Didsbury Dave
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 1 Feb 2007
- Messages
- 37,350
Something mentioned in another thread reminded me of this bizarre and almost forgotten event in our recent history.
I think it was a week before the ADUG takeover, and after the stellar impact of that day, it seems to have been wiped from most people's memories, partly because it was never officially acknowledged by the club, at least to my knowledge.
Thaksin's assets had been frozen, there was a lot of panic around the club because despite pubic assertions that he effectively had billions under his bed (I'm sure we briefly had a song about that but can't remember what), it looked like another false dawn was upon us, and the club was right in the shit yet again. As the season started the rumour mill suddenly went into overdrive. We couldn't afford the wages, and I'm petty sure that John Wardle had to bung us another few million just to stay trading. Hughes's first home game had a really shit crowd (35K I think) and suddenly players like Ireland and Corluka, our best players at the time, we being linked with cut-price deals elsewhere.
There was a story of Steven IReland being summoned to the stadium from a shopping trip during a game to be told he'd been sold. And then a really strong rumour broke that the whole first team had been put up for sale.
It was a totally and utterly odd time at the club, I think at the time various anti-Shinawatra factions at the club were leaking bullshit stories to turn the fans against him. One of these was that the team were going to have to salute him before games. So you never quite knew how much truth was in these "Fire Sale" stories.
Within a week the club went from being on the brink of financial meltdown to the richest in the world. But the full story of that period has never emerged. Can you imagine being a City Director and knowing that ADUG were looking at the club, and waiting for the decision? Can you imagine the euphoria following the phone call to say "It's you", like that great big lottery finger on the advert. Knowing that if they chose Everton we were fucked?
I'd love to know what really went on behind the scenes in the late summer of 2008.
I think it was a week before the ADUG takeover, and after the stellar impact of that day, it seems to have been wiped from most people's memories, partly because it was never officially acknowledged by the club, at least to my knowledge.
Thaksin's assets had been frozen, there was a lot of panic around the club because despite pubic assertions that he effectively had billions under his bed (I'm sure we briefly had a song about that but can't remember what), it looked like another false dawn was upon us, and the club was right in the shit yet again. As the season started the rumour mill suddenly went into overdrive. We couldn't afford the wages, and I'm petty sure that John Wardle had to bung us another few million just to stay trading. Hughes's first home game had a really shit crowd (35K I think) and suddenly players like Ireland and Corluka, our best players at the time, we being linked with cut-price deals elsewhere.
There was a story of Steven IReland being summoned to the stadium from a shopping trip during a game to be told he'd been sold. And then a really strong rumour broke that the whole first team had been put up for sale.
It was a totally and utterly odd time at the club, I think at the time various anti-Shinawatra factions at the club were leaking bullshit stories to turn the fans against him. One of these was that the team were going to have to salute him before games. So you never quite knew how much truth was in these "Fire Sale" stories.
Within a week the club went from being on the brink of financial meltdown to the richest in the world. But the full story of that period has never emerged. Can you imagine being a City Director and knowing that ADUG were looking at the club, and waiting for the decision? Can you imagine the euphoria following the phone call to say "It's you", like that great big lottery finger on the advert. Knowing that if they chose Everton we were fucked?
I'd love to know what really went on behind the scenes in the late summer of 2008.