The outside investment thread

[Bruce Wayne]

Many fans have bemoaned our lack of outside investment in the past, especially with inferior clubs having investors lining up. Paul Allen at Southampton, Lakshmi Mittal at Birmingham, Stan Kroenke at Arsenal, Thaksin Shinawatra (ha) at Man City....

Wyness has said in the past that he's looking to make the club more attractive to investors by reducing the debt, building the academy, looking at a new stadium etc. but I would like to ask people whether we really want such investment?

Lets look at Man Utd as an example. On the surface the Glazer takeover seems to have been superb for the club. They've won back the title and have spent heavily on players this summer. It would be easy to be fooled into thinking that it's the Glazer family that are funding this spending spree but you'd be mistaken. As with all investors they are in it to make money, not act as a sugar daddy. Season tickets have risen 14% this season and cup games have been excluded from the deal, meaning both a hefty increase and a reduction in value.

So, as per usual, should a wealthy investor decide to buy the club we love it seems very likely that any increase in funds won't come from there pockets but from ours because no investor with so little emotional attachment to the game or club will stand to see losses made each year.

Something to think about as I suspect this summer will see many fans on the back of Kenright and Wyness should our transfer activity not meet their expectations.

 

[Neiler]

Personaly Bruce in the current climate i am against a takeover of the club and to be honest, i feel many clubs are putting themselves in jepordy by accepting big bids for clubs.

Lets face it many chairman havnt made much money from owning a club and are rubbing their hands gleefully at making a buck by selling to a foregin investor.

I would be surprised over the past year if Kenright and Wyness havnt had offers on the table but have declined for the reason i outlined above. In the current climate i dont want to be taken over untill this fad passes and a true long term owner with a genuine intrest in the club takes over.

Many clubs i fear will implode over the course of this fad its like the stock exchange fad in the mid ninties everyone wanted their club listed and that proved to a load of B*****ks. For me as a club i hope we sit tight on this one and continue with the consistencey that has had a major impact on our success in the past three season on and of the pitch.

Lastly for anyone who will make the arguement that we will have millions to spend on players! My answer is you can have millions and still some players will not want ot sign for you look at West Ham the calibre of player who has this week rejected them and the money grabbing [Poor language removed] heaps they signed in january, Pompey equally, Wigan, and ill wager Aston Villa will go the same way.

 

[Axlswhk]

Bruce, I believe there are two different types of investor.
The first type is genuine passion and love of the game and the club, a good example is Abramovic. His sole intention is to build a dream team by splashing his money and trying to win as much glory as possible with his new found "toy". This is the type of investor that I will be glad to have at everton. Of course, he must be rich enough to sustain his and our ambition.

The second is the typical americans who buy for the sake of generating more profit just like how they did with NFL, NHL, NBL etc. In the very near future, many investor will realise they are not much profit if the team is not challenging for honours every season, how long will they remain in reign, time will tell.

As for fans like us, what we really hope for, is to find some investors, throw in 50 or more millions, build an attractive team, challenge for honours, whatever profit we made from success on pitch and off pitch be put 100% back into the club. Now tell me, how many investor are willing to do that apart from abramovic.

 

[Rob]

I believe in moyes and kenwright.

bollocks to some unknown bullshit piece of crap who doesn't care about our club, kenwright is a blue!!

never [Poor language removed] forget that, as much as he gets criticised he is one of us and will ALWAYS do what is best for us.

 

[Gazdalf]

I believe in moyes and kenwright.

bollocks to some unknown bullshit piece of crap who doesn't care about our club, kenwright is a blue!!

never [Poor language removed] forget that, as much as he gets criticised he is one of us and will ALWAYS do what is best for us.

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO


WELL SAID THAT MAN.

My thoughts exactly, Kenwright has lost much of his own personal fortune on us and will always do what is best for the club. He will not sell us out for a quick buck, and has not sold us as he has not seen anything that could be for the long term benefit of the club. Long may that man and his spirit last within us.

 

[monty]

I am so proud that we are a British club with a British manager and English as the first language in the changing room. The rs lose out on all three counts as do many Prem clubs these days.

 

[Robert Jarvis]

Spot on Monty, the RS dressing room probably needs a couple of translaters at half time.

 

[daz4matty]

I am so proud that we are a British club with a British manager and English as the first language in the changing room. The rs lose out on all three counts as do many Prem clubs these days.

I,d like to keep it british but the most important thing for me is to keep up with the competition and hopefully kick on and in this day and age we ain,t going to do that with kenwright,although its early summer there are a lot of rumours going round saying we have no money to spend and our lack of transfer activity is not putting these rumours to bed.
I have not been a big moyes fan but he did a brilliant job last season and to realise his dreams and ambitions we need to give him money so he can carry it on and take us into europe on a more regular basis.
I admit everytime there is a club with millions to spend like portsmouth,villa and so on i wish it was us,and with more teams being bought out imo we also need to sell to keep up.

 

[TX Bill]

Tough dilemma here.

Ideally, you'd like a lifelong Blue with deep pockets to come in and do a deal but unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

I wouldn't mind seeing a foreign investor but you really don't know what you're going to get with that.

Do we necessarily need a sugar daddy right now. I would say that based on the current work of Kenwright and Moyes, no, we don't as we're improving (not staying status quo) with the limited resources we have.

I'm sorta in the "wait and see" camp.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I,d like to keep it british but the most important thing for me is to keep up with the competition and hopefully kick on and in this day and age we ain,t going to do that with kenwright,although its early summer there are a lot of rumours going round saying we have no money to spend and our lack of transfer activity is not putting these rumours to bed.
I have not been a big moyes fan but he did a brilliant job last season and to realise his dreams and ambitions we need to give him money so he can carry it on and take us into europe on a more regular basis.
I admit everytime there is a club with millions to spend like portsmouth,villa and so on i wish it was us,and with more teams being bought out imo we also need to sell to keep up.

How much have Pompey and Villa spent? I wasn't aware that they'd spent any more than we have.

 

[Rob]

In wages Bruce I'd say twice if not three times as much.

 

[CanadaToffee]

Frankly, the comment about Pompey and Villa pretty much proves Bruce's point, though, doesn't it? They've spent the money, paid higher wages - and still finished behind us.

You don't build a contending team by splashing out some money initially, then looking to turn a profit later. If you start down that road, you need to keep spending money or you start falling back - so you need a bottomless pit of cash.

Or you can slowly build a dynasty, on a sustainable basis - the way Ferguson built Man U back up. Everyone thinks of their PL dominance, but how many remember his first few years in charge when they won nothing?

I have difficulty being too envious of West Ham, Villa, etc. with their overseas "investors", or Pompey's annual clearout of players so they can rebuild from scratch, once again.

If we cannot kick on from the level we've now reached, over the next 2 - 3 years, I'll rethink my opinion. Right now I'm in the camp that likes having a lifelong, true blue at the top, and a canny team-builder at the helm.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

According to the latest reports (2005) for each club the wages bills are:

Everton £30.8m
Villa £33.1m
Pompey I couldn't find any for the 2005 season but in 2004 they had a wage bill of £25m

I wouldn't say we're being outspent by that much, if at all. It's worth noting that there aren't any clubs spending mega bucks outside the regular CL participants. Spurs have spent a reasonable sum but they have done well in the league and Europe recently and have the Carrick money. Newcastle also tend to spend a lot but they have a large ground so generate cash themselves also. I don't think any of the sugar daddy backed clubs have outspent us.

 

[daz4matty]

How much have Pompey and Villa spent? I wasn't aware that they'd spent any more than we have.

Portsmouth have bought muntari for 7 million villa have bought young for 11 million or so you know what i mean then there is west ham who have bought parker for 7 million and offered 17 mill for bent i wish we were in a position to take darren bent.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

We've signed AJ for £10m, Lescott for £5, Howard for £5.