Steve Wigan
Player Valuation: £35m
Interesting and well balanced post, A number of years ago(it was at the opening of a cinema in Victoria Railway Station in Manchester) I had an interesting conversation with Sir Alex one to one. WE talked about his love of westerns, especially John Wayne and then got on to football...after some stuff about Man United he asked me if I was a United supporter and I said that I supported Everton. :Excellent he said adding that 'Everton was a very well run club'....very business like. and organised. Over the years I've heard similar from Tommy Docherty,the late Jim Smith, and a few more. Now all this was pre Moshiri,but at that time ,whatever many Everton fans thought of Bill,he was well thought of amongst the hierarchy of people who actually run football clubs. This good rep may have changed now(since Moshiri?) but it has always been apparent that the only reason Bill is still at Everton is because Moshiri rightly or wrongly relies on Bills knowledge and negotiating skill. Bill I think has more input to Moshiri than we might think, but never the final word.. Your use of the phrase 'old fashioned' is very pertinent. BIll has always been a 'traditionalist in his core theatrical business but this does not neccessarily sit as easily in the football business, and this has always been the stumbling block to Bills tenure. I don't know a football chairman/owner who doesn't take a lot of stick from supporters(except maybe City and to a lesser extent the RS) but some of the stuff thrown at Bill is just crude and without substance. Like most chairmen, he did a lot that turned out to be wrong, and some things that turned out to be right.It's really hard this issue with Kenwright & ex-blues at our club, but then it isn't. I get it - it's great to have people who love the club here, working for it. But it's crucial that we also have skilled people who can do the job. We definitely have enough money to pay well - at least promoting executives, coaching staff and Finch Farm staff with smaller PL or Championship clubs, if we can't compete with the Champions league clubs. We should be always looking out to improve our staff.
Big Dunc, Kenwright, Unsworth, Jeffers, Ebbrell, and some others, are unfortunately symbols of the mediocrity. Yes, they are blues, but they only have the FA Cup to show as experience of success, and we need to combine blue blooded people with skilled coaches who want to make a name for themselves. even if we're currently 'just a Premier League team' we are still a big draw for ambitious football staff (coaches, medical, training, physios etc). And now to work with Lampard & His staff, and a good group of 10-12 players in the first XI, at least 10-15 from U18-U23 are decent, good pay and good job prospects - we should be attracting excellent staff.
Our outlook is a bit old fashioned. It's easy to combine both love for the club with people who are not connected to Everton and BK and DBB need to understand this and either do it or quit straight away! Lampard is a great example - a big Chelsea man, but he's fallen in love with Everton, or at least knows how to deal with the passion, expectation and connection with fans at Everton.