Everton have always spent big money on players.
It has been some time since we broke the British transfer record (with Tony Cottee in 1988), but we have continued to break our own transfer records on a regular basis since then, with us spending big money on the likes of Ferguson, Kanchelskis and Barmby.
Under Bill Kenwright, Everton have broke their transfer record 4 times in the last 8 years, more than any other chairman. The most recent occasion was in 2008 when Everton spent 15 million pound on Marounane Fellaini, which was a transaction that was preceded by spending 6.5 million on James Beattie, 8.6 million on Andy Johnson, and 11.25 million on Yakubu.
Given that our annual revenue is set to increase by over 37%, due to new TV contracts that will see us receive over an extra 100 million pound over the next 3 years, many Evertonians are expecting Everton to exceed the last transfer record that was made at a time when revenues weren´t being increased by 37% a year for the next 3 years.
It should be noted that Everton have spent big money on many other players who have not broken our transfer record, with big money also being spent on the likes of Gary Speed, Slaven Billic, Olivier Dacourt, Bakayoko, Alex Nyarko, Tomasz Radzinski, Joseph Yobo, Per Kroldrup, Leighton Baines and Bilyaletdinov. So it seems strange to read some Evertonians state that a 9 million pound transfer fee would be beyond us, or “Ooooh but Capoue would cost 15 million”, as they are very much within our price range.
So, will Everton break their transfer record for a 5th time in 8 years? Discuss in our forum