(This article is very long, apologies)

There is no doubting that Bill Kenwright is a shrewd man.
So shrewd, infact, that people have begun asking questions that no one is willing to answer. Bill has been in control of Everton for well over a decade and has managed to keep the team in the premier league ever since.

But quite frankly, that has not been enough to keep supporters happy.

Kenwright has always been tight with money and that is no secret, but supporters have begun asking questions about finances with no direct answer being given. Negotiations over a supposed "buyout" have been pending since 2004 when Bill first announced that there was possibility of the club being bought by new, wealthy, ambitious owners. 8 years later, however, people have grown more and more concerned over the fact that there has been little evidence to support this buyout with more than 6 different consotiums, parties or companies being swayed off their attempt to buy the club.

Kenwright states that this is because he has the clubs best interests at heart and does not want to see the club "fall into the wrong hands". But my question is: "Are Bill's hands the right hands?"

An article I read recently shone some light on the situation but not enough for me to ingore the current situation.

Click here to review the article posted in the Liverpool Daily Post, written by Ian Doyle

The problem is that Everton need a massive investment to get us further than we currently are. We would need the following at the very least:
1. A new stadium with the capacity of atleast 60,000 to increase match day revenue.
2. A transfer kitty of around 30 - 50 mil to ensure the purchasing of atleast 6 new, high class, internationally recognised players that could help take Everton forward.

So one can see why there is a slight problem with the buying of Everton FC as it will cost the investors about 240 mil before Everton can move forward. However, this isn't the only option. There are other ways of making money in this world without selling yourself short.
Stock exchanges, memorabilla sales, partner agreements, cup and league earnings and winnings, promotions etc.

But despite all this, Everton still aren't making any money.
We have little or no investment coming into the club and it would only take a good 20 mil to provide us with 4 good players to boost the squad but why has Kenwright been unable to find even the smallest of investors?
We have one of the tightest budgets in the league, and there is no doubt that the club is well run. But if we are so financially stringent? If we are so tight then why is there no profit?

I have sometimes wondered if it is because he actually hasn't been looking. I have a feeling that he enjoys having the power of the club and does not actually want to relinquish his power of the club to anyone therefore never actually finding a true investment partner.

It is also no secret that Everton are possibly the worst negotiators in the league.
We have sold players in the past few years for less than half of their worth because we fail to hide our desperation and fear when finances are involved.
Examples include:
Pienaar bought for 2mil, sold for 2-3 mil despite being a star layers, bought back for nearly 3.5mil after failing to make an impact at Spurs? How has he gained value despite a drop in performances and appearances despite gaining age?

Cahill, despite what people say, I refuse to believe that we sold him because he "deserved to move and we wouldn't let money come in the way". He still had 2 years left on his contract worth a reported 5mil and let's be honest here, he was worth that money and NY Red Bulls aren't exactly short on cash. (I think we got screwed here)

Yobo, this saga has been ongoing for 2 years now and Everton had failed to force Fenerbahce into a permanent agreement until last week. He was worth more to us 2 years ago when we let him out on loan because we couldn't afford to keep him, it was then that we should have forced a transfer and not a loan. Fenerbahce continued the loan for 2 seasons before trying to jippo us out of a deal until we finally grew some balls and got money out of them. We lost a lot of money through those 2 years. In total he cost us 5mil in 2002 and we sold him for 2mil.

Rooney, the 'wunderkind', the future, our last hope of greatness.
We sold Rooney for a reported 26.5mil in 2004, this was the highest transfer for a player under the age of 20 at the time. Rooney was possibly worth more than that to use but we were in arrears at the time and needed a quick cash boost to keep us afloat. So, after Rooney's agent told us to kindly sod off, we flogged him and netted a good profit since we paid nothing for him. A good sale but one we were forced into since we had neither the money nor the balls to keep him.

Yakubu, let's be honest here aswell. The Yak was quite high on the wage bill in the end but really, we sold him for 2mil after buying him for 12mil from Middlesbrough only 5 years prior to his forced sale. That is a massive depreciation of 2mil a year. His sale wasn't even worth it in the end as he ended up being Blackburn's top scorer with 18 goals.

Jermaine Beckford, personally, I loved Beckford. He had a high work rate and had good attacking prowess. We got him on a free transfer but we flogged him after a season because of reported strife between him and Moyes. This oak could play football but we sold him off which might have been a good move if he wasn't such a good player. We did make a decent profit of 2.5mil for him but I personally don't think it was worth our while.

Arteta, our best player. Out top class hero. Again, desperate for money we sold him for a lot less than his worth. Arsenal ran at us with a stick and a 10mil bid which we bent over for and let him go. I understand that it was his ambition to be playing CL football and we could never give that to him but we bent over as quick as we could for a good 10mil when he was worth atleast 18mil. One of the hardest working midfielders, he tracked some of the highest mileage per game in the premier league. His free kicks were the stuff of legends and he was Spanish. All these in toe aswell as a long contract he still had, 18mil wouldn't have been asking a lot for a top class player.

These are the most recent and top priority cases of us getting the short end with regards to selling of players for a lot less than their worth because Everton fail to hide how desperate we generally are for money. This being said, Moyes has done a crap load of good with regards to bringing in some top class talent for very little money (recently)

Seamus Coleman, the Irish Messi, this guy (in my books) has still yet to show us what a legend he will become given the time and experience. He is a top class lad with skill to boot. Genuine find for VERY little money. Costing us only 260,000 pounds. He is comfortably worth 5mil now.

Ross Barkley, he isn't really a great buy, but David's ability to keep him happy and to look after him has resulted in us owning one of Britain's most potentially astute players around. This boy has the potential to be a great, a legend. He is a worker and a very skilled artist of the game. When he finally gets more game time, I'm going to sit and have a cry on the couch when I watch him score a hatrick against Liverpool one day. He was reportedly a target for both Manchester and Chelsea with the clubs willing to pay up to 18mil for the lad.

Jack Rodwell, now Jack be nimble and Jack be quick but Jack need to pull finger out of the brown bricks. He was offerd a 'get out of jail free' card when Chelsea offered 20mil for him little over 2 seasons ago but we kindly told them to shove their offer and said he was worth 25mil. Personally, I would have taken their offer as he has done precious little ever since. Injuries aside, I hope he can find the form that bequested the large sum of money that was offered for him.

Fransisco Junior, I am excited and looking forward to seeing this chap in action this term. He sounds like a promising talent and I hope he will improve to become a star of the game with his ability being known throughout Portugal. A free transfer he was and Moyes should be given a pat on the back for this.

Steven Naismith, this guy looks like he can do things with a ball that will make Nikica Jelavic lose control of himself of the field during a game. Also a free transfer, Moyes did well to tie this deal up as the man was worth around 6mil easily.

Lastly, Darron Gibson. His ability to piss of Sir Alex was brilliant for us as we scored a massive discount deal when we paid 500,000 for him when United got fed up and sold him to us. He is a hot talent and I've always been a fan of his even in his United days.

All player interaction aside, I think it is time that Evertoneither find a new negotiator or start to stand up for themselves and stop allowing other teams to dictate our financial implications. We really need to start standing on our own two feet and force Bill into finding us a fresh new investment that will help bring in a little revenue that we can use to purchase new players.

My wonders are why we haven't been able to sign free transfer candidates like Michael Owen, Salomom Kalou, Jose Bosingwa, RowanVine, Danny Gabbidon, Lee Cook, Peter Lovenkrands, Ivan Klasic, Michel Salgado who are all quality premier league players.

I hope Bill can find a way to find us new investment, because Everton fans are getting tired of having to lose good players so we can fund new transfers. We can't go on like this because before we know it, Baines, Hetinga, Fellaini and Jagielka are all going to be sold off because we can't afford to keep them around any longer.