Another summer without adding to the playing squad has seen anger rising to the surface and a number of organised groups have appeared to campaign on behalf of Evertonians on a number of issues.
Their efforts appear to be successfully attracting the attention of the national media and the clubs issues have become the subject of several national radio phone-ins and national newspaper articles.
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| The Old Lady |
The aims and objectives of the two main campaign groups, Evertonians for Change and The People's Group, are loosely to strike up a dialogue with the club, for there to be increased transparency around finances and the vision for taking the club forward. There is also a desire for the board to agree with changes to move forward.
EDIT: As of yesterday afternoon all of the main campaign groups have joined forces under the banner of The Blue Union. Their statement is here.
However, whilst these aims are both clear and realistic i'm not entirely sure that satisfying them would be enough for the majority of angry fans that I see writing on message boards and forums. Most of these fans want the board (and/or Kenwright) out and I can see their point - it's hard to make a case that the board have moved the club forward off the pitch in any way during their tenure. Results on the pitch have much improved but most would accept that's down to Moyes rather than the board (although they have obviously supported him in his work).
The problem is that 'Kenwright Out' alone is too short-sighted an objective for a serious campaign. The first logical question by any outside party will always be 'And replace him with who?' at which point realistic answers are required. If the majority of Evertonians really do want the board changed (and I think they've every right to) they need to consider the 'what next' question and come up with some good suggestions.
I've ruminated on this many a time myself and here are my thoughts......
The green-eyed monster in me wants a middle-eastern sheik to spend their billions on turning us into a global super power. But then my soul pops up and shouts 'No! We're better than that. These c*nts are slowly killing our game for the sake of their egos'.
Shortly after that my brain kicks in and remembers that financial fair play is on the horizon and clubs will then only be able to spend what they turnover. It also remembers that wealth is a relative concept, hence why Manchester United were able to dominate the Premier League in the 90s when their massive stadium and world popularity gave them a clear advantage over everyone else in the league. When Abramovich took over Chelsea he was able to establish them as a Champions League team in a short time. But clubs cannot literally buy league places, all they can do is hire players and managers that get them there. In an environment where they were only competing against Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and a couple of others in the WORLD for players they were able to accumulate a title winning side relatively quickly. Since that time those names have been joined by the plethora of outsiders who have also been bought by billionaires such as Man City, Hoffenheim, PSG and Malaga. Cripes even Brazilian football is starting to emerge as a financial powerhouse. The more clubs there are that have billionaire owners, the harder it is for a billionaire to achieve success. The harder it is for them to achieve success the less attractive it is for them to invest.
You've also got to ask what will happen to these billionaire-owned clubs when the owners leave. There are no big examples to study yet but you would have to worry that they'll be left with debts or huge outgoings that less wealthy owners would find it impossible to service. I don't know of too many real evertonians out there who would want to risk the long term future of the club.
With all that in mind, I do believe the billionaire oligarch/sheik ship has sailed for us.
So if not a billionaire playboy what?
The leveraged buy-out is way out of fashion.
Someone looking for a way to launder their ill gotten gains doesn't sound particularly attractive.
An investment consortium like that which bought Liverpool might be ok? But then they would be looking to make a profit for their investors and without being a global name it's hard to see how the investment required would yield sufficient profit to make the risk worthwhile.
So then we look to the moderately rich supporter. Someone like a Jack Walker, Peter Coates or Steve Morgan. Effectively a slightly richer, more dynamic version of our current board. For me this is probably the route to go, perhaps even the only option. It would give us a chance to get the 'absent landlord' that is Robert Earle out of the club and get us punching AT or slightly above our weight financially - the crux of financial fairplay.
But on this route supporters have to understand that we are not going to turn into a champions league team overnight. In fact, the changes we see might be so slow as to be barely noticeable. We would have to be patient and hope that with a more competent hand on the tiller, the next time we get the chance to build a state-of-the-art stadium in a prime location we are able to take it. We would have to hope that the terms we could secure our debt on would be slightly more favourable and save us a few hundred thousand each year. That we can make the most of the limited opportunities for commercial income. That we would spend slightly more on players than we make from selling them. That maybe we could have an AGM again and discuss where the club is going. These objectives are realistic and would be for the long term good of this club but they're not sexy. They don't guarantee that we will outbid Villa for Charles N'Zogbia, that we will never have to sell our best player and they certainly won't see us labelled the 'Merseyside Millionaires' again anytime soon.
I think the uncomfortable truth that Evertonians have to face up to is that even if the current board do leave, we will still need to be patient and play the long game.
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