Are Everton moving backwards?

It is fair to say that most Everton fans approach the close season, or any transfer window for that, with the air of trepidation of an Indian forest guard.

The sad indictment of this summer is that the talk amongst most Evertonians at the curtailing of last season was not about who would be coming in to the club but how much we could possibly get for a 20 year old who has amassed barely 50 first-team appearances.

The problem is Everton have been crying out for a winger and a centre forward of note for a while now and unless there is at least one big name departure then neither of the aforementioned will be arriving at L4 4EL in the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, unless you have Abu Dhabi money at your disposal a sell to buy policy has to be in place. However, despite a derisory offer for Phil Jagielka from Arsenal, there have been no bids for the current squad. In fact transfer gossip involving Everton’s current playing staff or possible future targets has been distinctly thin on the ground this summer. That is apart from ‘Sky Sources’, quite bizarrely, claiming last week that a bid to rival Aston Villa’s for Charles N’Zogbia was imminent. One can only assume that Wigan are prepared to take payment in bottle tops for their prized asset.

Supporters are also an irrational bunch, particularly when it comes to transfer dealings. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth recently when Seb Larsson signed for Sunderland on a Bosman free transfer, when he clearly should have been signed by Everton. In an attempt to play devil’s advocate, perhaps it was the case that David Moyes didn’t actually want to sign Larsson for the club. A valid point that seems lost on the dissenters.

Of course something else to be taken into consideration is transfer gossip is just that. Only clubs themselves truly know their transfer targets and, with the possible exception of Arsenal, aren’t going to be announcing to the world’s media the funds at their disposal either.

This leads us onto another problem currently facing the Everton board, namely a lot of fans are somewhat irked by the lack of information and communication coming out of GoodisonPark. Admittedly the club doesn’t always help itself in terms of public relations but you can’t really expect the club to be making statements if there is genuinely nothing to say. At the risk of appearing blunt it also seems to be the case that the club doesn’t always give the answers that people want to hear.

Chairman Bill Kenwright recently gave an interview on local radio in an attempt to appease the growing discontent. However, while he did have a point when he stated that this time last year Everton fans were cautiously optimistic about the season ahead and the squad, with the exception of the departed Steven Pienaar is exactly the same now, he seems to have misjudged the mood of the fans hopelessly. Lets be honest when injuries started to mount last season the threadbare squad was shown up for exactly what it was, threadbare.

In terms of Kenwright, his only real crime seems to be that he isn’t a multimillionaire. That is of course unless you buy into the theory that Kenwright is actually preventing the club from moving forward and there are a growing number of fans who seem to subscribe to that theory with each passing day.

There is of course the option for Kenwright to spend money that the club clearly hasn’t got. However, it can be argued with an air of justification that that is what got Everton into this predicament in the first place.

So where do Everton go from here? In a nutshell it all keeps circling back to ownership of the club and/or investment and until anything changes on that front the club has reached a glass ceiling and can only go one way I’m afraid, backwards.

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