FFP calls the tune - but it's hardly Fair Play

I've got a hotline to Roman and the Gang

What exactly is the point of Financial Fair Play, UEFA’s attempt at stopping the billionaire class from buying up all titles and trophies?

Well, it surely wasn’t designed to deter investment in second-tier clubs – but that’s the biggest consequence of Michel Platini’s greatest gesture to the game as European football’s president.

Chelsea and the Manchesters will always have suitors with a couple of bill to spare – but what of the Evertons and Aston Villas, clubs with huge support, history and that golden word, potential – but whose value is a mere fraction of a Champions League evergreen?

Will another Forest happen again?

Randy Lerner, Villa’s wantaway owner would give you the keys to Villa Park, the training ground (and a housing estate) for £150m. Bill Kenwright knows he’s not wealthy enough to push Everton above Spurs and Liverpool into the coveted fourth spot and a seat at Europe’s top table.

But when investing in players is capped at club turnover,which rich-kid would buy a wannabe team – even if Sky and BT shelled out a massive £5.1bn for the right to screen its games?

Time for a fan buyout? A Barcelona-style supporter owning revolution. Fantasy? It’s nearer in the Premier League than you might think.

Who better than 35,000 season ticket holders and thousands more armchair supporters getting behind their club's public flotation? Watch This Space.

Martinez gets Everton with Champions League promise

Roberto Martinez secured a four-year contract at Everton and then promised, “I will get you into the Champions League”.

I wonder if that coat would fit Roberto?

In all but one of his eleven seasons, even with continuity, full support of chairman Bill Kenwright and most fans too, David Moyes couldn’t do that.

So, it's a big, big shout from the incoming Wigan boss.

A lot of the swirling winds of fortune must blow the right way for Everton to overturn the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs to claim fourth and they have no more right to the top table than other, equally ambitious clubs like Liverpool, Newcastle and Villa.

Kenwright couldn't give more moral support to his managers

Martinez now becomes a hostage to those words, whereas perhaps what he should have said at his first Goodison news conference was, “I won a major trophy at Wigan, I’ll do the same at Goodison and help take the club to the next footballing level”, achieveable, open and something Moyes couldn't.

Everton have only employed fourteen managers in their history and Martinez knows he'll be given more time than other clubs who were attracted by his talents.

It was this time last year that he met Liverpool representatives in Miami - but was warned away by his own instincts and those of the very publicly negative comments of his then boss, Dave Whelan. Martinez also turned down Aston Villa twice.

And it's not just the ex-Wigan boss' tactical nous that won him a crack at the Everton job. It's his ability to balance the books. Martinez managed to reduce Wigan's wage bill by 25% in the last four years.

As other clubs avoided such stringent cost-cutting, did that ultimately cost Wigan their place in the Premier League?

There's an undeniable chemistry between the new partnership and looking at Kenwright's relationship with Moyes and Whelan's with Martinez, it does look a very solid appointment - the right platform at the right club.

But what about that big promise?

I’m not saying Martinez isn’t capable of qualifying for the top four. He’s a good tactician – and develops good players. But if he does secure Everton a place in the big-time, his stock will be so high, Kenwright won't be able to keep hold of him.

Dave Whelan said many times that his young Wigan boss would manage a top European club one day and he didn't have Everton in mind when he said it.

The wrong noise from Moyes

Defeat to Wigan in the FA Cup was a bad day at the office

The outpouring of vitriol from Everton fans last weekend must've taken David Moyes aback, but he only has himself to blame.

The FA Cup defeat at home to Wigan was a proper beating and many an Evertonian wanted a word. The Gwladys Street faithful seem divided and the loss of respect for their honest, hardworking and long-serving manager is sad but predictable.

In November, Moyes said he would wait until the end of January before discussing a new contract but in the middle of February he said,

“.....I want to see how the team do. I want to see if we’ve got a realistic chance of getting into Europe, or if we can get to a cup final. I want to see how well we progress and what we do.”

Messrs. Kenwright and Moyes enjoy good relations

For an experienced manager it was an extraordinary statement but not without precedent. In 2001 Moyes’ friend and rival Sir Alex Ferguson made a similar gaffe: he said he was going to quit United in a year's time. The team lost form and, crucially, Sir Alex lost the ability to impose discipline on his squad. United finished third, in a four year stretch where there were two other third-placed seasons too.

More uncertain individual and collective performances could be avoided by the signing of a new Goodison contract - failing that the Everton chairman Bill Kenwright could pull the same stunt as Peter Kenyon did at United. The spur for Sir Alex’s change of mind was the chief executive’s plan to replace him with Sven Goran Eriksson.

“I’m not having him take over my f***ing team!”

Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Moyes are the three longest serving managers in English professional football; they have earned the rare right to decide whether to stay or go. Every manager, though, has a shelf life and, with his ill-timed statement, Moyes gave the players a marker pen and asked them to fill out a best before label and stick it on his forehead.

The uncertainty surrounding the ownership of Everton must also be wearing for all concerned. Kenwright has been trying to sell the club for years and even though the price is right, around £125 million, there have been no takers.

Moyes' record as boss, coach and talent developer is top,

To prospective buyers the club must seem old fashioned and overshadowed. Goodison Park is a classic football ground but matchday income is limited and the near neighbours with their bulging, if slightly dusty, trophy cabinet, American owners and fancy football are more glamorous.

It would be like buying Espanyol.

With his straightforward, grinding football, the Glaswegian has done his damnedest to elevate Everton above the Red mist. Only Sir Alex can match his three LMA Manager of the Year gongs. His work ethic, eye for a player and man-management are beyond reproach. Many a club, here and abroad, would love a manager of his calibre.

Moyes is 50 next month and maybe he has decided it is time to move on. A win at Anfield on May 4th would be a fitting leaving present.

Just accept it. Moyes is happy at Everton!

Manager of the month for September 2012

Whenever Sir Alex Ferguson fields succession questions in those rambling Friday news conferences, when the likes of Spurs and Villa seek new managers, it's been David Moyes who's provided the easy headline.

How long will he stay at Goodison before feeling the need to exercise the wider resources or cheque book of a bigger club? When will ten-years-and-counting be enough for him to cease making silk purses out of sow's ears down Gwladys Street?

But sooner or later, we'll have to face the facts - and it doesn't suit sports journalists looking for a great story.

He's happy at Everton and wants to stay.

Birmingham Evening Mail: Moyes link was serious

Moyes clearly has a special relationship with owner Bill Kenwright and that's just as well - because he's going nowhere either!

Everton's been For Sale for years but as Keith Harris, who's found investors for five Premier League clubs and was charged with finding a buyer for the Blues, conceded that in a economically humble city with Liverpool FC in it too, investors aren't exactly going to beat down the door.

Kenwright once said that if Moyes wanted the keys to United post-Alex, he'd personally chauffeur him to Old Trafford.

But that won't happen either! Well, not in the foreseeable future.

Because while he's not discounting the Old Trafford job, Moyes has privately admitted to those on Merseyside that he'd rather be the next-but-one Old Trafford boss.

Succeeding a legend like Fergie is a hiding to nothing, a poisoned chalice: canny Moyes would rather wait for the itinerant Jose Mourinho or Michael Phelan to shuffle off and keep the seat warm for him instead.

And why would he leave Everton at the moment? His current squad is widely regarded as his best yet. Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines are in contention to become England regulars and Silvain Distin's a great pro, while Jelavic and Fellaini bring craft and quality to their attack. The return of Steven Pienaar and experience of Philip Neville means the Toffees hold their own in midfield.

The toughest act to follow: this one's twenty years ago.

This is a breakthrough season - because even if Everton don't qualify for Europe, they'll probably achieve something not yet done in Moyes' reign: finishing above Liverpool for a second season running. This is a step to establishing Everton as a major club.

Moyes' stock and reputation's at an all-time high too. He's won the LMA Manager of the Year award three times - only Sir Alex can match that achievement.

Financial Fairplay rules will reward parsimonious stability too. The meek shall inherit the earth. It's what the boardrooms at Everton and indeed Arsenal have been banking on for years - through barren trophyless campaigns.

Then there's the 70% rise in TV rights: that'll make for a more level playing field when Everton compete with bigger clubs for players.

And when you take all of this into account, where's better for Moyes to manage?

No. David Moyes is a Toffee into the future and the rest of us will just have to chew over that.