A very long post but definately worth the read. (By Tony Barret from The Times)
"As the January transfer window opens and rival clubs start to put their plans for strengthening into action, it would appear as though David Moyes is using the confluence of a number of factors to his advantage as he seeks backing for his burning ambition to take Everton into the Champions League this season.
Not for the first time, an agonising defeat to Chelsea has brought back into focus the all-too-familiar glass ceiling that has kept the Blues from breaking into the Premier League's top four over the last few years: the exit at the hands of Abramovich's millions in the League Cup semi-final in 2008 first prompted the manager to express frustration at Everton's inability to compete on anything approaching a level financial playing field; and the heartbreak at Wembley in the FA Cup Final the following year was similarly illustrative of the crucial gulf in resources between Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge.
Sunday's result at Goodison moved Chelsea five points away in fourth place with a game in hand and while the Blues remain well placed for a shot at Champions League qualification, Moyes knows that his team's hopes could well be scuppered by the lack of depth in his squad.
Now, with his team aiming to be in fifth place and just three points off third place after today's action at St James Park, his personal influence at the Club as strong as it's ever been, and his unsigned contract hanging out there as an increasingly obvious marker that he wants his plans backed, Moyes has asked that the Everton board make some of the estimated £20m increase in TV revenue that will flow into the Club next season available to him now to make a concerted push for the a top-four finish.
Moyes's case is a strong one — he has been able to guide his team to fifth place at the halfway stage of the season despite injury and suspension to key players that have held the Blues back from what many believe would be a higher league placing had his best players been fit more often. Playing arguably the most attractive and effective football of his 10-plus years in charge, Everton have looked top-four class in many ways but have lacked the quality or depth to get the results their form has promised.
The electric Kevin Mirallas has missed the best part of two months now with a hamstring injury. Midfield linchpin, Darron Gibson, was sidelined for almost three months between September and late November and is out for at least another month with a recurrence of his thigh problems. Disruption at right back where Tony Hibbert, Seamus Coleman and Phil Neville have all been on the treatment or operating tables at times this season has necessitated the deployment of Phil Jagielka as an emergency full-back. And a lack of effective striking support for Nikica Jelavic has left the team without a reliable goalscoring threat up front.
Moyes's public refrain regarding the mid-season transfer window has been a familiar one: that there are no funds for any significant player acquisitions and that he will again look to the loan or Bosman market to bring in much-needed reinforcements. Privately, though, he has urged the Club hierarchy to trust in what he has achieved over the past decade on a shoe-string budget and find a way to invest in the team this month.
As Tony Barrett points out in his blog for The Times today, the Club has no real credit facility left with which to borrow the kind of money for which Moyes is asking; the reputed £25m line of credit that Barclays allowed Everton before the global credit crisis in 2008 has long-since been reined in and the Board has since had to rely on a number of revolving mortgages while operating costs outweigh revenue by around £5m a season.
That means that investment in the team would require personal contributions from the Club's majority shareholders which would be a first under the Bill Kenwright regime. It's believed that the Chairman himself has no more money in the club than he used to fund his original purchase of his shares with True Blue Holdings in 2000. Robert Earl has an estimated personal fortune of £240m but, since being drawn to Everton by the Destination Kirkby project six years ago, has not put another penny into the Club and remains a silent and invisible Board member. And though Jon Woods, who sold Ocean Software, the company he co-founded, in the 1980s for £100m, is a devoted, match-going Director, he, too, has kept is personal money to himself rather than invest in the club.
Lord Grantchester, Everton's fourth-largest shareholder and Littlewoods heir to an estimated £1.2bn fortune, has also been reluctant to invest any of his family's fortune into the Club, reputedly due more to a personal detente with Kenwright and, perhaps, a lack of enthusiasm to take a leading role in the Club than any desire to keep his money to himself.
As Barrett points out, the refusal of the Club's directors to personally risk their fortunes on player acquisitions is "wholly reasonable" but, as David Moores did across the Park in 2006, nothing is stopping them from doing what the banks won't — "namely allowing Everton to take out a short-term loan that would be repayable as soon as the club receives its first installment of the new TV deal."
With 10 years of service behind him, an enviable record of stability in the top half of the Premier League, repeat European qualification, an FA Cup Final and now, his team well-positioned among the pack chasing the top four, Moyes seems to be sending a signal to the Club's wealthiest shareholders that he needs them to now show their faith in him in the form of sufficient transfer funds to support his charge for Europe.
The manager clearly senses that the cash bonanza from the new domestic and international television rights deal, coming at a time when Everton are best placed to break into the Champions League, offers a unique opportunity for the Board to put together a package of funds for team strengthening this month.
It could be a pivotal moment in Everton's modern history — how the Board does or doesn't respond might well have a definitive effect not only the team's prospects for this season but, equally importantly, on Moyes's own future at Goodison Park."
