A sobering summary of the numbers

From today's Guardian SportBlog:

Everton have dismissed talk of a financial crisis. In 2011, however, they have generated approximately £30m and Barclays Bank has seen far more of that than Moyes. Transfers have yielded £3m for Steven Pienaar, £2.5m for James Vaughan, a £1m loan fee from Leicester City plus a £2m permanent deal from Blackburn for Yakubu Ayegbeni, an initial £2.5m for Jermaine Beckford and the £10m for Arteta. The £9m raised by selling the former Bellefield training ground for an executive housing development also went to the bank.

That's not good.

The salaries of the departed totalled around £9m, although it is not £9m off the wage bill once Drenthe and Denis Stracqualursi, the Argentina striker signed on a season's loan after failing to impress Sven- Göran Eriksson on trial at Leicester, plus their loan fees are factored in. Nevertheless, it is a spreadsheet of a club in retreat, yet one that still hopes to convince Marouane Fellaini to extend a contract that has two years remaining.

That's even less good.

The majority of the comments on the post from Evertonians are pretty supportive of Arteta and willing to cope with Beckford's departure (not that we have much choice). The worst part is a supportive comment from a Liverpool fan though... because it's not actually condescending, and that makes me grind my teeth.