Rival watch

"charities"

 

300,000? Ye Gods.When will it stop? Where is all this money coming from? All the mugs that turn up to watch?

 

Looks like Everton have sorted the site for their new stadium.
It'll be interesting to see the plans, when they're released.

 

Like ourselves and Citeh, Everton have been left behind since the formation of the Premier League. They have a fine history but by any measure of current standing, they have fallen a fair old distance and it is going to take some very skilled management to reel in the teams above them. Right now, I would put them about 10 years behind us, kind of where we were when Harry took us over. However, there's more really good teams and rich clubs above them, than were above us at that point

Ourselves, Citeh and Everton had underperformed for many years. Citeh have benefitted from a ridiculous £2 billion investment that has 'transformed' them into appearing to be footballing royalty. We have had to take a longer, hard earned route to competitiveness and still have to see the NFL element of our stadium come up trumps to earn us a permanent place amongst the European elite in financial terms. There's no doubt that an enhanced stadium capacity will help Everton's plight. However, on its own that wouldn't have brought the revolution that Citeh have undergone. Is their owner going to be able to achieve turning them from fixer-upper to bijou mansion without chucking £billions at it?

I have my doubts. If I was Barkley or Coleman or Lukaku, I wouldn't be thinking that CL football would be forthcoming within the next 5 years, which is the minimum period to build a new stadium. A bit like us in 2010, there's surely another team rebuild to come before they start in a new stadium. Having CL football before then would be an exceptional achievement to my mind.

 

I feel that Kenwright's held them back by failing to make them competitive financially.
He didn't do a horrible job, but he also didn't seem to have much of an eye for the future.

Their sponsorship deals in particular were very poor.
A few years back when we had Investec as our European shirt sponsor it was worth roughly the same as their main one.
Something like £2.5m a season, IIRC.
The stadium's just another example. It should've been addressed years ago.

 

Last season Everton sold 80,000 replica shirts. West Ham sold 45,000. We sold 268,000. Citeh sold 352,000, Liverpool sold 852,000. That gives a kind of vox pop of where clubs are in terms of current saleability and popularity. They are much nearer West Ham, Southampton and the like than they are to us or Citeh right now. They are ten times behind their own City rival.

Now, we have players like Dele Alli and Harry Kane and Champions League football. Our current position has been achieved by Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and the like making us competitive and attractive. Everton don't have the 'star' player as yet, unless you count Lukaku who is foreign and seems to want out. Stones left for Citeh. Barkley has stalled and Rooney [if he goes back] is in reverse. Maybe Tom Davies can be the player to raise the profile and be someone that is the 'poster boy' of a new Everton?

A new ground and a new team with young players leading in a new direction could bring them back but it's a long. long road without vast sums of cash.

 

Koeman's doing a good job there though, I think.
Lukaku and Barkley will probably leave in the summer, so it's about how that money's spent.
Their academy's still producing players at an impressive rate, which helps.

Assuming that they qualify for the Europa League, it could be a massive help to them, as long as the approach it correctly.
Clearing out some of their crap and ensuring good depth will allow them to rest everyone for the group stage.
That would give them some real options going into the tail end of the season, which they generally lack.
I don't feel that we ever got that quite right.

 

Koeman's a very good manager and that in itself could be a problem. Will a bigger club come and whisk him off before he can take them too much further? So much of our recent and hopefully, future success depends upon timing. Without Mauricio Pochettino sorting us out, we could be building a stadium to house an underperforming team that would have to sell so many of our current assets. Hugo Lloris has said what most players might be thinking - "I'm working for one of the best managers in the world and whilst he stays, I stay." For many reasons I think it far more likely that MP will be managing us in 5 years time, than I think the same about Koeman at Everton.

Also, now the amount of money needed to get a stadium off the ground starts to grow exponentially. Can the owner afford to build the ground whilst building the team? Will he want to do so? As we know to our cost with the Bale money, it's soon spent and often on players who don't make it worthwhile. They were in for Sissoko, so their judgment of a player is as suspect as anyone's. With no CL, players are less keen to come, unless you pay them and their clubs more. It's a very difficult road. We have a large advantage of being a London club. We would have struggled to attract and keep some of our foreign players over the years if we weren't. I doubt Jurgen Klinsmann would have signed for us if we were a northern team, or Van der Vaart. Rooney may want to go to Everton but that's his roots.

 

So if the Mousers steal that one, do Everton get to use Anfield once more?

 

I can't see why Everton and Liverpool don't build one proper stadium between them and ground share. Let's face it, Liverpool have been playing at Everton's hand-me-down ground since their formation.

 

Do you have sales figures for Chelsea and Arsenal? I'm curious because you don't see Londoners walking around in football shirts unlike up North...

 

The Gooners - 835,000; Chelsea - 900,000; United 1,750,000.

We've a long way to go but getting Nike as our supplier means we should be much better stocked away from our traditional areas. I live in deepest South London now and sports shops might have a Spurs shirt or two with untold Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and United. I probably see as many Citeh shirts as ours in the shops. I don't see many shirts at all other than Chelsea. I live 'in the belly of the beast' as far as that's concerned.

Given Nike are paying us half as much as Chelsea's £60m deal and we currently sell significantly less than a third of the shirts, they must see a significant upturn as likely. The added capacity at Wembley/new WHL will help as will Dele, Harry and the like bringing more CL football and the FA cup with it.

 

Blimey O'Reilly!! Where are all these shirts being worn? I suspect the majority are worn by kids...

 

These figures are worldwide. I saw a bloke in Times Square wearing a Spurs shirt a few years back - when the Gareth Bale advert for PL coverage was up. Had a chat and he was a New Yorker and said we have a very active support there. They'll be packing out the game in New Jersey this summer.

I hope they buy a shirt.

 

Just think of the income.
Those shirts paid for Pogba.

 

It's been that way for a while now.

I remember 20 yrs ago when Newcastle paid £15 mill for Shearer, people thought they were mad. But they sold £1 mill worth of shirts in the first week.

 

This is what people fail to appreciate with the Pogba transfer. It was better for Utd to pay £89M and break the world record than not do so.
The fee generates publicity. It puts the club on the front and back pages. Even though Utd aren't presently competing for the top honours, it makes a statement of intent and keeps the profile of the club high. It says "we are still the biggest club."
This is attractive to fans and to sponsors. It helps sell shirts; it helps ensure money keeps flowing into the club. Sponsors want maximum publicity; they also want to be associated with the show of wealth and ambition - this helps sell their products. They'd rather be synonymous with the richest club in the world than say, the most successful in England last season, Leicester City. We live in times where people want to see an ostentatious show of wealth - it's a career move for some (look at the likes of the Karshardians etc). You don't have to show that you're successful, just wealthy. People aren't interested whether it's deserved or not - just that you've got it. Football is a bling sport nowadays.
If buying Pogba draws in an extra £50M in income each year for the next two or three years (which it will, if you believe the accountants), then it's good business. And football is primarily about business these days.

 

We're stepping up a level. New fantastic stadium. Stadium sponsorship. Nike kit deal. Champions League football. Half the national team. World class manager.

Maybe Sissoko's our 'practice Pogba'?

 

In Africa you see loads of Chavs and goons shirts, occasional Citeh and very very old Mouser shirts plus loads of Barca and Really Maddogs. THe only Spurs shirts you see I've probably given away.

 

Arsenal,Chelsea and Man u.
Those 3 shirts will make good cleaning rags for mum!