Welcome to this week’s Talking the Blues Podcast with Andy & George Costigan.
We start with our personal reflections on the sad passing of Bill Kenwright CBE, Chairman of Everton Football Club and follow with the welcome victory over West Ham United at the London Stadium. We look at the independent commission, the possible leaks this week, before updating on the current ownership and financial position of the club.
We each send our deepest condolences to Bill’s family and friends, may he rest in peace.
As ever, Talking the Blues is available on all major podcast platforms, links to which can be found here
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The many faces of our chairman.
Nobody wanted this, least of all Bill or his family and closest friends.
There is no doubt that Bill had so many very positive attributes which included some of his work at Everton FC. In particular EITC, and his contribution to the support of our red neighbours in their darkest moment and since. He was clearly a very generous man with his time for some and his wealth for others and charity in general.
I remember reading the comments of Dan Meis at the time and since Bill passed and it is clear he was very influential on the outcome of the design at BMD.
Between the three of you, I think you sum up his control of EFC as a football club and the role he played in overseeing our introduction to Mr Moshiri and the rest doesn’t need repeating now.
The truth is, it’s been said enough.
We reflect on the passing of a real Evertonian who definitely wanted the best – I’ll leave it there.
The rest falls squarely at the feet of Mr Moshiri. He had the opportunity to realise what EVERY blue had hoped for and has failed in dramatic fashion.
Let’s hope that the moment is seen as an opportunity of some sort to rally the team, the club and the fans to greater things.
V West Ham.
A very quiet first half that I believe was based on Dyche tactics to hold, assess and evaluate the opposition before committing yourself. The second half was better and we controlled it for large parts. Branthwaite was outstanding again. O’Neill looks in need of a break and hasn’t fired since his return from injury. I hope he can return to his previous dizzy heights.
V Burnley
I think we might tweak the team rotation and although we might use all the same players, we will definitely use them all a little more generously. DCL in particular still needs managing well.
Let’s not forget, Ancelotti wanted DCL in the box and that where he was most effective under him.
The story circulated by the Telegraph was from one unsubstantiated source and everybody else jumped on their bandwagon. It is a true sign of how the media works these days. Very, very poorly.
I think it is enormously interesting that two journalists on Sky discussed that just one week before this so called scoop, the “press talk” was that EFC would get a suspended punishment. Amazing how that wasn’t sexy enough for any of them to report in any way, shape or form.
I agree with Paul, we have flown way too close to the sun and we deserve some criticism, some form of sanction that doesn’t alter our league position and perhaps a suspended sentence applied in retrospect (back to the point of the breach), is in order. The club has clearly suffered since then and we have been forced to sell several players and reduce our wage bill.
In other words the damage has been done, we have altered our spending and perhaps learnt the lesson. Any further punishment other than a suspended one, would punish the fans.
We are by no means out of the woods and it seems to me that BMD is the current drain on our resources with new loans from MSP and 777. We have seriously reduced our player wages and unless I’ve missed something (Paul will put me right), that should see us at least breaking even.
Having to service all the existing loans and demands of BMD have replaced the crazy wage bill we did have.
We won’t know the true picture until those BMD bills stop coming through the letter box.
I assume 777 will replace their current loan / debt by reducing the cost of the club if they are successful.
£1.2 billion debt with a BMD complete and operational means our club has a value of approx nothing!!! It feels like we will literally be starting from scratch with a new owner that is only interested in making money for its own purposes and not that of the club, it’s future or the fans.
Regards
Keith