Blues Brothers Everton Podcast
Blues Brothers Everton Podcast
Brighton Preview
The new season is here! Everton open the campaign against Brighton. We preview the game, give our predictions for the season, and we give Chelsea a good kicking.
Welcome to episode 76 of the Blues Brothers Everton podcast. That's Austin. I'm here. Don't know why I talked about myself in the third person. There Side of madness, Andy and Adam are here. Adam's still in Florida. How are you doing, Adam?
Speaker 2:I'm good thanks, enjoying the nice weather, enjoying the plethora of extremely calorific food and enjoying going to the theme parks in the evening and stuff. It's nice.
Speaker 1:Awesome Andy's at home near Rotherham. How are you doing, andy?
Speaker 3:I've still had good. Thank you've seen, I'm good. Thank you, yeah, I'm off work today, so I went to the cinema this morning, saw a horror film called Long Legs, which was extremely good fun, very X-Files-like in part which was right up my street. So, yeah, enjoyed that. Had a very calorific lunch in Five Guys and then just been chilling here in the afternoon.
Speaker 1:I had Five Guys for lunch today as well. Awesome, ben can't join us. He's, I think, doing his job or something. He had some excuse, I don't know. It's the middle of the afternoon in America, so if you're listening from my employer, then it's 7pm. So we're going to talk about we sort of did transfers last episode. Uh, obviously we're recording this on wednesday. The bright games on saturday we're going to talk about that. But I wanted to start with just a bit more generally. You know we're about to hit that start of the season and everton have been absent from our lives for about three months, blissfully, uh, it's about to take over again. I just wanted you guys to tell me how you feeling. Like andy, I'll start with you like you're feeling optimistic pessimistic, you know, looking forward to it, dreading it. What's your, what's your mood as we start on another season of inevitable, inevitable torture and heartbreak?
Speaker 3:I think, no matter what the previous season has thrown up and no matter how good, bad or indifferent the summer transfer business might have been, as an Evertonian you always start off being optimistic, thinking that the new signings will do well, the squad will have improved, they'll get off to a good start and then kick on for the rest of the season. Now, obviously, invariably, it doesn't work out like that, but I'm quite optimistic because I do think that the new signings that we spoke about last week, I think the club have done really good business. I'm looking forward to seeing how they slot into the squad. I'll be interested in your views on the Roma game because, other than the score, I know zilch about what happened in that game. Apart from Indy seemed to have had quite a good game. So I'll be interested to hear if you guys know anything about that. So I'll be interested to hear if you guys know anything about that.
Speaker 3:The one caveat is keeping A if Calvert-Lewin stays at the club and B keep it in fifth and if Brantwick stays as well. If one or both of those situations change, that will have a big bearing potentially on what happens during this season. But overall I'm quite optimistic, bearing in mind the circumstances, financially and otherwise, within the clubs operating with it. I think they've done a reasonable job over the summer in strengthening the squad reasonably well, so I'm looking forward to the new season. I think we'll do alright.
Speaker 1:Adam, what are you thinking? Yeah, I'm optimistic I the new season. I think we'll do all right. Adam, what are you thinking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm optimistic. I sort of always am, I think. This time last summer I said I think we'll avoid a renegation battle. So I'm optimistic, if not completely accurate in my predictions.
Speaker 2:But I think our our, um sorry, someone was facetiming me um, our, uh, professionals, always absolutely our, our, um, our squad is comfortably better this season than it was like last season, I think, in terms of the thing, the position is that we've strengthened.
Speaker 2:You know, we brought in Ndai, we brought in Lindström, so we've got those two sort of more creative, pacey players that we, that we sort of we said we lacked last season. And then obviously, you know, we've lost Danana, but as we've watched Lyrical about, he didn't necessarily fit Dyche's system, so you could argue whether he's going to be a loss. So, yeah, I think BBC film and ulti put that we finish about 11th and I think that's what we can look at. We'll be knocking about, you know, anything between, like you know, 10th to about 14th, I think, is where I think we'll finish. I think we'll comfortably miss the relegation places, additionally, because obviously we're not going to have the points deduction that we ended up having in the end as well. What did it end up being? I can't remember what it was now in the end, was it eight points or 10 points in the end?
Speaker 2:We lost eight in the end? Yeah, in the end, was it eight points or ten points? In the end? We lost eight in the end, yeah. So add those, add those on, and you know we ended up with a significant number, a high number of points than we did last season and put us around about that, that, that point in the table anyway, and we've now got a better team than we had last season. So without any major departure. And if there are departures, then you'd hope for players to replace the, you know, calvert lewin, and being the most obvious amongst that, and then, yeah, I don't think we'll have any trouble. I think it's a should be hopefully the start of a slow rebuilding process accelerated by a um, uh, new investment and um, you know what the? The um, optimism and new opportunities that the stadium will bring starting next season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good. The Thelma Nolte prediction is interesting, or maybe not, because you look at last season we finished on 40 points, which was comfortable enough. I mean you got relegated, you'd have stayed up on 27. So it was. You know, finally, hopefully this is the nail in the coffin of the 40 points to stay up thing, which hasn't been true for years and years and years now. Um, and obviously we finished 15th. 48 points with our goal difference would have had us 12th between brighton and bournemouth. You know all on 48 points, with just the goal difference separating us.
Speaker 1:And you know Brighton and Bournemouth, everyone lauded the great seasons they had. Now we're a bigger team with maybe higher expectations. But you know it was frustrating for all of us last year that we were consistently judged based on our league position, whereas the results we were getting on the pitch were not. That wasn't the reason for the league position we got, you know we got deducted, you know, obviously, at first 10 points, then we ended it with eight. So phil mcnulty is basically predicting we will finish where we would have finished last year, which is interesting if you think about because I agree with you, our squad is relatively better, which I think is definitely true um whether actually we could surprise people by getting into the top 10. It depends how relatively other teams have improved, obviously, but we should have more goals in us than we did last year. If nothing else, we should be creating more chances than we did last year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and last year as well, of course is that there were lots of games, certainly early on in the season. I mean the Fulham. I think did we open against Fulham last season and we battered them and then they scored.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lost 1-0, yeah, lost 1-0.
Speaker 3:And there were a few games like that. So obviously it doesn't take a huge swing in the fortunes of both teams to turn those defeats into draws or wins. I'd just like to come back to one further point about the points deductions. If you recall, we have got a further charge or issue hanging over us from the second of last season, so that issue still requires resolving now. As far as I'm aware, no date has been set for that to happen yet, so it's anybody's guess as to when that will be, but that is an added complication around the financial fair play rules. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Everton are confident that they've not done anything wrong, but they were fairly confident initially before we had the points at the last time. Is that confidence misplaced? We don't know. We'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 1:It feels like a lifetime ago now, but they admitted confidence misplaced, we don't know. We'll have to wait and see. Well, they admit. I mean, if you feels like a lifetime ago now, but you know, they admitted the first time around, our point wasn't everything's perspective, wasn't that they hadn't breached the rules, it was that there were mitigations and the big one obviously the stadium, and ukraine was the big one which was not accepted.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, it would be turn this into a different type of podcast if we got into the sort of detail of that. But it has to do with six and a half million pounds worth of interest charges. Now, looking at that and the scale of that, that feels like that would at worst be worth a couple of points, even if it didn't go our way. You know it's not going to be another 10 because it's part of another thing. So, yeah, but it's a good, it's a good point. We may live through that. It'll be interesting as well. I mean, we're not going to turn this into a psr podcast, but the man city situation has to get resolved.
Speaker 1:I cannot conceive of that not being resolved in the next 12 months yeah, and then you know, apparently you know, word is chelsea and man, man united, have both got you know significant issues as well.
Speaker 3:So you know yeah, and that's that's another aspect to it, because I've I've heard um that the man city uh cases might start um being dealt with before the end of the year and that might take a couple of months to resolve. So if that is the case, this season might be the season where that's finally sorted one way or another. And I certainly agree. And again, I've heard things about Chelsea and Manchester United as well. So you sort of wonder if the Premier League have got, frankly, bigger fish to fry than the £6.5 million of interest payments that we may or may not have breached by. So that might come into it as well. They might just sort of say to Everton well, you know, you had your eight points last season. This isn't, in the grand scheme of things, that big a deal. Just, you know, we'll give you, you know, a warning, or even just a single point, or something like that.
Speaker 1:Or they may do what they've done up until now, which is not enforce the rules for the big clubs, and just come after us and forest.
Speaker 3:That's a possibility too. That would be likely as well, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's do some predictions and then we're going to talk about the Brighton game. Adam, where do you think we'll finish this year?
Speaker 2:I think we'll finish. If I want to nail down an actual position, I think we'll finish 11th. I will go with. I will go with. I will go with Phil McNulty's Phil McNulty, on that one, like I said, our squad's better than it was last season. So I think we can. I think that's a reasonable position to say that we'll finish and, considering if you take away our PSR charges, that's roughly where we would have finished last season. So yeah, I'd be disappointed with anything lower than I'd say. Obviously we finished 15th last season, so I'd be disappointed if we finished there. But if I was being really optimistic, then there's no reason why we don't think that we can break into the top 10. I think that's obviously the limit of what we can expect, what we can break into the top 10. I think that's obviously the limit of what we can expect, what we can hope for, rather, this season yeah, and it's.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, isn't it, to think about how other people's squads have progressed as well. Andy, what's your prediction?
Speaker 3:I think we'll finish 13th, which is not you're going to be able to throw a blanket, I think, over the club's finishing between 11th and 14th. So we'll be in. I think we'll be in amongst that group. But if you ask me to nail down a position, I'm going to say 13th, because I think as well that I don't think that the clubs right at the bottom will be quite as weak as they were last season. So if you get the same points total as last season, you might finish a position or two low in the lead than this season, than you did last. So, um, I'm gonna go 13th I think we'll finish ninth.
Speaker 1:I guess I want to pick a different answer to you guys, but also I think Dyche year effectively year four, second full season, you know has gotten more of a handle on the squad. If we could have. If we score 10 more goals last year, I think that, exactly as you were saying, andy, makes a dramatic difference to our league position. I think we'll still 10 more goals this year. I think our defence should be basically just as good. No reason why it wouldn't be. It's going to have literally the same players in it. So I think we might surprise some people and finish, I can see us getting 51, 52, 53 points which is just effectively winning two more games than we did last year, and I think I can see that happening.
Speaker 1:So there you go. We'll get Ben's prediction when he's next on, or he can dodge it and not have anything to answer for in nine months. Alright, so we're playing Brighton on Saturday at three o'clock back home. Adam, you'll go into this game. So we're playing Brighton on Saturday at three o'clock back home. Adam, you'll go into this game. So I'll start with you. How do you feel about it? What do you want to see in terms of? You know the team and the setup, and how do you think we'll do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going with our dad. We really look forward to it. I usually get to about, like you know, four or five games a season. Four or five games a season or so now. So, yeah, I went to.
Speaker 2:I went to Fulham at home.
Speaker 2:It was the first game last season and we absolutely battered them and lost 1-0.
Speaker 2:So obviously not hoping for a direct replication of that, but there's no reason why we can't go play Brighton at home and think that we're going to do well, because Brighton are obviously going to be a bit of a funny team this season, because they're either going to do really well and carry on their new manager will carry on the good work of Graham Potter and Deserve and the likelihood is that they will because Brighton are extremely well run.
Speaker 2:They obviously do their due diligence over people that they're going to bring in. So it's going to be a tough game and they've made some quite smart signing-ins, chief of whom Minte from Newcastle, obviously, who we wanted and probably would have ended up getting if Calvert-Lewin agreed he'd move to Newcastle. So it's going to be a tough game, but I want to see an attacking performance because there's no reason why we can't go there. I don't want to see us, like, sit back and absorb possession. Really, I think we can go about our game, which is, to you know, press high and and go at them being at home as well. So because I don't think they're obviously a better side than us, judging by the last half a decade of seasons.
Speaker 1:But we got the same points as them last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a fair point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we had a slightly worse goal difference, but only by four.
Speaker 2:That was that team that I was trying to think of earlier, when I was thinking, like you know, who was that team that we Everyone talks? Oh yeah, you, everyone talks to you.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you'd think Brighton won the league the way people talk about them. They finished 11th on 48 points, with a minus seven goal difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's not a lot between us, so home advantage I want to see an attacking performance and it's just nice to get back and get back to Goodison as well, obviously, because this will be one of my three or four opportunities to go before we say goodbye to the old lady.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to feel very heavy being there. I'm hoping to get there, I think maybe twice, hopefully this side of Christmas and certainly one on the other side. It's going to feel very, very strange not going back there, very strange. Andy, what are you thinking about for the Brighton game? What are you looking forward to? What do you want to see?
Speaker 3:I'm looking forward to it. I think we can go there with no fear and take the game to them and try and win, because, I already said, the start of the season last season was very positive. Unfortunately, it wasn't matched by results. I've got a funny feeling about Brighton. I completely accept what Adam said about their well-run and they've got a good continuity in terms of player recruitment and recruiting new managers, but can that continue year after year?
Speaker 1:Yeah, can they keep putting lightning in a bottle year after year, can they?
Speaker 3:keep doing it and I sort of think, because I agree last season I mean, as you said, the media reaction to that, compared to how they finished, was completely out of portion. I didn't think they were that great for large chunks of last season. Now all right, Deserby had sort of checked out by about March really, so you can write off the end of the season to an extent.
Speaker 3:But I think this is a season that Brighton could start to struggle a little bit. So on that basis, we've got nothing to fear from them at all. So I've got every confidence that we can go and win. And just on the point about it being the last season at Goodison as well the atmosphere is always good there, but I think this season is going to have something special in every single home game. Because there's going to be special in every single home game, because there's going to be people at every single home game for whom it's going to be their last time at Goodison.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really good point.
Speaker 3:So I think the atmosphere is going to be really, really special this season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a really good point. I think it's going to. I can't even think about it too much. It's like it's a really good point, I think it's going to. I can't even think about it too much. It's a big deal. I'm sure every team's the same to some degree, but the history of Goodison and the for not even like obviously all of our lives, all of our dad's lives, all of our grandparents' lives, all of our great-grandparents' lives.
Speaker 3:Well, it's 133 years by the time the end of the season rolls around. I mean it'd be interesting to know has any football club played at the same ground for that length of time like other sides of everton and no like, not like like creston north end of you know, played at um deepdale for probably a comparable period of time but it's not counting again with the other one, I guess right they've been not counted.
Speaker 3:but yeah, there'll few, obviously founder members who've never moved around, but they're you know we all do respect them. They're you know, not on the scale of the size of club than Everton.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the things Goodison Park's seen with Everton and the European nights and the World Cup games and Pelé and you know like just more history in in that place than almost anywhere else in terms of football, you know. So there's a good point, andy, it's going to feel. You're right. There's going to be people there who are every time is going to be it's going to be their last time. One other question I want to throw at you guys is we talked about Dominic Calvert-Lewin last part and there was the consensus amongst I think you all was that he would leave because last year of his contract you know, etc.
Speaker 1:I just want to come back to it because and see if you guys still feel the same because it was interesting.
Speaker 1:And you talked about the Roma game and he scored. Guys still feel the same because it was interesting. Andy, you talked about the Roma game. He scored a good goal in that game. I didn't watch all of it, but word is from people I heard who were there is that we played well and he played well. But also he played, I think, 80 minutes. I think Beto came on for 10 minutes. Clearly this is the final rehearsal game. It's sort of yeah, yeah, it's about building fitness. But if dyche thought he was going to be out definitely out the door next week, he wouldn't be playing him for most of the pre-season game. So there is clearly like there's clearly more than a possibility that he stays. How do you guys feel about that? Adam, I'll come to you first. Is that like oh shit, you know we're going to get screwed money wise. Or are we pleased that we've got him, that we might have him for at least another year?
Speaker 2:I don't think that the club will be either naive or daft enough to allow him to leave on a free unless they're either confident that they can agree terms with him or that there's going to be some activity. Agree terms with him or that there's going to be some activity. There's going to be some activity. You're absolutely right. The fact that he's obviously playing 18 minutes in the final pre-season game and has played against, you know, slago Rovers and played against Preston as well, indicates that he's obviously going to be the preference up front. So I don't believe that Newcastle would have been the only team that would have been interested. And if it became obvious that, like Dominic Cavalier said, I'm not signing a new deal, then we would have inevitably dropped our asking price because he's obviously whatever we would have. We would have inevitably dropped our asking price because he's obviously whatever we get, obviously get for him. We've had him for such a long time. Yes, we've got to consider obviously any sort of sell on clause to Sheffield United. We've got, but we're going to make. We would have made a decent amount of money for him.
Speaker 2:So I think I'm optimistic that he'll sign a new deal based on that. I just can't see the club letting him run down his contract, and if we can get him to show the sort of form that he did, you know, towards the back end not the last season, but the season before last when he was scoring. He had that fantastic game away at Brighton where, although he didn't score, he was absolutely central to everything that we did when we beat them 5-1. And then, obviously, the goal against Crystal Palace when we were 2-0 down. So if we can get into that sort of team play form because I don't think Dyche wants him to play in the same way that Ancelotti wanted him to play, which was sort of a poacher getting on the end of stuff I think Dyche wants him to be much more of a team player, and then you're going to have players like Lindstrom, mcneil, harrison and Dyche contributing more goals coming from the players. So, yeah, I'm quite optimistic about him signing the contract.
Speaker 1:Andy thoughts on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd go along with that. I think I said on the last pod that there's no way the club could afford to let him go for free at the end of this season. So he'd either have to sell him now or be confident that he was going to sign a new contract. And, as you guys have just said, the fact he's been as integral to the pre-season plans as he has been would clearly indicate that he's integral to the plans of Dijs' plans going forward, which therefore makes you wonder is he going to sign a new contract? Because, yeah, I'd be amazed if he was a central figure of this season and then the club watched him walk away in a free come next June.
Speaker 3:On the other hand, if it were to sell him, just on a point of what he might be worth, just to demonstrate that a player is worth what somebody's prepared to pay for him. I don't quite understand how Dominic Solanke is worth £65 million, but he is, because that's what Tottenham have agreed to pay Bournemouth for him £55 million plus £10 pounds in add-ons. So you can probably add on a few million quid to Calvert-Lewin's potential fee if that's the sort of uh money that's going around for Premier League goalscorers. Um yeah, but uh yeah, because that was one transfer that really did have me scratching my head at the value of it.
Speaker 1:But there you go yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with Richarlison as well, isn't it at Spurs? Because you know he's further down, even further down the pecking order now not quite the same place, like Anki, but you know he Not quite the same players as Anki, but he's a forward and I think I wouldn't be stunned if Richie moved somewhere before the end of his transfer window.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's already said no to Saudi Arabia, didn't he? It's just real credit to him because he's he's a young guy.
Speaker 1:How old's Richie now 26, 27?, 27. Guy he calls Richie now 26, 27.
Speaker 2:27, yeah, so he's comfortably second choice in the two positions that he plays, because now Solanke will be playing up front and Son will play off the left. The two positions that Richie can play.
Speaker 3:It almost certainly won't happen. But you wonder if it's worth a phone call to his agent or to Tottenham from Everton just saying you know, can we get him on loan? I mean, have we got another group we?
Speaker 1:have one, don't we? We have one loan slot.
Speaker 3:One loan slot left.
Speaker 2:So his wages will be the stumbling block there, because he's pretty much doubled his wages when he moved to Spurs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, I mean you can see if they don't think they need him or if he really wants to play. But in it, you know they've just had the Copa America. There's no World Cup in the summer. He's not going to feel that pressure to like if it was a World Cup season. He might say I've got to be playing every week. You know he might not do, I've got to be playing every week. You know he might not do that, but it would be. I mean, we'd love to have him back. It would be awesome. I have this sort of thought knocking around my head If you sell Calvert-Lewin, we might sign Lukaku. But that obviously is like completely ludicrous because no one can Definitely can't afford to play him anymore.
Speaker 3:Would you?
Speaker 2:imagine. I'm sure we'll have a list of players if Calvert-Lewin were to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I think you guys convinced me of this the other day. I think actually, if Calvert-Lewin goes at Otham, they will replace him, or not immediately. Because you're not to your point about Solanke, andy. You're not going to go out and get a better player than Beto unless you pay 50, 60, 70 million, which we obviously haven't got, which we haven't got. So you're going to have to try and do it in a different way. And yeah, I think that you know that. So I think actually you know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. You know time will tell, but I can see him, you know that. So I think actually you know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. You know time will tell, but I can see him.
Speaker 1:You know, because, adam, you and I were talking about this the other day like you can see the club incentivizing Calvert-Lewin to sign a new contract. It's got to be in his interest, right, and it's fair enough. He's a, he has a short career, he's entitled to maximize what he gets from that career. So he's not going to sign a new contract on the same terms at Everton just because it removes, puts his transfer fee up, makes it less likely, weakens his negotiating position. But you said that the other day, you could see us offering him something where we pay him more which gives him a reason to sign it, and maybe pay him more than what he wants, which he's not getting anywhere else, and have clauses where, if a Champions League team comes in for him, there's a release clause. That is reasonable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, you can see that sort of situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, I think he obviously has ambitions bigger than everton, which is, you know, which is fair. You can argue both. You could say, yeah, you know, that's fair enough, because he's been there for a long time. He's obviously a very, very good player. Um, on the flip side, some may argue that, you know, he was injured for pretty much two seasons and we, we stuck by him and he sort of owes us and he was, you know, he didn and he didn't really live up to expectations last season. So you can sort of see it from both angles. I think another point that's worth mentioning with him is that we'll lose him on a free next season. But obviously that only gets activated for all clubs worldwide in june. Um, you can agree pre-contract agreements in january with foreign clubs. Now there's not going to be necessarily going to be, um, a great deal of uh, welcome back andrew.
Speaker 1:Um, there's uh andrew, small, small ps8. Andy, when you take the headphones out of your ears, it hangs up the zoom every it was, it was.
Speaker 3:It was about to fall out.
Speaker 2:I was trying to push it back in and I did push it back in my ear, but it disconnected if they're like mine, they're flat, it sort of pours. Yeah, if they're like there's a flat bit on it, it pours. Anyway, less about the geography of, uh, geography, yeah, if there's a flat bit on it, it's a pause. Anyway, less about the geography of it. So yeah, with Calvert-Lewin in January, we do have obviously another option there to sell him, because there's not going to be a great deal of interest from abroad for him. I think it's fair to say so. There is an option there. Of course, you'll lose an awful lot of his value because he's only got six months left on his contract, but if he doesn't end up leaving this window, that is an option as well.
Speaker 1:And he's not like Calvert-Lewin, I think, is not going to get signed by. He's only going to get signed by a sort of top club as a backup at a stretch, right, Like he's not going to be. I don't want to say he's not as good as he thinks he is, because it's unfair. I think he's a very, very good footballer but, given his injury record and his patchy form, newcastle obviously wanted him as a backup and weren't prepared to pay what he wanted for a squad player, basically, which is fair enough.
Speaker 1:So you think, well, what options is he going to have? Really, he could get overpaid by a smaller club, right, so he may go somewhere where someone like Brentford might sign him and pay him too much, basically, might sign him and pay him too much, basically. Or he could go to Saudi Arabia and get paid loads of money, which, if he wants to give up on his England ambitions and all that stuff and just go and make bank, that's fair enough too. But otherwise you're like, well, everton might be the biggest club he can be a starting player for. I can sort of see that, in which case he probably does end up. He probably does end up signing a new contract.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I made this point last time on the last podcast about Newcastle. I just didn't really see how he was going to expect to play all that much with Isak and the style of play that Eddie Howe likes to have New Newcastle play. And you start to think and there's, like you know, you thought maybe like West Ham might have been, it might have been interested and they probably probably were. But I imagine they they probably realized they could get Nicholas Fulcrook from Dortmund for for about half the price. Yeah, um, so there's not a lot of there's not. He hasn't got a lot of options and I think maybe the club are playing a bit of hardball, you know, knowing that the interest is maybe not there and maybe what he or his agent thinks there is yeah, yeah, because I I can sort of see that and you might see this.
Speaker 1:as he's 27, it's his last opportunity to make a big move, which is probably right, but unfortunately he's not delivered. You know, dom's like 80% of the player that we maybe at one point thought he could be. He came through. You know we signed him when he was very young. He's developed really, really well and if you sign someone for like, what do we pay for?
Speaker 3:A million or something, 1.2 million, from.
Speaker 1:United. You sign a player like that and he turns into what we've got. That's great, it's awesome and you know, because we've effectively grown a starting striker, which is fantastic. But he's not. You know, he's not Granthwaite or even Anthony Gordon or someone where you can say he's going to be, has the potential to be at the highest level. He's not going to be at the highest level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just on Brantway, I think that's. I mean, that's worth sort of mentioning in light of United signing De Ligt. There's no doubt that you know, next season there'll be more interest in Brantwaite and he'll likely leave, but I think us keeping hold of him was absolutely massive, given the strength of Tarkovsky and Brantwaite's partnership. Last season we were the fourth best, and Pickford as well, of course. We were the fourth best defence in the league and that was absolutely huge.
Speaker 2:And credit to Brantway as well, because you look at Gordon and the way he went about his transfer and you think, when teams want you and bigger teams want you, are you going to be a? Let's say, the Newcastle are necessarily a bigger team than us, but they have more money? Um, are you going to be an anthony gordon and throw your toys at the pram, or are you going to be richarlison and go? Yeah, I want to leave, but, um, I understand that there are, I understand that there's a way to go about it and this is the right way to do it. And you know, credit to brandthwaite, because we haven't heard a peep out of him, um, and for all intents. But he agreed personal terms with united, so he obviously wanted the move and that's absolutely fine, not a problem with that at all, you know, um, but he, he will also, I'm sure, understand that. You know we have to get a fair valuation for him and United's valuation and offer to us was insulting at best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, and the financial impact is huge because he's effectively a pure profit from a PSR point of view.
Speaker 2:So if you do get 75 million for him down the line, that's massive for us in terms of our ability to spend money Exactly, and the other level, like you know, we've probably given a 10, 15% sell-on clause to Carlisle, so they'll be, you know, they'll probably get you know something like how much did we pay for him we paid about, didn't we pay about? I can't remember how much we paid for him, it was like a million or something, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like maybe I mean a rounding error in football terms?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly so you know.
Speaker 3:You look at it like you'll be pocketing 60 million minimum, even after you've paid Carlisle, and that's absolutely huge, you know, huge for us yeah, and just one further point on that is I was listening to the Raw Blue podcast by the Liverpool Echo guys earlier today and they were saying that, as far as they were, everton need to break even financially this year, this financial year, in terms of PSR, to avoid a breach for this current season. So again, if you see a situation where Brantwick stays this season and then we sell them before the end of June 2025 and all that profit is banked on this season's balance sheet, well, you'd imagine that there's your break-even with the sale of one player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and we wouldn't have spent the players. I think we've been really smart, really smart. I know we've talked about this in a previous. I think it's worth reiterating. I think we've been really smart with the signing of O'Brien as a pre-empt to Brantley leaving, because you've got a player there who will play a decent number of games, is a very good, an extremely good backup to Tarkovsky and Brantwaite, who you can comfortably say will be the preferred pairing again. But you've got a really good player there who can come in, who will play a decent number of games, and then when Brantwaite inevitably leaves next season, he's ready to go. I think they've been really, really smart.
Speaker 2:And you're absolutely right, andrew, I don't think we wouldn't pay the transfer fees that we have, because we've shelled out about anything between 32 to 36 million, depending on what you read on O'Brien and Ndai to bring those to it. So that's a decent outlay and obviously sold Anana for 50 million. So we're obviously in the black in terms of our net spending. But we they've obviously anticipated that and gone right. We can sell Bramthwaite next season and we're not going to be and we can spend this summer because we know we're going to have that asset to sell next season?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, they're probably not. You've got to assume that we well, we know how much we overspent over the periods we were fine for and it's not that much right. So the sort of profit from you know, my understanding is that the thing we did with the swizzle, we did with Villa, you know, for Lewis Dobbin, you know obviously net just 10 million. Understanding was that that got us compliant the period that ended 30th of June this year, and then we've made net. We've banked net 20 million on Onana, and so we're probably for this season, slightly in the red. But you can lose net 30 million a year. It's not that you can't lose any money, it's the losses are capped effectively at an average of 30 million a year. So we're clearly, obviously we're well within that, unless there's some stuff we don't know about, but I don't think that's the case. All right, so we're excited. We think we're going to finish somewhere between 9th and 13th and we're going to beat Brighton with dynamic, attacking football on Saturday. Anything else we want to chat about before we wrap this up?
Speaker 3:Just one thing I will mention and I've climbed on the laughing at Chelsea Hill many times over the years but I'm going to mention it again because, according to this morning's independent, a player that was due to be transferred out of Atletico I think possibly to Chelsea has failed to agree.
Speaker 3:personal service that's right yeah, which has meant that the sale of Conor Gallagher from Chelsea to Atletico is on the brink of collapse. Now, bearing in mind how much Chelsea have been, you know, I mean their squad of players is unbelievable. Anybody who hasn't seen their squad of players? If you've got nothing else better to do when you've listened to this, just have five minutes Googling it. You've got eight goalkeepers.
Speaker 1:Eight senior goalkeepers yeah.
Speaker 3:It's unbelievable. So you wonder how on earth they're managing to find the money to spend them all. They've spent hundreds of millions of pounds again this year, so they must be banking on getting Colin Gallagher out the door to bring some money in so they can be compliant with PSR. They're already running rings around the rules selling hotels to themselves, and there's other things as well about the women's team. Some part of that has been sold to some other subsidiary company apparently. So I think there are PSR charges waiting to happen at the end of this season or the end of the next season, and I just wanted to mention it just because it's just dead funny and I'd just like to laugh at them.
Speaker 1:There is a genuine Terry, go ahead, ad no, no, no, you go, it's fine. There is like a genuine like. I was listening to the Guardian Football Weekly about this the other day and they were talking about the goalkeepers. I am desperate for someone to explain to me what Chelsea are doing Like, because you know, whenever I see stuff like this, my inclination is where you go, some organization or even a person is doing something where you're like. That makes no sense to me. My assumption is that they know something. I don't right, but nobody seems to.
Speaker 1:The Athletic did a whole episode on this on their podcast, which was very good. We've talked about it, the Guardian's talked about it. There is nobody can work out what the hell they're trying to do and they are obviously so stuck. And one thing just quickly the point Athletic made about the mechanics sorry, this might have been Kieran Maguire on the Costa Football podcast, which is very good, definitely recommend to listen to that is that you can get into a trap with the way PSR works because you have a £100 million player on a five-year contract, that PSR. The spend is amortised over the five years, so it's £20 million a year. So after two years of that contract. That player has a book value for PSR purposes of £60 million, has a book value for PSR purposes of 60 million. Now, whether that player is worth 60 million is an entirely separate.
Speaker 1:As you said, andy, earlier on, players are worth whatever Cubs prepare to pay for them. So because Chelsea got to think their strategy was to get around these rules by having these very, very long contracts seven, eight, nine-year contracts which of course, yeah, reduces the annual amount that they have to book for those acquisitions. So it maxes, you know it's it. But it's no different to like. You know, psychologically, if I'm borrowing on a credit card, it's like at some point it comes due.
Speaker 1:And the way it can really come due for them is they could have players with five years left on their contract where their book value is double what anyone would pay for them. So to see if they sell those players, they don't make psr money, they lose it. So they like they, they would. You know, if you have a player that has a book value of 60 million and you sell them for 30, that is minus 30 million to your psr calculation. So you, they could. So they are probably in that situation with like they could be in that position with like two dozen players where they can't sell them because they literally don't have the PSR room to sell them. Normally, it's like you don't have the PSR room to buy players, so they could really really, really be stuck.
Speaker 2:Additional issue with this as well is well, because obviously, andrew, you talked about the way that they've stopped hiring players in so many positions. But not only are they stopped hiring players in positions, but the fees that they paid for those players means that some of them are quite literally not going to have enough game time to prove to any potential buying club down to two years down, yeah, that they're worth paying for that. So, if you take an example, let's take the example of mckayla mudrick, who's probably probably the best example of this. He didn't play an awful lot last season, you could say. You could say that he was a, you know, a squad, a squad player, um. They signed him for 80 million um, was it two years ago? I want to say it might have been a year, was it? No, it was last summer, wasn't it? It was last summer and they gave him and I think he's on an eight-year contract, so that's 10 million, 10 million a year. So let's say it doesn't work, let's say it doesn't work out in, you know, they want to get rid of him in two years time he's still gonna have 50 million worth to um, to to Shakhtar, to pay. So and it's not worked out because he hasn't played enough.
Speaker 2:Well, are they? Are they gonna necessarily get that 50 million um back for him? And if they do, they're gonna make, they're not gonna, but they're not gonna make anything like put over 60 for him because he hasn't played. So, like players are going to take that sort of risk on on such a massive, massive outlay. And if you think of, like mudrick and he's not really played, what sort of level of club is he gonna go to? Is he gonna? He's gonna go to? He's gonna end up going to someone, like you know, a west ham newcastle level of club. Is he going to go to, is he going to end up going to someone, like you know, a West Ham Newcastle level of club? Well, that's pretty much. That will be like half, half, two thirds, three quarters of their budgets. Are they really going to do that? So they're playing a huge game. And that's just one player. Of course They've got so many other players.
Speaker 1:They've got 426 of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And that's just one yeah.
Speaker 3:And, just to the point, do they know what they're doing? I mean, look at Rishi Sunak and the whole shambles around leaving D-Day early. Nobody looked at that situation and thought that's probably not a good idea. He should stay. And then there's the whole shambles about, you know Berlin's airport, the whole, which is open now, but you know the escalators, the wrong size. The smoke detection system sucks, you know, fresh air into the building to feed the fire instead of sucking the smoke out.
Speaker 3:I mean, there was a high-speed railway line in France a few years ago A couple of the platforms or stations had to be rebuilt, because the platforms were built too close together and there wasn't room for two trains to pass each other. So the point is you assume that these people you know, in all these high-pressure jobs where you know you're dealing with, you know people and tens of millions and hundreds of millions of pounds of budgets know what they're doing. But massive cock ups do happen.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so you wonder if Chelsea are just walking, you know, blindly into a footballing version of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you totally see that We'll have a Chelsea segment on the regular as we go through this season.
Speaker 3:I know I mention them a lot, but it's just. No, it is absolute madness Just before we go, we can do predictions for the Brighton game. Oh, you did, thank you for the reminder.
Speaker 1:What's your prediction for the Brighton game, Andy?
Speaker 3:I will say Everton 2, Brighton 1.
Speaker 1:Awesome Adam 2-0, Everton. I'm going to say 2-0 too, obviously. All right, we'll see you on the other side. Good to see you both. Thank you for listening. Dear listener, follow wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe on Spotify, follow us on Apple all the places we're there. Tell an ever-supporting friend and we'll see you on the other side. Come on, you, blues.