c1982

It was no trouble... I only actually copied and pasted it from another site... :yellow CARD: (for simulation!) MikeO on the other hand, tidied it all up... So thanks MikeO for your hard work!!!

Only way he's going to get that experience is by being given a chance - he was first choice and playing with Legia in Champs League (qualifiers) and Europa league. He's got enough if not more experience. So Kuszczak... as a replacement for Howard... yes... as competition... not going to happen! I expect Mucha to leave this summer and think he'd be a decent buy for a Prem team needing a number 1.

...and Mucha's played on the biggest stage of all - the world cup finals!!!

Taken from Toffeeweb via Blukipper http://www.toffeeweb.com/season/10-11/comment/fan/17657.html Sorry about the odd symbols - &*%^% you $^$£^ can ^%&%{:content:}amp; just %&%{:content:}amp; about *^*$% still "$£" make $£$%^£ sense!!! (Symbols removed...Mike ) Half asleep on the couch Sunday afternoon the phone range and the good lady answered. “It’s Everton on the phone,” she said. Convinced it was about nothing of any great significance I requested she take a message… the message being confirmation of an invite to an exclusive Season Tickets Fans Conference this evening. I arrived earlier than the 7pm start and took advantage of another offer temporarily on to season ticket holders at the Everton One store. On entrance to the rather empty store, I was greeted with a bottle of Chang and a little goody bag… all staff nice and friendly. I rarely buy Everton merchandise and feeling half guilty for being one of the few in the shops and possibly leaving with nothing… and the other half sold by a 20% discount, I purchased a training top. The time neared 7pm so I made my way back towards the ground. A gentleman stopped me on the way in, handing me a yellow leaflet, probing me with the question “See if you get any answers from these”. While queuing up, Phil Jagielka walked on past me… moments later, Phil Neville strolled in all smiles… this was looking very interesting. The leaflet was from ‘Evertonians For Change’, a group of Evertonians attempting to change the goings on of our club for the better. From previous, various events I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to at Goodison Park the majority have entailed tea and biscuits though I was impressed with the complimentary bottle of Chang along with potato wedges and sandwiches, plus a printed photo of Phil Neville and Tim Cahill (it should have been obvious what was coming!). Phil Jagielka wandered in and walked straight past us and started fiddling with a video camera…until it became obviously apparent it wasn’t actually Phil Jagielka but an excellent look-a-like of. Darren Griffiths introduced Alan Irwin from Radio City who was to present the forum. I think just about everyone was pleasantly surprised with the panel that included Ronnie Goodlass, Graeme Sharp and Kevin Ratcliffe along with Phil Neville and Tim Cahill from the current era… and Robert Elstone present to take the tricky questions; everyone generally in high spirits… Down to business… and Elstone dodged no punches whatsoever. He’d seen one of the yellow leaflets and, without prompting, got straight down to answering the questions listed. Having left my notebook in the car, I picked up the yellow leaflet and began taking down notes from this… not much space to work with but this is the best I’ve got… the questions and the general answers: • Why is there a sustained lack of investment in the playing squad? There isn’t a lack of investment in the squad, the academy, the scouting network or player development and David Moyes has big support from the board. The current squad on paper has cost £90M. • What value have the owners and board members placed on the club? This is private and confidential information which can not be shared. However, it is not an unreasonable price — and is NOT the reason the club hasn’t been sold. • Why has no-one been appointed with the sole remit of finding a potential buyer? Several people have been appointed. Agents have approached Everton… Everton have used agents. Keith Harris is aiding the search. You have to look for the right person as this is not a rational business. Whoever does come needs to come with deep pockets, such is the job required. You have to be careful what you wish for, however, as we don’t want someone like the Glaziers, Gillete & Hicks etc. • Which major shareholders actually have their shares for sale? All of them. • What are the “legal quagmires” that have caused the Park End Development to grind to a halt? Unforeseen landscaping securing. A breakthrough is hopeful. Robert is convinced it will go ahead and generate £9/10M investment. • What plans are in place to either redevelop Goodison or find a new home within Liverpool? The current site is too small and we are restricted by schools and houses surrounding Goodison Park. The cost is too high. We are in constant dialogue with Liverpool City Council and have earmarked three or four new sites. Nothing is likely to happen soon. Main problem is that outside investment is very much required. Robert got straight into things after this, clearly stating there is no transfer budget currently in place for David Moyes to work with. David Moyes decides exactly who comes; David Moyes decides exactly who leaves... Everything is decided by the manager. Not all money made by Everton through player sales will go to David Moyes for squad funding but some will. Not news you wanted to hear but you were drawn towards respecting Elstone for fronting up to the facts. The current squad value of £90M has been raised partly by player sales (Lescott, Johnson, Beattie, Rooney)... partly by funding. Season ticket sales for the Early Bird discount finished at around 19,500 season tickets — down 8 or 9% on last season — and also slightly down on the previous season, though still up on the 08-09 season. Disappointing, said Elstone... but certainly understandable in very tough economic times. Everton are currently having to borrow every year, though apparently sensibly, though further finance has been raised in recent years with the FA Cup Final appearance, the last-16 run in the Europa League, plus the small matter of £750,000 per league position — all clearly very important. 85p in every £1 spent on tickets is re-invested into Finch Farm (player, squad, scouting, development). The way forward? To continue to sell better and then buy better than our competitors; continuing to do it this way in tough economic times with no money... though he insists this is the same for 16 or 17 other teams in the league. He feels we’re better at doing this than everyone else and the overall objective is European football every season. Again, no punches seemingly ducked by our Chief Executive... then onto questions from the audience... again, all from my notes: • How much of any money generated goes to David Moyes for the squad and how much goes on debt? It’s too early to answer with regards to the budget but it is David Moyes who makes the overall decisions with regards to players coming and going, though Robert Elstone and Bill Kenwright et al do everything they can to strengthen the squad. • Would David Moyes walk if there’s no cash? Robert “can’t speak for David Moyes” but we will back him. • Should we make any changes to our investment search? Many searches have come close though all have fallen over for various reasons. • Do we have any safeguards for preventing bad owners from taking over, eg, Blackburn Rovers? The Chairman and Board of Directors won’t let this happen. • Quite a depressing speech Robert. We have no money for new players and no ground investment? “I didn’t say there’d be no new players. Come in for a cup of tea with me any day of the week and we can look at bringing this forward”. • Should we not be looking at greater socio-economic or demographic analysis given the tough economical times? Key is to get more people through the turnstiles. We roughly have 2,000 empty seats after the away fans' allocation isn’t used up every game. That’s £1M a year. An alternative is to put £1 on every seat... this will provide £750k. Everton’s Chang sponsorship deal is the 6th or 7th best in the league. The KitBag deal is the best after Manchester United and Chelsea. Our commercial turnover is quite good. We need to generate more from sponsorship, more from hospitality and more people through the turnstyle. The ease of buying from Everton has improved. We’ve strived for online sales as easy as Amazon, Box Office sales as helpful as John Lewis and as quick as Tesco Direct. Things are improving in this regard. Fans communications has improved; supporters clubs have been visited all round the country. • I can buy things everywhere with my bank card except for on the website. It’s the only place I can’t do it. “I hang my head” said Robert. "Give me your details and we’ll look at fixing this for you. This needs to improve." That brought an end to the questioning. It’s fair to say most were quite impressed with the openness and honesty of our Chief Executive though the depressing reading is indeed what we already knew — we have to sell to buy. Alan Irwin moved on to Phil Neville for an interview. Overall, our captain is disappointed with how the season has gone as he felt we could win the league at the start of the season. Well I don’t think anyone really thought that was the case but I think everyone feels we’ve underachieved a little. He says he felt quite confident stepping up for the penalty at Chelsea as, no mater what happened, we’d have still had another stab with the next spot-kicks anyway. His highlight at Everton thus far: the 2009 FA Cup Semi-Final win vs Manchester United... Tim Cahill mocked his goal celebration at Wolves. Tim Cahill says he should be fit in a couple of weeks. He spoke of how he fought so hard to play for Australia that he was never going to let it go easily and hence will play for his country whenever he can. He also shares Phil Neville’s disappointment on the season, saying that in pre-season when they were in Australia he and Neville both felt they might not get into the team such was the quality of the squad. He insists he would not have signed for Everton if not for David Moyes and Bill Kenwright. Also that he understands everyone wants a new striker, but this could cost £20M, and that when he sees Seamus Coleman, Jose Baxter, Ross Barkley and Jack Rodwell in training he’s very optimistic about the future. He feels lucky to have been at Everton for seven years and having been bought up with Duncan Ferguson, Alan Stubbs, Kevin Kilbane etc, so he could learn and understand what it meant to play for Everton. Liverpool could be very nervous having spent £75M and sitting only one place above us. In the questions for the players later, Cahill stated how his best moment is: every derby! Both Neville and Cahill were very complimentary of Leighton Baines when probed on his quality by a member of the audience. Ronnie Goodlass spoke of yet another frustrating season with injuries as he feels our fit squad is as good as anyone's. He mentioned how proud he is to see away ends always full at games and how the top teams really don’t like coming to Goodison. He appeared a very proud Evertonian. Graeme Sharp appears a big fan of Seamus Coleman and feels we’ve been a little unfortunate this season. His favourite moment — the Leighton Baines free kick against Chelsea in front of 6,000 Evertonians. Moving on... and we had a short break to allow everybody to get some autographs of the players, to which I dually obliged. Kevin Ratcliffe capped off the night with a very nice talk on his time playing for Everton. The way he talks, it seems they had a great time doing so. He remembers the turning point for the team, and for Howard Kendall, when we played at home to Coventry City in front of just 9,002 supporters... with Graeme Sharpe grabbing the winner. Howard Kendall would have been sacked in the morning had they have lost — and we trailed 0-1 at half time! The rest is history as they say. Neville Southall is the best player he’s ever played with. He told a humourous story of how they played Real Madrid away once and found themselves 0-5 down at the break with Bobby Mimms in goal rather than Southall, and of course spoke fondly of the European Cup Winners Cup semi-final vs Bayern Munich. The toughest opponent he’s played against? Graeme Sharpe for Scotland... though Klinsmann, Voller, Careca, Rush and Dalglish all received honourable mentions. Speaking of the current squad, he feels they’ve done “blinding” this season with the injuries though the slow start has been disappointing again... suggesting it is maybe time to tweak pre-season methods — though we can still finish on a high, and “finish above the red shite!” A nice night from Everton and good to see our Chief Executive speaking so frankly about current issues. I got the impression he was rather sincere with his answers and it was excellent to see and hear from players both past and present. Still, it’s clear to me just how difficult a job David Moyes has. Let’s hope he can pull something out of the bag next season as it seems clear to me that the squad, the staff and the board are all united as one behind our manager. Let’s knit together and who knows — maybe the best is yet to come.

To be fair that's what should be going on at the moment with an international number 1 on our bench. Maybe Mucha should have been given a couple of games after the opening day howler by Howard and not just Carling Cup matches.

You haven't mentioned that there is some debate whether Birmingham will be allowed into Europe next season on financial grounds... ...and also the fair play route - only Fulham and Blackpool ahead of us!!!

We could do with them beating Newcastle now, Arsenal losing the NL Derby and United resting a few with the Schalke game next week...

Is your name Bill Kenright? Mines totally unrestricted but it's in lower gwlady's - I wouldn't change it though - I like the atmosphere there!

Aren't about 11 of them over 3 games - 2 hattricks and didn't he score 5 against someone? I can remember the hattrick against the shite - the rest is just 'I seem to remember'...

I'd imagine compensation will be due. Maybe £3m?

All potential Trev. Each would be seen as 'Moyes type signings'. None of them that exciting but kind of just what we need! I posted somewhere - I think it was last summer that N'Zogbia, McCarthy and Rodellega from Wigan would be good signings - and at the right place I will stand by this (obviously based on we get some money coming in from somewhere - most likely sales!)

...and I'll throw in a match day programme (once I've read it) and maybe even a pint before (to give you the ticket) and after the game (for you to return my ticket). Hang on... £455 is a bloody bargain for that service!!!

He does seem a tit but so did Beckford at Leeds - most players seem tits. As long as they do it on the pitch they can be as big a tit as they want!!!

You can have my season ticket (just for the derby) next season for £455 and I'll watch it in the Taxi Club. Season ticket paid for!!!

Me and my mate often have this discussion - he would love him here. I wouldn't mind him but he wouldn't be my first choice. At £10m then no, there must be better options but if he has only got 12months left and we could get him for about £5/6m then I'd take that. It also mentions N'Zogbia has only 12months - if we could get both for what we recieve for Yobo, Yak and either Heit or Bily (if they were to leave) then I'd think that's decent business.

and Cech. Schwartzer/ Friedel are as good but Howard is younger.

Great shot cn174 - my question is... why is Benjani smirking in the background?!

Did you watch the game? There were some real shakey/comedy momments and we were very, very lucky not to conceed! The Howard, Distin, Baines mix-up was school boy and Distin clowning around in the corner - heart in mouth for an otherwise stroll of a game!

I've caught me a whopper!

Ossie for the back to back to back to back to back MOTM!

Sounds like a cross between Bily and the fat kid off the Goonies in that article!

Yep, Spurs have sung it for years. I too would like to believe it's an Everton song adopted by Celtic.

I don't recall Arteta getting stick for being out wide - the only stick has come this season when he's played in the central role. The central role where he was playing his best football at the end of last season (since his first full couple of seasons when he played out wide) but it hasn't worked for whatever reason this season. As for comparing players to fabregas/gerrard - I wasn't but above players vs a midfield of arteta/neville/osman or cahill - we will get dominated by many teams with those players - fellaini is the key against the better sides e.g. chelsea, arsenal, spurs, man.utd.

In saying this I believe there's enough money to be raised through the sales of Yak, Yobo, Bily, Heit and Vaughan to help us buy that much needed winger/striker (and I know we'd need another CB but lets prioritise!) ... that German/Polish winger we have previously been linked with is on a bosman this summer Petr Tchow?*%$ski or something - I'd have him!!!

Our midfield will only be world class if we keep fellaini in it - he's the stand out player - the one who could probably get into any other side in the prem. Arteta needs to be on the left in my and many others opinions. Ossie/Cahill/Felli in the middle is as good as any with Arteta and a genuine outlet of the right - it's a lot to ask for Seamus to be that player but he's shown flashes of brilliance - imagine if we could get Donovan this summer - now that would be some midfield!!! Is selling Rodwell the answer either? I wouldn't say - what a player to blood into that midfield and the expectance that Barkley will play some part next season - if we don't keep hold of our future talents then where's the next osman coming from? I agree Gerrard's not looked as good and Fabregas hasn't looked as interested but there's a new crop of top Prem central midfielders... I hate to say but Merieles looks class, Wilshire/Song, Anderson, Toure/De Jong, Ramieres, Modric/Huddlestone, Tiote... there's many more - the premiership has got as much class as ever in terms of central midfield players and we need to keep our best ones to compete!