Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

Tyne Talk

At Everton and Newcastle United the numbers just don’t add up – A must read

4 years ago
Share

Amongst the many embarrassing things that Alan Pardew said and did at Newcastle United, his comments on Everton were one particular highlight.

After that fifth place finish in the 2011/12 season, Pardew claimed that Newcastle were now competing in a league with Arsenal, rather than likes of Everton and Aston Villa.

That went well.

About as well as when back in the day one of Mike Ashley’s minions, Derek Llambias I think it was, said that Newcastle were modelling themselves on Arsenal.

In actual fact, even in that freak season when Ashley/Pardew managed fifth (in 2011/12), Everton were actually only two places behind in seventh.

Pardew left to choke on his daft comments when in the immediate season afterwards, he was almost proved correct that Newcastle would be operating in a completely different league to Everton. Mike Ashley refusing to allow any investment in that fifth placed finish, leading to a disillusioned team/squad having a season-long relegation struggle and almost ending up in the Championship, reaching safety only when winning their final away game. Meanwhile, Everton ended up sixth in the Premier League in 2012/13.

Indeed it is interesting to compare the two clubs during the 12 years of Mike Ashley, when it comes to league finishes…

Newcastle league placing first and then Everton:

2007/08 – 12th and 5th

2008/09 – 18th and 5th

2009/10 – 21st and 8th

2010/11 – 12th and 7th

2011/12 – 5th and 7th

2012/13 – 16th and 6th

2013/14 – 10th and 5th

2014/15 – 15th and 11th

2015/16 – 18th and 11th

2016/17 – 21st and 7th

2017/18 – 10th and 8th

2018/19 – 13th and 8th

When you look at the stats above, Alan Pardew looking very daft, as that fifth place finish is the ONLY time Newcastle have ever finished above Everton during Mike Ashley’s reign.

People talk about Newcastle fans being deluded but shouldn’t it be reasonable to at the very least compete with a club such as Everton…?

The popular refrain these days is that money decides pretty much everything, the more money you have the higher the league position. There always will be exceptions to the rule but certainly over a period of years, money should talk.

Having a look through the Deloitte Football Club rich list (highest revenues in each particular season) reports has made interesting reading as well.

Listed below are the Deloitte positions for both Newcastle and Everton, with each club’s revenue that season in brackets, first the NUFC money list position and total revenue, then Everton’s (the figures are in millions of Euros):

2007/08 – 17th (125.6) and not listed (95.6)

2008/09 – 20th (101.0) and 27th (93.5)

2009/10 – Not listed (£52.4m – Approx 65m Euros) and 27th (96.6)

2010/11 – 25th (98.0) and 28th (90.8)

2011/12 – 20th (115.3) and 26th (99.5)

2012/13 – 25th (111.9) and not listed (£86.4m – Approx 100m Euros)

2013/14 – 19th (155.1) and 20th (144.1)

2014/15 – 17th (169.3) and 18th (165.1)

2015/16 – 21st (168.2) and 23rd (162.5)

2016/17 – Not listed (£85.7m – Approx 100m Euros) and 20th (199.2)

2017/18 – 19th (201.5) and 17th (212.9)

2018/19 – Figures not published so far

Farhad Moshiri came along in 2016 and has invested money in Everton, showing ambition.

However, until those last available figures of 2017/18, every single year when they were both in the Premier League, Newcastle were higher than Everton in the Deloitte list with higher revenues.

That is despite Mike Ashley making Newcastle United subservient to his retail empire and showing zero intention/ambition on and off the pitch for NUFC, including in terms of growing revenues – especially the commercial revenue.

So the pattern overall is that all but one season Everton finished higher in the league and yet until the 2017/18 season, every single season in the Premier League Newcastle still brought in more money than Everton, despite Mike Ashley running the club with no ambition.

When you look back at Ashley’s  very first season, when commercial deals etc still were running from the previous regime, the gap was massive, despite Newcastle finishing 12th and Everton 5th in the Premier League, NUFC pulled in 125.6m (euros) compared to EFC’s 95.6m.

The seasons before Mike Ashley took over, the differences in revenues between the two clubs are even more extreme, season after season after season.

For example, in 2004/05 Newcastle were bringing in 128.9m (euros) compared to Everton’s 88.8m.

Going further back, in the Deloitte rich list Newcastle United were as high as ninth in 2002/03 and fifth in 1997/98.

Things have changed to an extent over the years in terms of Premier League club revenues but nothing explains why Newcastle have failed on the pitch compared to a club such as Everton, in this Mike Ashley era.

What is increasingly obvious is the fact that whilst Mike Ashley remains, he will more and more hold Newcastle United back both on and off the pitch.

Everton are just one of many clubs who have done or are intending om significantly increasing their capacities, either by expanding current stadiums of building new ones. Mike Ashley instead is trying to curb St James Park ever increasing due to the land he bought from NUFC and then sold at a profit to developers opposite the Gallowgate.

Pretty much every other Premier League club is looking to get any advantage they possibly can by investing in the infrastructure of the club such as new state of the art training complexes, whilst Mike Ashley refuses to go ahead with Newcastle’s which he promised in 2013 and described as ‘essential’ if NUFC were going to be able to compete. The same with the Academy, Rafa wanted proper investment and Ashley refused, whilst other clubs properly finance theirs, in the hope of producing rewards in the future.

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks