Everton Won’t Spend Yet Again, But Does It Even Matter?

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In a summer of Premiership spending from Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool, Edward hasn’t seen Everton jump on board. But will it matter in the end?

The past few weeks, and the ones to come are going to be vital for the start of Everton’s season. In our only (official) game in the U.S. we got beaten 2-0 by Real Salt lake, a result which the puritanical David Moyes would not have taken lightly. Added to Jagielka, the footballing Swiss army knife, is Pienaar, a useful looking attacking midfielder who doesn’t come with any risk as he is a loan signing. The potential signing of Swiss captain Vogel seems to be a good one, although his previous club Real Betis are rumoured to be holding out for some kind of transfer fee so we could be in for some wait.

Moyes may have hit out at “irresponsible spending” but… is that it?

Three signings, two of them (potentially) for zilch. Leighton Baines has been spoken of and Moyes is also sniffing around Alan Smith? Whilst everyone else is seemingly wallowing in dosh and American suitors are courting clubs a division below us we seem to be standing still.

We all know about Bill Kenwright’s smoke and mirrors tactics when it comes to players, I still believe that many names (Alan Smith included a few seasons ago) are mentioned just to satiate our hunger for bodies at Goodison and that BK and his pals have no intention of buying them. Yes we have the big “vote” on whether or not to move to Kirby, and yes that vote is as much of a fait d’accompli as a Robert Mugabe election in Zimbabwe, but even if we do move it will only bring us hard cash in 4 years time, and only a paltry extra 10million is projected, enough to buy Darren Bent’s torso (or maybe his left femur in 4 years time with inflation.) Nicknames that we reveled in during the 60’s; The Merseyside Millionaires, The Bank of England, now seem like cruel irony-laden taunts.

And yet, we seem to be a club that is galvanized whenever disappointment and failure attempt to rear their ugly heads. Our blue bruisers, Joe Royle’s “dogs of war”, fought tooth and nail to keep us in the top flight, succeeded, and then lifted the FA Cup. After the gutting sale of Wayne Rooney (and where has that money gone?) we went on to qualify for the Champions League, every disappointment seems to forge even more strength in us.

This season we have Tim Cahill back, a new look Van der Meyde (still doing jail time with the Everton Reserves), Arteta – the best Spaniard on Merseyside , and players who can only improve further Vaughan, Anichebe, and Lescott. Tim Howard, fresh from his US international exploits will, I am sure, marshal his box like a fascist xenophobe, removing all opposition players.

And Everton will go on, fighting the cruel pundits…