Homepage Update: Have We Returned to Sell to Buy?

[WA Toffee]

I think it’s not so much we have to raise the funds from selling in order to buy, more a case of our squad is too big with too many players not getting game time. For example, Klaasen has hardly played last season, Cuco won’t play if everyone is fit, we have 4 centre backs but need to bring in someone of higher quality, therefore selling a couple of those frees up squad places which is necessary.
We all want to see us bring in a top class striker, but can we do that and also keep Tosun, DCL and Niasse? No, we have to sell (probably 2 of them) to make room for an incoming forward.
Also bear in mind that we don’t have European football, so only need a squad big enough for the league (and hopefully a cup run)

So yes, it is sell to buy, but only to free up squad places, not to bring in the cash.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

I wouldn't defend the Kenwright era at all, but at least there was consistency of approach - we did buy late and signings in a lot of cases only followed after sales and we utilised the loan market expertly.

I do think the constraints of the time helped to focus minds for Moyes and his staff and whilst every manager signs duds, we did get plaudits at the time for getting value for money. I recall there was a table showing the amount of money spent per point gained, and we were at the top.

The debate isn't really about sell to buy for me - we acknowledge that we cannot compete with the big guns financially so we have to try and get more from less. That means discipline and consistency right throughout the club and joined-up thinking for transfers.

Histroy shows us that the higher the spend, and the bigger the wage bill, the higher the league placing generally speaking. But we can't just accept that as inevitable and shrug our shoulders.

Spurs and Atletico Madrid show the way in this. Not only do we need to get transfers right and get value for money, we need to supplement that income from selling high and at the right time, from increased commercial performance, and, perhaps its more of a long-shot, from the new stadium.

Bang on, this.

There is nothing wrong with selling players in for a profit and recruiting smartly. The problem is that we have lost a strategy and the ability to recruit smartly it seems.

I am hoping this is where Brands comes into his own.

 

[Marius57]

Other than United, City, PSG, Real Madrid (and a few others of that ilk) every club is effectively sell to buy.

It doesn’t mean a thing.

Squads too big, so we sell someone. Players aren’t good enough, so we sell them and buy someone who is.
We have talented youth, we sell them because one of the major teams want them.

It’s not like we are selling our prized assets to clubs our size, they are going to the title winning teams. (Like the ones mentioned above) (Stones to city, lukaku to United, Barkley to Chelsea, Geri went to Barca, rooney went to United). Go back to say lescott and he went to City when most clubs didn’t have owners as rich as they do now and city were spending stupid amounts.

Every team is sell to buy because other than the few mentioned at the top, income revenues don’t provide enough with the price tags and wages now to work under FFP. Il happily sell 5/6 players to bring 1 in with our current situation. But even liverpool have sold Suarez, Torres, coutinho in recent years to fund their buying. Spurs sold Bale. It makes no difference who you are.

Who really cares about being sell to buy anyway when we have a squad which has around 30 useless/old/uninterested players in it.

 

[brian labone]

Why do we keep peddling the myth that sell to buy is such a bad thing? We clearly need to get rid of a fair few players this year, that i have zero problem with. Spending a tonne of money does mean a thing, unless you are spending fortunes ala Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, Man City, apart from those teams, pretty much every other team in the world has to sell to buy. Money is a finite resource we have to spend wisely, so I have am glad we seem to have the people in place to make sure we are run better and not waste money like we have done.

I am afraid its the same old story, everybody knows we need to sell before we can buy but who is going to buy some of our rubbish players, back to square one no sale no buys.

 

[4737carlin]

Well argued that.....we are now paying the price for some awful decisions made by an incompetent board in manager appointments, amongst other things. Agree on your estimation of 5 years before we catch the clubs above 7th place. We have to hope that Brands and Silva get it right as part of a calculated plan to get rid of the dead wood from the squad and bring in players who can fit into a style of play which can move us forward. If the fans can see tangible evidence of that type of strategy then they will go with the decisions made. Interesting times ahead.....

This is the problem, we are going to pay this summer for the mess made over the last 2 seasons since Moshiri came, last summer was ridiculous, we now have to pick up the pieces, least its not too late, another mindless summer and we might have a lot more then just the playing squad to worry about in the fallout

 

[ChesterBlue]

I don't think it's for financial reasons per-se. I think it's more down to us having too many crap players

 

[Brisan123]

I don't think it's for financial reasons per-se. I think it's more down to us having too many crap players

I think it’s with one eye on FFP
We could save a million pounds a week on wages by getting rid of players not currently good enough for our first 11 ( Rooney may be an exception to that ) who are currently in our first team squad.

 

[James Patrick]

Everyone sells to buy - you can't continually stockpile players - at some point you have to move players on to free up funds either for fees and/or wages.

 

[Charles Hawtrey]

Great article - There is also a possible narrative around the longer view of things which puts me dangerously close to the flat earth people.
where Moshiri is seen as a scout/front for Usmanov who wants Everton to be on the rise, with a new stadium, before he buys in publicly. The first iteration was a buy your way in approach. A methodology both rich men are familiar with, I am sure. However looking at clubs like Citeh, that's not a realistic or even quick solution.
Perhaps now we are coming to the conclusion that we should look to 'play' our way in. So hire some people who have experience taking a lower level team and getting success with them. AZ Alkmaar or Estoril would be examples of teams in far worse positions when the process started. For this to succeed we don't need to 'do a Leicester', we just need to break away from the chasing pack and pick off one or two of the top 6 for one or two seasons. Frankly, Koeman's first season was a very successful one in that light, as we opened up a large gap to 8th and had pundits upping our chances for a breakthrough. Then it all went wrong when we decided to 'buy' the breakthrough!
So this reboot of the approach is essential - its not "sell to buy" - its "clean up the mess and try a different approach". I admire the resolution and flexibility of the majority shareholder to try again but patience is not well known in his circles, I cant imagine he has thought about Plan C.

 

[Lelouch]

Don't really blame Moshiri if we've gone sell to buy, We've just wasted 250m on absolute garbage.

 

[efcjames]

Wages are a thing ye know

 

[Groucho]

I don’t think it’s a bog standard sell to buy.

We have to ship out dross on big wages do we can use that money for decent players, FFP etc.

It’s not a ‘we’re skint so flog them all’ thing.

 

[Sir Alan]

Don't really blame Moshiri if we've gone sell to buy, We've just wasted 250m on absolute garbage.

Thing is Steve Walsh was his appointment....

 

[Blue 1]

Squad is too big and there are too many gash players on decent wages who I will be happy to see leave the club.

 

[deipnosophist]

We shot our bolt last summer...and, in Fatty K and Gormless W, we had two clueless bowmen drawing the string and firing aimlessly. Our quiver now holds too many dud arrows. So it's close quarter, hand to hand combat now (and for the next attritional while), whilst our fletchers, Stonesy and Hatch, set about replenishing the quiver with some decent ordnance.