“Unfortunately, in the time we had at the AGM, we could not explain that every possibility has been explored thoroughly. “I feel comfortable that Bill exploited every possible avenue to stay in this city. I have personally had a lot of meetings and made a lot of calls. “I have met with the development teams, I have looked at sites and examined all the practicalities. “And I concluded that there was nowhere. There was nothing available for us to move to. “Yes there is land but that land has to go through a million stages and have funding grants attached to it, else it was impractical, and those boxes could not be ticked. “Unfortunately, the fans are not getting that information flow and I feel sorry for them. I understand totally. But I have been out to the new site in Kirkby. It is only about eight minutes in a car from Goodison. “I have studied the plans, I have been to the training ground and I have spoken at great length to Knowsley Council. As far as I can see, it is a win, win, win situation for everyone. “Yes it’s a win for Tesco but they are doing fabulous things for Everton. I don’t think the fans appreciate that yet. “The cloud of moving away from the city and the stigma that it has occurred can’t be seen past at the minute. But that area is absolutely swamped with Evertonians.” He appreciates, nevertheless, that it will take time to convince sceptics a move from Goodison is essential but Earl hopes the dissenting voices can look into the future as he believes it promises to be exciting and intends to make that happen. “I would say that David Moyes genuinely has a chance of putting us in the top four and to do that, you need 50,000 people coming through the turnstiles. It is a necessity with the salaries being paid out there,” he points out. “It doesn’t seem as if the fans are thinking through that side of it. You need that new stadium. We are getting a non reimbursable cheque for £55m from Tesco and it is absolute manna from heaven. “This is an international brand. People do not realise that we are seen all around the world. “We are up there with the big boys and the move helps us make that transition. I’ll be here as much as I can. I’ll add my business acumen, money and a lot of energy.” |