I can't put 2 and 2 together anymore

[ToffeeDan]

OK bear with me - I've been going to Goodison for 37 years now, my dad since Dixie and his parents from well before Dixie so I'm speaking from the heart and from experience. I just can't figure any this summer's activities out anymore. Here's a summary of the confusion:

1. DK and Wyness
2. Moyes and his contract
3. Players going/injuries
4. Players (not) arriving
5. Kenright making promises/"Everton for sale"

1. DK and Wyness

Part 1. Wyness walks - or fell on his sword - rumours are/were rife about his competence, his ability to deliver, his involvement (or unwillingness to be involved in, depending on who you listen to) transfers. DK gets called in (no real surprise) - many are happy but, as per usual with Everton it's still a bloody mess as we take one step forward, three steps back - no solutions, no Plan Bs and so on. No need to particularly dwell on DK but, nevertheless, it's still not very edifying.

Outcomes: Everton promote from within as CE, produce platitudes on the official site, await EGM 3rd September.

2. Moyes Contract

Davy Moyes promises promises promises to re-sign his contract, there are no problems, we talk every day and so on, yet for the price of a cheap defender we still haven't agreed any terms. It doesn't add up. Help me here but it's a bloody good offer isn't it?

You can also think about the lack of an assistant for 8 months to this scenario if you want..

Outcomes - we await new developments but the bookies have taken a few bets on Moyes going as we know

3. Players going/injuries

McFadden - good business but no replacement.
Stubbs - old news, off the wage bill, no real replacement (Gardner just picked up his wages)
Cahill/Arteta/Hibbert - all suffered bad injury runs - still no suitable back-up lined up in the event of further trouble - you can add Shandy, Baines and Vaughnie to this category if you want!
Carsley - another mystery - we had until June 30th to find an instant replacement or for Moyes to tell Carsley he still had a job here in the first team.
Johnson - wanted first team football, surely that's the simplistic answer. Maybe we needed the money or AJ just saw something we don't see... I don't know. But he was there at the start of the pre-season, he could see he would obviously be in line for a start as things stood at the moment!

Outcome - paper thin squad and youngsters starting in all pre-season games. Even Shandy was in the vanguard!!!


4. Players (not) arriving

Those we have bid for:
Moyesie's so-called List A: Moutinho, M'Bia
Kenright's "secret targets" - Love(?)
Those we might have bid for/could have bid for ("List B") - Smith et al, Gera etc..

Reasons for non-arrival(?):
Inadequate bids
Inadequate wage offers
List A falling by the wayside/staying put..

Surely I can accept that Everton won't get every target, won't arrive overnight etc. But surely a couple of sweetener List B's could have arrived to bolster the squad, keep Moyes happy, add competition for places and so on - we all know the obvious reasons to buy players and you can't just buy and slot in - there's always a need for competition! If Everton want to deal, have enough money from the transfer fund, bolstered by sales of AJ and Faddy as well then they ought to be pulling out all the stops - you can't keep upping the Moutinho offer by half a million - sooner or later you have to reach agreement on a price and then hammer out the small detail. We don't seem to be anywhere near that, yet. If Moutinho is one of four - where's the progress on the other 3? Surely one has to arrive soon. Where are the 5th, 6th, 7th - loan signings?

5. Kenright making promises/"Everton for sale"
We've heard it all before, sometimes they come up with the goods but why make all these platitudes if everything is right, and then, to make matters worse, nothing actually has happened - no signings, no ground progress, no sign of a buyer and so on!!

So, to summarise and answer my own question: What is going on? Why has EVERYTHING the appearance of being pear-shaped and I haven't even touched on season-tickets, new shirt problems.... If Moyes HAS been promised money is he trying to spend it OR not? If he hasn't got what he needs why no B List players or a shedload on one star and a load of B Lists? Why is he staying if he isn't getting what he needs? (And above all why hasn't he signed his contract?) I need answers in order to put 2 and 2 together instead of relying on gut instincts. Where are the players Moyes should be talking directly to in order to bring them in. Where are the offers for players we should have made this summer (and been rejected)?

I'm not going to pretend I know who the right players are but I think I know we need 3-4 decent recruits - ok if it's 2 A Lists (£25M) and 2-3 B Lists (£10M total). I'm even OK with one big star (£18M) and a handful of fillers. Right now I'd take the fillers just to get back to where we were 6-12 months ago cos I really can't figure out why the side we'll be putting on the field come 3 o'clock Saturday isn't anywhere near as good as the notional side we've either allowed to go within the past 12 months or are paying to sit out through injury.

TD

 

[dom_efc]

Couldn't have put it better myself Dan.. I wouldnt have tried either because it all baffles me to the point where im starting not to care anymore!

You have wrapped our summer up with you're post::
Turmoil, Silly mistakes, A lot of talk but absolutely no action.
& most of all DISSAPOINTMENT, makes me ashamed to be a blue.

 

[tadpole]

There's a common theme here : a complete lack of adequate communication from the club. I think we're all getting heartily sick by now of the number of evasions and downright lies that we've been getting. In the end, people at the top will pay the price for this because when fans don't trust a thing they say it's inevitable that fans will get on their backs whenever anything goes wrong.

1. DK and Wyness

No explanations either from Wyness or the club. Insulting, really. Obviously there's been some problems behind the scenes. If they don't give some indication what these are, it's only going to foster conspiracy theories.

2. Moyes Contract

Again we can only speculate. My best guess is that Moyes has been fighting a series of running battles over the summer over the transfer budget, how much is available to bid for particular players, the manner in which the club has been conducting transfer negotiations, etc. So out of conscience as much as anything, he's put the contract off until he's made some progress on the transfer front. He'll carry on battling right up to August 31st, but at that time if we are still in the [Poor language removed] and Moyes blames this on lack of support he's received from the club, he'll think about walking. Just speculation, hope I'm wrong.

3. Players going/injuries

No real mysteries here - every club has senior professionals leaving every year. Stubbs, McFadden and Johnson all wanted first team football. A decision has to be made each time whether or not to try and replace them and with whom, as we don't have the resources to pay the wage bill of a large squad.

4. Players (not) arriving

This is the big mystery. What's gone wrong ? How much money is in the transfer kitty, and who's to blame for the failure to bring in new players ? TD has asked some pertinent questions and we can all probably come up with a few of our own. I see no sign at the moment that we'll even sign one player before kickoff on Saturday. The club have maintained almost total silence on the OS about incoming transfers except for the occasional reassuring statement from Moyes or BK. I wouldn't mind this so much were it not for the regular briefings that they give to the press about players we're after, most of which as far as one can tell we never even made an official bid for.

5. Kenright making promises/"Everton for sale"
As you say, why the platitudes ? We're all adults. If Everton are falling behind other leading clubs in certain areas, why not just admit this ?

Somehow I don't think we'll get many answers before the EGM, and probably not at it either. Let's just hope to god we've got some more faces in by then.

 

[Seamus Colemole]

Good post mate. Its been said before but is worth repeating, and thats that the only people who truly know whats going on are Kenright and Moyes. Everything else is only rumour.

But as soon as the "why havent we signed anyone" posts started coming here the "just give them time and it will come good" replies followed. Well that time is running out and its not looking good for the start of the season.

Its still if and buts though right now, the club must be judged by results on the pitch. 3 points on saturday and a few good signings by the end of August and i think this summer will be forgotten about. But a loss and no (or [Poor language removed]) signings and [Poor language removed] will hit the fan, and rightfully so.

 

[davek]

I think we all know by now, the club is [Poor language removed] financially. There's virtualy nothing left by way of assets to securitise, and borrowing is a problem these days. They went out on a wing and a prayer that a new stadium would be given the go ahead against all odds and it crashed and burned. My guess is that Moyes has the Johnson money and very little else to play with. He's refusing to bring in makeweight dross with it when he's been promised much more to spend on quality players. Now the whispering campaign against Moyes has kicked in to make it all look like Moyes is to blame for being a ditherer. Well, I think that's a propaganda campaign too many for this bankrupt regime, because only a complete [Poor language removed] idiot would believe it.

 

[chicoazul]

Davek, you're boss you.

 

[davek]

Davek, you're boss you.

I know.

 

[chicoazul]

Seriously, I love your opinions. You have opinions and stuff you bad pitchforker you.

 

[davek]

Seriously, I love your opinions. You have opinions and stuff you bad pitchforker you.

I knew you were being serious.

 

[bozzen]

I think we all know by now, the club is [Poor language removed] financially. There's virtualy nothing left by way of assets to securitise, and borrowing is a problem these days. They went out on a wing and a prayer that a new stadium would be given the go ahead against all odds and it crashed and burned. My guess is that Moyes has the Johnson money and very little else to play with. He's refusing to bring in makeweight dross with it when he's been promised much more to spend on quality players. Now the whispering campaign against Moyes has kicked in to make it all look like Moyes is to blame for being a ditherer. Well, I think that's a propaganda campaign too many for this bankrupt regime, because only a complete [Poor language removed] idiot would believe it.

I seriously doubt that we are broke. I do believe we have somewhere around 30-40 to spend, but as said, Moyes want quality, not quantity, but the club has a limit of what they want to spend on wages, and i wonder if the players he is looking at are willing to take a pay-cut?

There is a lot of speculation, but that is also what it is. Speculation.

 

[chicoazul]

I seriously doubt that we are broke. I do believe we have somewhere around 30-40 to spend, but as said, Moyes want quality, not quantity, but the club has a limit of what they want to spend on wages, and i wonder if the players he is looking at are willing to take a pay-cut?

There is a lot of speculation, but that is also what it is. Speculation.

A sensible, well balanced post.

BAN HIM DYLAN/DANNY.

 

[davek]

I seriously doubt that we are broke. I do believe we have somewhere around 30-40 to spend, but as said, Moyes want quality, not quantity, but the club has a limit of what they want to spend on wages, and i wonder if the players he is looking at are willing to take a pay-cut?

There is a lot of speculation, but that is also what it is. Speculation.

Well, one thing's for sure, we've seen 10-11 weeks of the transfer window come and go without incoming players and in my wildest dreams I dont expect Moyes to be given £30-40M to spend now.

 

[a2b chris]

Well, one thing's for sure, we've seen 10-11 weeks of the transfer window come and go without incoming players and in my wildest dreams I dont expect Moyes to be given £30-40M to spend now.

he never said million. meant pounds (incl. wages)

 

[davek]

he never said million. meant pounds (incl. wages)

Makes more sense. You can get Paul Dickov for that.

 

[coyney]

Over the last few windows Bill has raised the cash in two ways 1-selling the clubs silver 2 - borrowing either cash from or getting them go guarantor from his rich mates as Bill himself readily admits hes not got the cash required himself,Now this policy is fine up to the point when you sell out of silver and your mates get fed up having to help you out.be honest we have all had mates at sometime who as soon as you see them your mind starts to turn thinking how much this time ,Well I reckon thats where Bill is at now . Moyes was expecting a decent budget so he is not happy they can hardly state Dave is going to sign when I show him the cash but I honestly think thats about the root of it of course I could be completely wrong.