As Everton Football Club enter the critical summer transfer period @Markthablue challenges the chairman and his board to finally meet the ambitions of the manager and fans

Everton Football Club Renaissance Screaming For Boardroom Ambition – by @Markthablue

The World Cup is upon us and while it will bring a welcome distraction to the feebleness of pre-season, the underlying soundtrack of summer will be played in the Everton boardroom.

Will it be music to our ears or a depressingly familiar rendition of the same old sound?

We are about to enter a critical time for our football club. After witnessing one of the finest seasons in a generation, with a manager who has world-class stamped all over him – we are in the hands of a fiercely competitive, ferociously talented manager in Roberto Martinez – the equation for the board could not be simpler:

If they provide our Catalan magician with the tools this summer, match his unrelenting ambition, thenEverton Football Club and our wonderful support will be in for a memorable era.

Martinez has said he has identified his targets. The man who guided us to 5th place with a record total of 72 points, finishing a mere 14 points off winners Man City, has marked out the players he believes can help us improve on that record-breaking season.

So now its over to Bill Kenwright and the board. The huge success of Martinez’s first season will have thrilled Kenwright, however, it has brought with it a raised level of expectancy from a usually far to tolerantEverton Football Club fan base.

This board can’t let us down again, can they?

In the past there has been an unacceptable level of acceptance from the fans as to why Everton Football Club never have any money; ‘…it’s just the way it is. At least Bill loves the club, at least we haven’t turned into Pompey/Leeds/Cardiff/QPR/Rangers…’ ad-infinitum.

We hear the same excuses regurgitated year-on-year.

I’m not going into the 1001 faults this board have made since they took over the club but now a small chance of redemption has arrived.

Everton Football Club is now at a major crossroads. The club is now graced by a manager so fantastically willing to embrace our history – do we want to reach for the stars with Martinez or is the glass ceiling going to be re-enforced again by lack of board ambition?

For me this is Bill Kenwright and the boards last chance to build a few bridges with the fans, or at least the frustrated amongst us. I would love nothing more than for this to be moan free this summer.

We were just five results away from winning the title. All in a season of transition that saw us play some fantastic football, accumulate the highest number of points in a Premier League season and upset hundreds of media journalists to boot.

The relative closeness points-wise to the champions should highlight – in huge neon lettering to our board – that this is no false dawn. We are on the cusp of something huge here.

The excitement amongst the fan base is palpable. We have gone a whole generation since winning our last trophy and the wait simply can’t go on. Everton Football Club has a golden generation of talent in Stones, Barkley, Coleman and McCarthy providing the spine of a hugely exciting team.

If we start next season stronger than we finished there is every hope we can go onto greatness next season

Evertonians, Martinez and his staff have all been a revelation this season. We all deserve a board willing to show real ambition to make signings of intent that will say to the Premier League we are going to be more dangerous next season than last.

We are here to threaten the top four and we are not going to cosy back into 5th-7th positions anymore.

I am not a big fan of this chairman and his board. I never will be. But I would dearly love a chance to praise them this summer as I did last season for appointing Roberto.

I’m not averse to praising Bill Kenwright who got it spot on last year. Criticizing the board might seem a hobby of mine if you read my twitter posts but they come from a deep sense of frustration at a board who, in my opinion at least, have held our great club back far to often.

The seemingly never-ending mismanagement and failed transfer windows – when Everton Football Club has been well placed for Champions League qualification – are the tip of the iceberg, however the chance to make a real and sustained challenge, through the brilliance of Martinez and adaptability from the players, has arisen once more.

I can’t imagine another failed transfer window. We have a diabolical record of spending which needs to be addressed now. Another year of  negative net spend can’t be tolerated

We all know how much money has come into the club this year. Added to the money the Club ‘saved’ in January plus the extra TV money and the chance to propel our side into the stratosphere of English football is upon us.

Invest now Bill and the rewards will be tenfold

Roberto Martinez is not here to mess about. He is going right to the very top and it is now up to the board to finally stand up and fund our travel expenses.

It’s that simple for me: Give Martinez the tools and an era of the ilk of the sixties and 1984-87 will be at our doorstep as the opening day of next season is upon us.

Having watched Roy Hodgson and his handling of Ross Barkley, I, like many Evertonians, believe we have been blessed this season. Roberto is hugely intelligent, massively pro-active and his in-game management is the best I’ve seen in 28 years of going to the match.

Hodgson looks Jurassic in his ways and far to Moyes-esq for my liking. Roberto has touched the soul of Evertonians by using our history as a template for the future. An innovative manager who has got the positivity pouring out of Evertonains everywhere.

Roberto Martinez wants to put us back where we belong; looking down on the rest of English football. Such is the Catalan’s talent and own person ambition, I think the board have to back him or risk losing him. The time is now Bill.

On pitch momentum cannot be halted once more in the boardroom. Grasp the metal and watch a hugely promising Everton side replicate the glory days of the mid-eighties. No one is interested in living under a glass ceiling anymore. Roberto Martinez has shown us what’s on the other side.

I understand and agree with the ‘It’s not Everton’ to spend money. It isn’t. The last 14 years has shown us that.

We have been let down massively by Kenwright and his board’s ’24/7 search for investment.’ The lack of progress is now coming home to roost.

We can no longer be satisfied with finishing best of the rest. We want to be the best! Roberto Martinez is one in a million, nothing but ambition and determination, no more knives to gunfight’s, the team, the fans and the manager deserve a fully loaded Everton Football Club next season.

We can’t let the teams around us off the hook with a predictable lack of investment this summer.

Martinez has found a way of playing that not only can contain the opposition but also threatens them. The 4-2-3-1 system is hugely fluid and, I believe, a template for our success next season. We just need that added bit of quality in the forward areas to make the difference for us.

Quality costs and requires investment from a board previously shy to go to the bar. Well Bill, It’s well and truly your round now.

The man who loves to take centre stage has the spotlight shining firmly on him now. Everton Football Club has been dormant for far too long. So show some ambition Bill. The ‘greatest Evertonian’ has a chance to make the greatest Everton side since 1985.

The last feeling I want this summer is one of frustration. We are fed up of being left behind and making excuses. Forget settling for not being Pompey or Leeds, we are Everton Football Club, the fourth most successful team in English footballing history. We should never be afraid to reach for the stars and there is simply no room for small time mentality under our hugely talented manager.

A signal of intent

The Lukaku transfer is the one signal of intent the club has got to break its back to make happen. I realise this is reliant on Lukaku wanting to come of course and if that becomes a possibility, I’m afraid half-baked Shearer style attempts to sign him will no longer cut it.

We have to be in a position to sign Lukaku. It would send out every available positive signal to the fan base – I truly hope this happens.

An opportunity has arisen this summer that we simply can’t afford to pass up. The School of Science is in need of investment so we can teach others a footballing lesson next season.

So I plead with this board, with no other option but to place my faith in their hands once again, do not let us down this summer. Surely you can see what is front of us if you back Roberto.

A special era is banging down the door at Goodison Park and we have to embrace it with open arms. The dream is here for the fans, do not wake us up to the sound of predictability once more.

A let down now is not desired, football is all about seizing the moment and that time has arrived.

Nothing But The Best is good enough Bill.

It is a motto you and the board have scarcely lived up to. The time is now and the rare opportunity to look two-faced and heap praise on you this summer…..is one I would gladly take

Sin Miedo

Mark Ellis