Everton Transfer News - Adminstration fears eased but questions remain

Actually the headline should read NO Everton transfer news, as the silence coming out of the club is deafening and worrying in equal measure.....

James Vaughan's departure makes it three outgoings in January with no-one else yet to come in. The Phil Neville to Spurs story is persisting, with rumours on Twitter/forums suggesting he wants the move, but won't go as far as handing in a transfer request.

I would obviously be disappointed to see such an influential player like Neville leave, but if we received a fee of around £2.5million, that would represent good business for a 33-year-old.

However, it would only be good business if Moyes was actually able to spend the money. Despite letting Pienaar, the Yak and Vaughan go there are no signs that Moyes is able to use the cash recieved in fees and saved in wages, which leads me to think it has all gone to the banks.

Loan moves for the likes of Demba Ba and Dieumerci Mbokani have proved fruitless and such is the lack of transfer activity the papers don't even bother printing rumours about us anymore!

Everton's finances have come under greater scrutiny in recent weeks as fans delve deep to find the real reason behind our decline this season. Some, while digging, have blamed the players and Moyes, but the root cause of the problem is that the club is neck-high in debt, mortaged to the hilt and unable to find any way of generating cash.

This lead to more forum rumours the Everton were set to go into administration, though these fears were later eased by Liverpool Echo writer Gregg O'Keefe who said it would NEVER happen (his words). I never really thought those rumours would be true anyway, Pompey only went into administration last January and that was after 18 months of player fire-sales. But is is still tragic that we are even having that sort of conversation.

I think our doomed new stadium plans in Kirkby was Kenwright's last throw of the dice. He had borrowed all he could (the summer the plans were announced was the summer we bought the likes of Jags, Baines, Pienaar and the Yak, our biggest summer outlay in years) and the new ground would give Everton a solid financial future.

But that plan, for better or for worse, has now gone and we are left scrabbling around for plan B. That could be the new financial fair play rules that will limit a club's spending to what it earns. That may reel a few clubs in (cough,cough, Man City) but as long as we are stuck in our outdated ground we will never maximise our earning potential. Plus the way we are going we could be relegated by 2012! We could be relegated by 2011!!

A win over Chelsea in the Cup could at least ease the feeling of dread hanging over the club at the moment, as could a few more signings (pigs flying over-head).

Transfer deadline day is on Monday. Even though I am in work that day I will be able to bring you all the latest done deals and rumours if//when they happen (that's the advantage of working in a newsroom1). If you hear anything do leave a comment on our transfer deadline day thread (coming soon!) or tweet me on Twitter.