Kevin Thelwell shares Everton PSR admission in ‘crazy’ £70m reveal
Everton staved off PSR concerns by generating £70million in academy player sales, Kevin Thelwell has confirmed.
In an interview with iNews (21 November), the Toffees’ director of football said that given how difficult the past few years have been for the club, selling £70m worth of academy talent has been crucial.
Thelwell name-checked Anthony Gordon, Ellis Simms, Tom Cannon, Lewis Dobbin and Ishe Samuels-Smith as players whose exits have helped to keep the club “functioning” across recent seasons.
Thelwell said: “We’ve had a PSR issue year on year in the time I’ve been here – so we have to find successes from the academy.
“They’ve either gone to the first-team to help us to win games, or we’ve had to sell them to resolve PSR issues which has helped to keep us in the league – and keep us functioning.
“We’ve generated circa £70m in profit from the academy which is a crazy number really.
“If we’d have had our time again we’d not have wanted to do some of those sales – but on a needs-must basis we’ve had to do that.”
Everton will hope new era brings an end to academy fire-sales
The Toffees’ lengthy PSR issues have been well-documented across recent years, coming to a head last season and seeing Sean Dyche’s side docked eight points for two separate financial breaches.
Although the club still aren’t completely out of the woods when it comes to dealing with the sins of the past, there is hope that Dan Friedkin’s impending takeover will bring an end to their monetary worries.
Friedkin’s arrival will precede the club’s relocation to their new stadium on Liverpool’s waterfront, and the transformational effect that’s expected to have could completely reshape the financial landscape.
Academy starlets like Gordon being sold could soon be a thing of the past if this is the case, and that’ll be bad news for the plethora of clubs keen on signing the likes of star centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite.
It remains to be seen if new leadership will put an end to their persistent PSR battles, but Blues fans the world over can’t be blamed for looking forwards rather than backwards for the first time in a long time.
In other Everton news, a legal impasse involving 777 Partners is proving a sticking point in Dan Friedkin’s takeover at Goodison.
For more Everton news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.