Everton FC have reported record losses of £111.8 million for the year until June 2019. They have adjusted the figure for a thirteen-month period in order to take into account the expiry of players’ contracts.
Everton FC Have Reported Record Losses
Everton’s losses are largely due to a large investment in their squad. They have spent just under £200m on transfer fees in the past two seasons, and three more large loan fees have not helped them. Some of the players they bought have helped the team a lot, however, that takes nothing away from their cost. Everton’s total loss for the past three years very narrowly complies with the Premier League‘s sustainability regulations. Just to add to the costs and complications, the Merseyside club have changed manager four times since owner Farhad Moshiri bought a 49.9% share in the club (his ownership in the club has since increased to 68.6%). This has led to many questions surrounding the Toffees’ sustainability.
What the CEO Said
Everton FC CEO Denise Barret-Baxendale spoke in an interview about Everton’s losses. She said that they “have been aware of and planned for the impact the investment would have on our short-term profitability”. The club also say that they are “committed to operating in a financially sustainable manner”. This may calm the nerves of some fans, but with a downhill trajectory of their losses on the cards based on that of previous years, more proof may be necessary to show their claims to be true.
Future Plans
Everton’s plans for their future spending do not give them a particularly rosy outlook. They are currently trying to gain planning permission to build a new stadium which they hope will come by the summer. Their plans are to build their stadium at Bramley-Moore dock and it is scheduled to be completed by 2023. Everton predict that their new venue will cost them a hefty £500m. They have so far secured £30m in naming rights from Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov, as well as having enlisted two major international banks (JP Morgan and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) to help them find financial institutions which could lend them the bulk of the needed £500m. This may sound good, however all investments come at a price, and the building of this new stadium will further add to their debts and could cause both short and long term financial damages to the club.
Current Team Performance
Everton’s current performance is not one they will be proud of. They have, however, found current form since the sacking of Marco Silva. They only have two league losses in the seven games since, and those were to the top two in the league. Before that, however, they were performing woefully. They managed only four wins in their fifteen league games under the Portuguese.
Current Player Performance
Furthermore, most of their big-money signings have not been performing. Richarlison is their joint top scorer with ten goals, but except for him and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, their players have at most two goals. Moise Kean and Alex Iwobi have been especially poor. Iwobi has just one goal in the league this season, despite having had over 1,000 minutes on the field. Moreover, Kean has no goals and one assist in his 16 league appearances at Everton. Approximately £50m was spent on these players, but they have only contributed a combined one goal and one assist in the league this season. They may have a good potential, Kean in particular, but that little of a contribution in that much gametime with that amount of money spent on them is barely acceptable. This shows that the Toffees have not spent their money in the most effective way.
Sustainability may be their goal, and they may be close to reaching a relative level of it, however, as far as we can tell from what we know, Everton are in trouble in both their footballing and financial performance. They want to start challenging for top four and trying to be one of Europe’s elite teams, but they currently look as if they could even go down. Everton have reported record losses of £111.8m, and they are going to have to recover from that if they want to stay on track with their hopes of challenging for Champions League places.
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