Greetings chaps, I am a total neutral observer. I used to be a season ticket holder at Wigan and feel your anger. I have read every page of this thread and can relate to a lot of it a la Whelan. I don't really know where to start with this one. I suppose the top and tail of the situation is that clubs like Wigan and Everton are just part of the cycle that ensures the best players end up at the top clubs. There are just different levels of 'club progression' in terms of players using them as stepping stones, (stepping Stones, how very apt) clubs like Wigan who see players like McCarthy, Kone and Robles leave was angering but not shocking. They were leaving for a bigger club. The same with the flatulent speaking contradiction that is Roberto Martinez and his love with players showing 'maturity' 'positives' 'working hard to bring players in with the right mentality' cobblers. Waiting around for months then signing players for the reserves. Anyhow, i am digressing down the Martinez route a bit here.
Personally, i had been going to watch Wigan Athletic ever since i was old enough to go on my own, about 20 odd years worth from the old Springfield Park days to the heights of the Premier League and what a journey it was. Dave Whelan bought us in 1995 and said Premiership in 10 years. Of course it sounded stupid, almost as stupid as him telling everyone he broke his leg every 5 minutes so his mate Jim White can comment on it. The business plan was brilliant. 10 years work, hundreds of millions in profits. he spent about 15m on the squad from the old 3rd Division to us getting to the Premiership. He got the council and other investors to fund the stadium build then he sold the old ground to Dorbcrest homes (which he holds a stake in) he then bought Wigan Warriors and sold their ground to Tesco for 40 million thus enabling him to let both clubs RENT the stadium from his holding company 'Whelco Holdings' I am telling you this as it adds weight to his merciless crusade to become mega rich and reading some posts about Kenwright sounds very similar. He promised Paul Jewell 50m to spend in the first season and the players from the Championship who took them up 1m each. They all got a holiday to Barbados and Jewell spent about 5m. Even making a media bulging 10m bid for Michael Owen when he was at Real Madrid. He hired a team of successful and shrewd managers to sign players for peanuts and sell them for fortunes. Chimbonda, Baines, Palacios, N'Zogbia, Cattermole, McCarthy, McCarthur, Moses, Bullard, Valencia etc etc. Add that to the 8 Premiership seasons of sky money and i work out he took nearly 700m whilst investing about 100m back. Not a bad business plan eh? I stopped going When he sold the team under Steve Bruce's nose. About 8th in the league at that point, Zaki was on fire, N'Zogbia, Valencia, Cattermole, Palacios. It was some bloody team that then after christmas it was all disbanded and not replaced. That was when i decided i wouldn't be going again.
That is where i sympathize with some of you who have said the same thing. As football fans you pay a lot of money to be entertained and wanting your club to show some backbone and ambition but some owners just don't want progression. They are simply happy to just sustain league status and gobble up Sky money every season but STILL EXPECT you to pay hundreds of quid every year to see your team win a handful of games. Not value for money especially at a history laden side like Everton, you have the right to expect ambition and cannot understand how you have been left behind in regards to the top 6ish in the league. You are quite similar to Aston Villa in many ways, original members, never relegated (i think) and have both flirted with the top 6 for a few seasons before dropping back to mid-table - relegation flirters. I really do believe we need a salary cap in football now. A worldwide one, say £20,000 a week per player. Every club can afford that amount and it would give everyone a more level playing field. That would eliminate a lot of this player power and desire to leave and i guarantee the shape of the top 6 would change on a seasonly basis and it would increase revenue of every single club as well as making football a hell of a lot more entertaining. The industry is on it's arse, Chairmen and board members are greedy for cash and it's the fans who pay for it. The only way to win is to vote with your feet. Players like Stones are living in an age where they are very very easily influenced by the media and money (to be fair who wouldn't be) the days where players like Big Dunc, Unsworth and Dave Watson fought for the shirt are long gone. You get the odd one but in general those days are gone. Football fans in general need to make a stand against this top 4 domination and billionaire takeovers. My granddad often tells me of the days where any team in the league could win it, it was all about how they were managed and the players they had bought that particular season. A bit like the Championship is now. It's all well and good Chelsea and Man City having this outrageous spending power but where will they be when the owners have had enough (which they will eventually) Abramovich has shown signs of it. They will fall out of existence, or near enough. Doesn't matter how hard they try, they will never have the global branding of Man Utd, Barcelona, Real Madrid so they will never get rich from merchandising. Sport goes around in cycles and they will hit a brick wall eventually.
What i can't understand about Everton is they have made substantial amounts on player transfers over the years, Barkley and Stones to be the latest ones. Taken Sky money every season for 23 years on the trot, you fill your ground every game yet Bill Kenwright claims you are in debt. How can that be? I just don't get it. I get that you may have been in debt in the early 90's but the rate the Sky money rocketed from 98' there is just no way it can be as bad as he makes out. A club with so much debt surely wouldn't sanction the 15m transfer of Fellaini or the £20+m transfer of Lukaku. Something doesn't add up.
