Back in the summer, Everton made the headlines for a failure to spend yet again: in fact, since signing Jonny Heitinga for £6.2m in the 2009 summer transfer window, Everton are yet to spend over £1.5m in combined transfer fees. Well, that was the case until they signed Manchester United’s Darron Gibson on January 13th, conveniently hours before Everton’s official site released a blog written by their chief executive Robert Elstone, detailing the club’s finances in the five seasons preceding the 2011/12 campaign.
Yet, their transfer activity so far this season, which consists of James McFadden and Marcus Hahnemann on free transfers, Denis Stracqualursi, Royston Drenthe and Landon Donovan on loan and their only bought player, the aforementioned Darron Gibson, is far flung from the Everton we saw in the second half of last decade. When Wayne Rooney left Everton for Manchester United for £25m in 2004, Moyes went on to smash Everton’s transfer record 4 times in 4 years and spend over £40m on James Beattie, Andrew Johnson, Yakubu and Fellaini. Moyes’ ability to spend led to Champions League qualification in 2005, and UEFA Cup runs in the 07/08 season and 08/09 season, as well as an F.A. Cup Final appearance in 2009, finishing runners up to Chelsea.
However, a deadline day sale of Mikel Arteta to Arsenal for £10m and a series of comments from players and David Moyes alike, which suggested there still wasn’t money to spend, resulted in protests from a section of Everton fans not happy with the club’s progress under Bill Kenwright, nor the money available for new signings.
The unrest began during preseason and having heard a telling interview from Sylvain Distin to BBC Radio Merseyside, where he stated that they have “a small squad” that is wary of injuries being able to threaten their campaign and if so they’ll “have to deal with it,” a phrase again echoed by Tim Cahill, questions started being fired from frans at the powers who be at Goodison Park, prompting last week’s in-depth blog on their finances.
With Everton’s borrowing having risen from £22m to £45m from 2006-2011, an increase of 104.5%, and player wages increasing by £20m over the same 5-year period, despite an actual 4% drop in the proportion of revenue spent on player wages, it is clear that money for investment in the playing squad isn’t going to be readily available any time soon unless Everton adopt a sell to buy approach; one made difficult by the fact Everton have the third highest average squad age in the Premier League, something Elstone denies in his blog: “his is not an ageing, threadbare squad.” Therefore, possible ways of raising finance, but ultimately staying competitive, must be sourced.
1. The Asian Market
The Asian market is something Everton have flirted with before, on and off the pitch, and it was only a series of serious injuries that prevented it from being a successful venture when it came to the playing side of their relationship with Asia. After relative success in the 2002 World Cup, Everton secured a loan deal for Chinese international Li Tie, and having played 31 of Everton’s Premier League games in a season in which they finished 7th, David Moyes chose to sign the defensive midfielder permanently. He signed for an undisclosed fee, thought to be in the range of £500k-£1.5m; however, much of this fee was paid for through sponsorship.