AGM

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Financial Times interview starting to make sense now
“I am thinking about my investment into this club,” he said. “There are many ways [to invest]. It is not obligatory for me to participate myself. I could sponsor them. I could be a shareholder.”
 
Regardless of past decisions, i see this as a move away from gambling sponsors in the future which is a good thing. I see a move away from throwing money around stupidly on transfers & wages which is a good thing & an acknowledgement of current mistakes which continue to linger & are hard to shift.
I'm not saying people shouldn't be held accountable but nobody at the top is going anywhere anytime soon so lets draw a line under the last few seasons, look at the positives (which there are a few of) & move forward together as fans, as a club & as a squad & push in the same direction.

You are entirely correct mate. Lets hope some of the vocal, "glasses half empty" listen. Don't hold your breath though.
 

It is safe to say that Everton do an AGM like no other business. After announcing a lucrative £30 million purchase of “an option” on the naming rights for the new stadium by Alisher Usmanov’s USM holdings along with a significant reduction in the clubs debt, proceedings switched rather surreally to the unveiling of a statuette of club legend Alex Young. In order to make this unveiling “more relevant”, the Sculptor a Mr Kelly admitted that he’d been asked at the last minute to add the name of new manager Carlo Ancelotti to the base of the statuette. At this point Carlo himself was invited up from the audience to admire Mr Kelly’s “Golden Vision” and in the process received a a bit of a history lesson on Everton Football Club.

You can just imagine that Bill had seen the said statuette a few weeks earlier and like a proud Primary School Headteacher had insisted Mr Kelly bring his creation along to to show it off to all of the parents (shareholders) at the annual “big assembly”. Despite being placed in a rather awkward situation, as expected Carlo quickly demonstrated his renowned adaptability and warm personality, making every effort to appreciate Mr Kelly’s fine efforts. It is as a result of these qualities that some of Europe’s finest players, including Cristiano Ronaldo hold Carlo in such high esteem.

As Marcel Brands said tonight, timing was very kind in providing Everton with the ability to recruit Mr Ancelotti. What is clear is that we now have a Manager with true gravitas and presence. I was majorly impressed by how he dealt with the reaction to the Anfield defeat in the press conference prior to the Brighton game. There was a real aura of calm throughout and his humour in dealing with the “Finch Farm 7” fan ambush diffused the situation perfectly.

In many ways he reminds me a little of Kendall. He has that special personality that so many of his players have consistently gravitated towards. His players genuinely enjoy socialising with him (look at Terry, Lampard and Cole taking him out for a night out after he was sacked at Chelsea). Like Kendall he’s a little bit “old school” in many ways, with the images of him puffing away on his cigarette on the touchline reminding me of Howard with a drink in hand.

Yet like Howard he’s clearly technically very astute and is highly adaptable. He’s already shown he’s not afraid to go direct if either the situation or the limitations of his players benefit from it. After years of Martinez and Silva being ideologically obsessed by a set tactic, that has seen players being shoehorned into roles they just weren’t capable of, its a hugely refreshing change.

With recruitment as we have seen at City, such formations and tactics can work wonders but Everton’s recruitment has far too frequently not delivered players matching with the managers’ desired 4-2-3-1 tactic. Even under Brands, who I rate, there have been failures in recruiting players matched to the demands of the formation favoured by the clubs coaching staff.

Marcel Brands did make a concerted effort tonight to say that Zaha was never a realistic target this summer. Yet Iwobi came out of nowhere in the last few minutes of the window after weeks of Zaha talk (which even included Zaha handing in a transfer request based on Everton’s interest). Iwobi himself has openly expressed his surprise at the speed at which his last minute deadline day transfer to Everton materialised.

It was clear from where Iwobi was primarily utilised by Silva this season that he was brought in to fulfil the wide right forward “Zaha” style role. What is blatantly clear to anyone who has watched him play for Everton is that he lacks genuine pace. This is something that would have been obvious from any scouting report or simply from communicating with fans who watched the player week in week out.

Silva clearly wanted a wide right sided player with good, or even exceptional pace to compliment Richarlison on the left. A player capable of interchanging with Richarlison to unsettle opposition fullbacks. Silva quickly realised he hadn’t got that type of player, which resulted in Iwobi becoming a less frequent starter in that position. I do however believe Iwobi still has a future at Everton as he has shown good awareness of his teammates position, sound technical ability, good physical strength and an ability to find himself in goalscoring positions.

I am genuinely excited for what I’ve seen from Ancelotti so far (minus the Anfield debacle). Those elements of Ancelotti’s character that remind me of Kendall make me feel even more nostalgic for those glory days of the 80’s. The likelihood of course is that Ancelotti will never come close to matching Howard’s achievements at our club but I’m so excited to see him give it a go!
 
If someone is so certain that Usmanov is bankrolling us could they please explain why he hasn't done it formally, given that he was more than willing to do that at Arsenal ?

It’s a lot more difficult to pump money in (from a FFP perspective) if you’re on record as being a shareholder.

At the moment, keeping Usmanov out of the ownership structure means USM can pump money in via various sponsorship methods without the same level of scrutiny.

Behind the scenes, who knows what Moshiri and Usmanov have actually agreed.
 
Two take aways for me is shifting our reporting to line with player contracts is a clever move that should clear circa 25-30 mil off the wage bill over the next 18 months.

hopefully add EL next season for extra cash. I’d expect spending to significantly ramp up inregards to stadium matters soon and if I recall spending on infrastructure doesn’t count towards FFP.

uncle Yzzies money is a good roundabout way.
 

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