxes) are underselling, yet at the same time given as a reason for leaving Goodison Park. He says that attendances need to rise, yet ticket prices are raised for the more attractive fixtures despite the club netting £13m in tv revenue than it did the year before. The reason given is that it'd enable the club to "chase and secure" players. You can't argue with that, money attracts players, but when it comes to the point when fans are being priced out of the game and attendance levels are falling despite a record broadcasting deal, there needs to be a step-back and a rethink of the policy. You can't knock the club's deal with Kitbag financially, from a season where the club recorded a half a million loss, to outsource to JJB and then onto Kitbag. This has improved. The rest of the deals are what we (as fans) would expect. If there was a league table of sponsorships, Everton would finish lower in that, than they would in the football league table. From that point of view, commercially Everton are underperforming. Incidentally, I may have posted this elsewhere but the club have said the turnover ratio including turnover from merchandising would be 64%, it's 69% when it is not included. Turnover was £79.1m, staff wage was £54.3m. This means that turnover of merchandising operations is approximately £3.75m. I don't think There will be those who are not happy with the goings on off the pitch, but will not voice their opinion because they do not believe it reflects well on the club. This was interesting: Also, he had the platform to explain in plain English why there is a hole in the Park End wall when there should have been construction work ongoing into a new and reject rumours that the club don't have permission from the bank to build there. He didn't. This is telling.

Is Coleman the new #2 for the season?

Everton to take on Philadelphia Union on the 20th July.

There's nothing actually *new* in that blog. That's already out there though, £75-£100m for Woods, Earls and Kenwright's shares according to the person who put together an information memorandum on the club.

Interesting blog. It seems, that the criticism has reached new heights. I didn't comment on it the other day (TalkSport thread) but it seems that people have only become riled due to the lack of new signings.

It seems that a lot more games will be played at Finch Farm this season, presumably because of Stobart Stadium being used by two rugby teams. Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 West Bromwich Albion v. Everton West Bromwich Albion's TG 1pm Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 Everton v. Fulham Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 Norwich City v. Everton Carrow Road Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 Everton v. Aston Villa Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm Monday, September 26th, 2011 Chelsea v. Everton Cobham Training Ground 2pm Monday, October 3rd, 2011 Blackburn Rovers v. Everton Leigh Sports Village Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 Everton v. Sunderland Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 Manchester United v. Everton Altrincham FC Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 Everton v. Wigan Athletic Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 Newcastle United v. Everton Newcastle United's Training Ground 2pm Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 Bolton Wanderers v. Everton Lancashire FA Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 Everton v. Blackburn Rovers Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 Everton v. Manchester United Stobart Stadium Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 Wigan Athletic v. Everton Robin Park Arena 2pm Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 Everton v. Newcastle United Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 Liverpool v. Everton Liverpool's Academy 2pm Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 Everton v. Bolton Wanderers Stobart Stadium Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 Everton v. Liverpool Stobart Stadium Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 Sunderland v. Everton Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 Everton v. Wolverhampton Wanderers Stobart Stadium Monday, April 2nd, 2012 Arsenal v. Everton Barnet FC Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 Everton v. Swansea City Finch Farm Training Ground 2pm

He's returned, but he's still considered a reserve player isn't he?

As I said ten.. "the likes of Everton".

I'm amazed someone somewhere still wanted him.

Talksport covered it tonight - http://utv.vo.llnwd.net/o16/talkSPORT/20110712_2030_LA.mp3 Starts 7mins in

http://www.francefootball.fr/rechercher/#!/news/2011/07/01/105458_cheick-diabate-au-clash-avec-bordeaux.html Newcastle and Everton linked.

France U17 player quoted in French press as saying he is delighted to be linked with the likes of Everton and that it's a dreamlike. He's also wanted by Blackburn and erm.. Barcelona. http://www.olyon.fr/benzia_mon_objectif_c_est_lyon-nouvelles_de_l_olympique_de_lyon-ispyp-213986.htm

Woods, Earl and Kenwright - their respective brokers and Bernie Mullin for bringing them to the table. Fellaini linked with a £19-24m move to Real Madrid: http://www.rtl.be/sport/football/footballetranger/222060/fellaini-prochaine-recrue-du-real-madrid-pour-27m-

I can't see him wanting to leave London to be honest.

Yeah, Deloitte and Touche would be in trouble for allowing it.

Don't know.. we never hear much about the academy.. it's rare that someone posts in the Academy forum too, which is a shame really.

He's to work with Ray Hall at the academy for a year before taking over completely.

Haf - There's an English guy who was CEO of two US 'franchises'. He wrote to people after seeking permission from Bill Kenwright with a view to selling. The price he gave potential investors was £75m-100m for 75% of the club.

Harry Potter has been and gone too

The Times' Oliver Kay:

People are interested in buying the club. This is from Kenwright himself: "I am spending 24 hours a day trying to raise finance for this club. I had a meeting today, three yesterday, all involving money that would dilute my shareholding - but I'm not interested in that."

Haf - "asset stripping" is technically the wrong term. asset stripping is usually when someone comes in and buys a company, takes their best assets and sells on the company or lets it fold. The most high-profile example I can think of is when BMW bought Rover, took the "Mini" brand and letting Rover perish. What's happened during the Kenwrightian era is that assets have been sold off and the money has been put into the pot for players' wages/transfer funds. The exception is Bellefield which was originally to be sold to fund the Kirkby stadium, then, when the scheme collapsed, it was used to settle a debt. The assets remaining are used as security for bank loans. Pax - I'd be interest to know what you think are not facts. Everton accounts are published on Companies House website so you can see them there, as are loans, their amounts, their rates and length of term.

See my last post? Looks like I was wrong.. Interestingly.. Moyes gave Lonergan his professional debut at 16 for PNE.

I think the rumour on GOT is bull'.

He was named in the team of the tournament: http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/TechnicalReport/competitions/Under17/01/64/88/25/1648825_DOWNLOAD.pdf