Everton FC public inquiry is battle club can't lose

"We're struggling to keep pace with our rivals and with the economics of this league.

"Everton has a hugely loyal fanbase, but other clubs can come together on match day in more modern facilities with a greater capacity than we have at our disposal."

He pauses to point at a series of pillars blocking the view of the pitch from a stand of wooden seating which belongs to another era of football.

If you duck low enough, Mr Elstone explains, you can see the corporate boxes on the far side of the pitch. "Those boxes are the most obvious weakness we have. Everyone knows how incredibly important it is to the development of the club to bring in the corporate side. But Goodison is in the lowest two or three clubs in the league in terms of corporate hospitality space."

Then he takes me into the away team changing rooms. Cramped and poorly lit, they are as basic as a Conference side's facilities.

He simply spreads his arms: "Can you imagine Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo all crammed in here when Manchester United come to play? This is just not the standard you would expect of a club in the Premier League."

Back up in the hospitality suites, he opens a door into a kitchen that might just double up as a primary school canteen. He adds: "There's nothing like this in any other club in the league."

Critics of Destination Kirkby have not disputed these points.

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In a wide-ranging series of videos now available on the Daily Post website, critics claim that their homes, green space and even their football club are being blighted by the bid. But Mr Elstone is adamant that the regeneration of Kirkby and developing a close relationship with its neighbours is a massive part of what the self-styled People's Club hopes to achieve.

The club is also sure that most people in Kirkby understand what they want to do and are eager to work with Everton to revolutionise the town. He said: "We have always been open and have talked in enormous detail about what is planned."

But the message he returns to as the inquiry looms is the pressing need to move to ensure Everton can grow.

He said: "Kirkby is a stadium that's accessible and that delivers the scale that we need, and it's a stadium of the highest quality.

"The issue of alternatives is that this club has been looking for an alternative or to redevelop Goodison Park for probably a dozen years.

"These options have not come to fruition because they're not feasible, deliverable and most of all they're not affordable.

"And the fact is that there is probably not a football club in the world that could fund a new stadium development from scratch without help from the public or private sector. And that's what this plan comes with - significant financial uplift."