Arsenal v Everton: Everton’s finances and the form

 

 

Arsenal v Everton: the stadium and the form

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Everton’s last trophy was the FA Cup win in 1995.  Their league form in recent seasons has shown steady decline: 7th, 8th, 8th, 12th, 10th, 16th.  And behind this decline, Everton has been trying to build a stadium – or maybe that should be “trying to raise the money to build a stadium”.

Indeed they have been working at getting the funding (thought to be about half a billion pounds) for three years.  They’ve got JP Morgan and the biggest bank in Japan MUFG working on it, but it seems that the money is still not there.

And yet seemingly the building work is going ahead – without all the money in place – which is unusual.   What normally happens is that the debts are refinanced part way through when lenders who lend on less risky projects at lower rates can see that the project is actually happening, and so are willing to lend.

So building without all the capital in place is therefore unusual, and building such a challenging project as the one Everton are trying in these circumstances is probably unprecedented.   But they have put out a video on the subject this month… perhaps to reassure fans, perhaps to reassure investors or maybe to attract some more.

And also maybe that is to detract from their league position

 

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Arsenal	24	18	3	3	52	23	29	57
17	Leeds United	24	5	7	12	29	39	-10	22
18	Everton	24	5	6	13	17	32	-15	21
19	AFC Bournemouth	24	5	6	13	22	48	-26	21
20	Southampton	24	5	3	16	19	41	-22	18

 

Worse still, it is not as if matters on the pitch are improving of late for Everton as in the last 10 games table they are even lower so the trajectory is down.  Arsenal incidentally have climbed back into the top four when the last 10 games are measured but Everton’s recent form is pretty awful.

 

Premier League Form (Last 10)

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Manchester Utd	10	7	2	1	21	8	13	23
2	Manchester City	10	6	2	2	21	10	11	20
3	Brentford	10	5	5	0	18	8	10	20
4	Arsenal	10	6	2	2	19	12	7	20
18	Leeds United	10	1	4	5	7	13	-6	7
19	Everton	10	2	1	7	6	18	-12	7
20	Southampton	10	2	0	8	7	17	-10	6

 

It is not surprising that with the cost of the stadium still to be worked out fully, Everton have not been investing in the team, and Transfermarkt state that although Everton have spent €78.20m on transfers this season, their income from sales is €103.60m.

This compares to the spending in January alone by the ten most active clubs   Chelsea as we know went bonkers and spent £546m.  Arsenal were in fourth place in terms of net spending with £171m, but even the clubs expected to be threatened with the drop spent money: Leeds spending £130m, Wolverhampton £158m, and Nottingham Forest £164m.

The fact is stadia cost huge amounts of money and as Arsenal found, such a project is bound to impact on the club’s finances – as indeed Arsenal found.

Moving on to the home and away figures, Arsenal’s home position is not quite as good as one might imagine although Arsenal are actually doing better than Tottenham in terms of points gained per game.  It is just that they have played two more home games than Arsenal.

Home Games Only

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Manchester City	12	10	1	1	41	13	28	31
2	Manchester United	12	9	2	1	24	8	16	29
3	Tottenham Hotspur	13	9	0	4	26	15	11	27
4	Arsenal	11	8	2	1	27	14	13	26

 

Everton away however really are pretty poor.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
17	Everton	11	1	4	6	6	16	-10	7
18	West Ham United	12	1	3	8	7	16	-9	6
19	Leeds United	12	1	3	8	13	23	-10	6
20	Nottingham Forest	12	1	3	8	3	29	-26	6

 

Pulling these figures together however the difference is enormous.   Arsenal have scored 4.5 times as many goals as Everton, although the defence has not been that clever in comparison.  This suggests that Everton will probably get one goal but Arsenal ought to get three or four.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
4	Arsenal home	11	8	2	1	27	14	13	26
17	Everton away	11	1	4	6	6	16	-10	7

 

More anon…