Paying the price

As an Everton fan, I think I am quite mellow on the whole. I am as passionate as anybody, I just don’t swear as much as I used to when I was a kid or like some of my fellow Evertonians in Lower Gwladys.

I guess more than anything I am realistic. I appreciate the situation surrounding the ownership and Bill Kenwright. He has his critics, he has many of them. I have a soft spot for him however. I wrote to him a few years ago while I was a Director at Brentford about a number of points, and he called me up only a few days later to discuss the letter. I found him extremely personable and an absolute pleasure to talk to. Does that make him a great chairman? Not at all. But I defy anybody working in English football to say a bad word about him, and he is respected throughout. Challenging and questioning key emotive issues such as the stadium move was always likely to upset some folks, but he is following principles which he strongly believes will take the club forward and I admire that. Would I like to see David Moyes with an unlimited transfer budget? Hell yeah! Would I like to see some random American, Russian or Sheikh come in and take the club over? Not at all. I only have to look at Man Utd and Liverpool to dissuade me from that.

Moyes is much the same. Even more so, I have the utmost respect for him and I rate him extremely highly. I haven’t met anybody who is not impressed by him in fact. I understand that they have not always been able to play the most attractive football, but he has done an amazing job with the funds and players at his disposal, and I would not swap him for anybody. Things are moving in the right direction on and off the pitch, and I have high hopes for next season if we can keep some key players fit, and hopefully not lose any of the star players.

All that said, I’ve been hit by some news in the last few days, and it is fair to say that I am absolutely fuming about it. Dan Gosling has reportedly left the club as a free agent after an administrative error saw a verbal offer of a contract not put into writing. How can this possibly happen at a professional football club? At the same time, the fact is, the player clearly has been tempted to leave and take advantage of the loophole. In that sense, there is nothing too much one can do. It should never be allowed to happen however. Given that the club have made a slight change to their transfer strategy in aiming to invest in younger players from across Europe, and taking advantage of the Bosman ruling, it amazes me that they can allow this to happen. Gosling signed for the club in 2008 for around £1.2m rising to £2m on appearances and milestones. To allow him to slip through the net and take advantage of this loophole is appalling. People in many industries lose their jobs for far less than this, and I would love to know who is to blame for this one. I suspect we will learn a lot once the club make it official and report on the official website. These kind of mistakes and comical financial losses happen at other clubs frequently. It should not happen at ours. I can forgive them for losing a match, not being the best team in the world, not having the most money, but this is different. Bad bad form.