Makis

Ok, I'll try to keep this short because I can't be arsed to write another long piece. Basically WatchedToffee has shown that the club is controlled by Green (a lot of people have suspected this for years). Kenwright was only able to buy the club with his money and later to replace Gregg with Earl with Green's money as well. So Green is the man who really controls the club and Kenwright is just a puppet. Green makes big profit from loans that the club takes out from strange companies operating from tax havens. The club ends up paying high interest for loans that are basically risk-free (even if we got relegated, a 100 million parachute payment would guarantee Green got his money back). We have lost two CEO's because of this and Elstone is probably the only one who was willing to take the job. He's clearly out of his depth and should have been sacked a long time ago, but he's fine with this scam so he stays. This would also explain why the club hasn't been sold. You don't sell a milking cow. There's also no forthcoming investment from the "owners" because they don't own the club and Green doesn't give a fuck how Everton do. Him and Earl are both Spurs supporters in any case.

Just came across this: http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2013/09/are-everton-fc-silencing-dissent Basically, a middle-aged primary school teacher was too vocal so he the club claimed he did stuff (without proof) and subsequentially banned him from Goodison Park and sent police to his home.

Question to those who are happy and already wait for January: isn't that a contradictionary? You are happy with the dealings but already wait for the next transfer window to fix things?

FUCKING FORUM! I just wrote a long piece after those quotes and this piece of shit forum decided to delete them because I had one fucking ending quote wrong. Can't be arsed to retype all that again right now.

I'll start by listing a few key things:

GK: Stanek won't start any games. Pointless listing these. If both Howard and Robles were injured, Martinez would exercise the right to sign a keeper from somewhere. RB: Hibbert probably won't start. Holgate won't start. LB: Has Mori played LB? DM: Gibson is screwed (if he steps on the field, he'll get injured) and was just sentenced for drunk driving anyways. ACM/CM: Pienaar hasn't been fit for two years. Osman is also struggling. Barry only plays DM anyways. RW/RM: McGeady is shite, Naismith is shite on the wing. Kone is much better than either of those. LW/LM: Barkley is useless in the wing. Lennon is RW as is Deulofeu. ST: Rodriguez, I'll be surprised if this guy starts a game this season. You might just as well add all the U21 players if you want to make it look like there's plenty of depth. Grant, Byrne, Ledson, Kenny, Williams, Dowell, Connolly etc. as any of these might sit on the bench in one or two games. As for contracts ending, it will be very tricky next summer. Couple of those players are already on relatively small contracts and where does the money come to buy these players? Even free transfers will expect at least a few million signing-on bonuses. More realistically squad depth looks like GK: Howard, Robles RB: Coleman CB: Jagielka, Stones, Mori, Browning LB: Baines, Garbutt, Galloway, Browning, Oviedo RM/RW: Lennon, Mirallas, Kone, Deulofeu, McGeady LM/LW: Mirallas, Cleverley, Pienaar, Kone, Oviedo, Osman DM: McCarthy, Barry, Besic CM/AMC: Barkley, Cleverley, Osman, Gibson, Naismith ST: Lukaku, Kone, Naismith, McAleny For instance, Martinez has said Galloway needs about 50 games in the fullback position to be ready to play CB. Some of those players are rarely fit and some would mean a big drop in quality. And of course when looking at those positions, several players are in multiple positions and they can only play one position at a time.

Seriously? You think Rodriguez and Henen have any effect this season at all? I will be very surprised if Rodriguez will ever play more than a handfull of first team matches. If we had signed someone 22-year old striker from Burton with a record of 19 in 80, would you think he's strengthening the squad? Same goes basically for Holgate, we'll be neck deep in shite if he plays this season. Deulofeu is also RW, not LW.

On the phone now, I'll try to summarize tomorrow.

I'm sure all you Kenwright apologists and pro-board people will find this article boring but for the rest of us it makes interesting reading: http://evertonviral.com/who-is-the-main-player-in-the-everton-show/

How many clubs spent more this window than us? Where's the money going? Drip drip or not, our revenue this year should be around 120 million with wages at around 60%. Next year same, after that there should be another huge hike. We desperately needed some creativity and a decent backup for Lukaku. We got neither.

Ha ha. We don't do big deals in January and by summer all that money has mysteriously disappeared.

As if. Probably about 5 million up front. And of course revenue increased by 30 million.

So, we are officially the only club in the Premier League with no other ambition than to stay still and tread water. No wonder when our "friends" can fleece millions off the club with their high-interest rate loans. Here's what I predict will happen in the near future: First we will see a full-on PR exercise on the Echo, basically written by EFC PR department. It has actually already started with the Yarmolenko story ("honestly, we tried"). In October we will hear that meetings regarding the stadium have been held but no-one still has any idea how it could be financed, so it's basically still dead in the water. If we are lucky we might get some artists' impressions which might even include bat lights. We will be around 10th position most of the season. A good run will see us stave off relegation but we won't be anywhere near European spots because at some point we will have injuries to key players. We will also struggle to score again in many games because there's just not enough creativity. Remember we have played four games so far in PL and in only one of those the team played well (City was borderline, but we never stood a chance). Against Spurs we managed two chances and their keeper only needed to make one decent save all game and that was because of a mistake from their defender. Plus Howard saved us that point. Some of our more ambitious youngsters will realise that this club is going absolutely nowhere so they will definitely tell their agents to look for a new club. I will be quite surprised if this time next year Stones and Lukaku are still at the club. The club should get 60-70 million for the pair but despite that and the TV money Martinez will have at most 50 million to spend. Of course we were led to believe we had 20 million to spend on a player this window as well, but who really believes RM will have about 50 million to spend next summer without sales? Anyone? And with that money he will need to replace those two, find a new keeper and somehow strengthen the squad (remembering that several players are getting on). Let's recap: Martinez told even before the window opened he had identified the need for three players: a centre back, a number ten and a forward. We totally failed with one of the positions, I very much doubt Rodriguez will ever play more than a handful of games and Mori is a big risk. We did sign two right wingers and a decent midfielder. Yay. Let's look at what other clubs signed, just for comparison: Aston Villa. Veretout, Traore (not the shite one), Gestede, J Ayew, Gueye (not the shite one) and a couple of others. Crystal Palace: Bamford, Cabaye, Sako, Wickham. Leicester: Inler. Newcastle: Mitrovic, Thauvin, Wijnaldum. Southampton: Clasie, van Dijk, Soares, Romeu, Juanmi. Stoke: Shaqiri, Afellay, El Ouriachi, Joselu. Sunderland: Lens. Swansea: A Ayew, Eder. WBA: Evans, Rondon. West Ham: Payet, Ogbonna (yes, he's had a poor start but remember this was our #1 target for CB), Obiang, Antonio and a few others. I can't believe how many players who would have strengthened our squad moved to the PL. Not all of them would have been first choice (any strikers on that list would have been backup to Lukaku and CB's would have been third choice) but they would have either improved the squad or been interesting young players to get excited about. Some would have been perfect fits: Andre Ayew on that problematic left midfield spot? I guess Swansea is a more interesting club. Payet would have been a perfect fit for that #10 spot. But West Ham is in London.. (anyone else worried that players choose West Ham over us just because they play in London?). Lens and Shaqiri would have been good fits for LW as well. Some good strikers there as well I would have been happy with to add some depth.

Nah, after that you will expect the club to fix things in the January window...

Lamela would be an interesting signing, but he would cost too much for us.

Two of those "internationals" have exactly one match for their national teams.

I'm starting to think that Stones was this summer's transfer budget and because Chelsea didn't go high enough early enough things were off. The timing between the collapses of the Yarmolenko and Stones deals are quite convenient... So it's probably going to be Lennon, if Levy drops the asking price enough, and couple of loans. At best.

I didn't believe my sarcasm was so hard to understand. In general, if you plot money spent versus average league position there is a strong dependency. And the whole "you can spend and it doesn't necessary make you stronger" is just stupid. Not spending any money then does? Which is more likely to strengthen the team, spending or not spending?

Oh, so that's why the teams at the top keep changing season-by-season rather than having an established top four.

You should also consider what you measure against. Wouldn't this be against our rivals? Hypotethically if they each spent 100 million and we spent 5, would we be stronger?

Mori could well be worse than Alcaraz. He's totally untested and from a much weaker league. Rodriguez is 22 and from an even worse league and with a pretty poor record. If we had signed a 22-year Englishman with 22 goals in 90 games from Burton for 500k would you even list him? There's no saying, he could still be a great signing. Deulofeu needs to improve a lot. Cleverley is an improvement, but he basically needs to replace both Pienaar and Osman. Shukes asked our status right now, not to guess what the squad might look on Wednesday morning.

How are we stronger? We lost two CB's and a reserve forward. We have several long-term injuries. Players are a year older which is quite relevant in the cases of Barry, Osman, Pienaar and Howard and to a lesser degree with Jagielka, Baines and Kone.

van der Viel + 20 million is quite tempting, though. Problem is, it would make our defence even worse.

I thought it was 5 million, but still, that's one Lennon.

It would be an interesting development and would make one wonder how serious we were after all.