Everton May Have to Sell John Stones

For the 2013-2014 Premier League season, the Short Term Cost Control (STCC) rules were agreed upon for the next three years and then renewed in 2016 with the purpose of stopping salaries increasing in line with the new broadcasting revenues. The STCC rules state that, “Clubs cannot increase their player wage bills by more than £7m compared to the previous year unless they can demonstrate that any excess is due to individual club revenue sources.”

This means that Everton cannot go and buy £100m worth of players and renew the contracts of many of their young stars because the wages would rise far over the £7m growth that is allocated. Even though Everton now has the funds necessary through the takeover to buy expensive players, they may not be allowed to. Unfortunately, Everton cannot do what Manchester City did in 2008 after they were taken over by Sheikh Mansour with the massive £32.5m signing of Robinho from Real Madrid because it would not follow the STCC rules.

For example, if Everton were to just sign three players for on average, £100,000 a week, then that would add £15.6m to the yearly wage budget. Being realistic, it is more likely Everton will sign more players for more weekly wages if they were to spend all of the £100m, and Everton would also spend a good amount of wages on new contacts for current young stars in Barkley and Lukaku.

Everton have already released Steven Pienaar, Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman and sold Howard so that will help with wages, but their roles in the squad will have to be filled and if Everton are looking to bring in £100m of players, then Everton will have to generate more non-broadcasting revenue.

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So the question is: how does Everton generate more non-broadcasting revenue to allow the wage bills to increase by more than £7m per year?

One option is for Everton to increase their sponsorship revenues. Everton’s kit deal with Chang is outright terrible as it is only providing Everton with around £16m per year while crosstown rivals Liverpool are bringing in around £30m a year through their deal with Standard Chartered. Everton could potentially upgrade their sponsorship deals such as the one with Chang to bring more revenue to the club so that Everton can increase their wage bill by more than £7m from last year.

LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 23: Romelu Lukaku of Everton celebrates after Chris Smalling of Manchester United scored own goal during The Emirates FA Cup semi final match between Everton and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on April 23, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /

The other option is to generate revenue from player sales. There are only a few players on the current Everton roster that could be sold for enough to generate the needed revenue and it seems like John Stones is by far the most likely to leave. Ross Barkley is loyal to Everton and boss Ronald Koeman has plans to build the squad around him so he isn’t really an option. It is possible Romelu Lukaku may leave, but many teams are warded off by his massive price tag and Lukaku is seeming more likely to stay. John Stones on the other hand has stated that he wants to leave Everton and it seems most sensible to sell Stones to allow for a massive spending spree and rebuild to happen.

Next: Believability of Everton Transfer Rumors

Regardless of what Everton decide to do facing this problem, it will surely be an exciting summer!

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