Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

*Shakes head* Everton again.


Fugitive

Recommended Posts

49 minutes ago, No2 said:

Moshiri turned £500m into £25m. That takes some doing. Rafa probably made more from Everton than he did.

 

Looks as though they're not paying back 777, settling a £200m debt for £60m according to the Guardian. Maybe not a first but I'm sure they'll claim it.

These cheating bastards getting away with paying their debts then? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw this on BBC site - like who?

 

I'm just so relieved more than anything that the takeover is finally done. Given that Roma haven't gone bust under this group, I have faith they can at least get us out of continuous relegation battles. Honestly, if all they do is that, plus the odd cup run, that will do for now. We're regularly bringing through great talents and I think that's the only way we'll get close to winning anything.

Joe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, an tha said:

Saw this on BBC sire - like who?

 

I'm just so relieved more than anything that the takeover is finally done. Given that Roma haven't gone bust under this group, I have faith they can at least get us out of continuous relegation battles. Honestly, if all they do is that, plus the odd cup run, that will do for now. We're regularly bringing through great talents and I think that's the only way we'll get close to winning anything.

Joe

Royle?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Arniepie said:

I do remember Everton playing in Europe in the 1980’s but something happened in 1985 to spoil it for Everton and other clubs Perhaps Smally74 could remind us of the events of May 1985

 

from the bbc comments page on the takeover 

In 1985/6 Everton were the second best team in their postal district.  That's reality; it's no wonder they prefer the hypothetical glories of their alternative histories.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

In 1985/6 Everton were the second best team in their postal district.  That's reality; it's no wonder they prefer the hypothetical glories of their alternative histories.

I remember everton playing in europe in the 80s.

yep..1 whole season before the ban

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what is so great about Everton - they never, ever, ever learn....

They are again drad giddy over these new owners, conveniently overlooking their spending habits at a much, much bigger club in Roma than them, whilst also overlooking the really obvious point that spending money hasn't been their issue for years since Moshiri has blown stupid amounts of money during his time as the owner.

They should be thinking in terms of looking to be escaping regular relegation battles and possibly getting into the lesser european comps down the line - but no they are already talking about binning off Dyche for a bigger name, spending big and winning stuff/reclaiming their rightful place blah blah fucking blah.....

 

Their lack of patience, realism and obsession with us that causes all their stupidity are probably going to end up ruining things with these new owners fairly quickly.

And as usual it will be hysterically funny to watch.

 

That clown Moshiri threw 500m at the shite and has walked away with 25m......Just terrific comedy - the cheating fuckers are shuffling their debt deckchairs again under the latest doomed captain of a ship that has been sinking for 30 years.

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, an tha said:

There is one potential immediate upside to this for us mind....

 

They'll be so full of themselves at the weekend that they might just accidentally roar their team on to a result!


 

I was coming to post exactly the same. 
 

A couple of weeks of optimism, they take points of Arsenal, Chelsea & City, sign a player who starts well… power shift is back on, their gonna pump us at Woodison… we stroll out 0-3 winners and they revert to type having helped us on our way to #20.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, an tha said:

 the cheating fuckers are shuffling their debt deckchairs again under the latest doomed captain of a ship that has been sinking for 30 years.

 

...in their new bedpan stadium, next to the Titanic hotel. Poetic. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't help but find it a little bit amusing that throughout a 4k page thread on a Liverpool FC fan site, filled with ridicule about their stadium that'll never get built, their premier league status that'll never last and their new owners that'll never happen because they'll go into administration etc etc... And they're still here. They won't go down this season, they've got their new stadium and they've got their new owners. 

 

Football tribalism at its finest. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know Paul Joyce has tried to write an upbeat piece here, but much of this just sounds like wishful thinking, especially the stuff about American fans.

 

PAUL JOYCE

Everton fans can dream again after years of drift under Farhad Moshiri

 

New owner The Friedkin Group has grand plans for club but must address future of manager Sean Dyche and learn from experiences with Roma

 

It was Everton or no one.

 

When The Friedkin Group (TFG) considered becoming the Premier League’s latest US owners, it did not see another team ripe for picking which boasted the same potential as the Merseyside club.

 

Not West Ham United or Wolverhampton Wanderers. Not Brentford or Brighton & Hove Albion for that matter.

 

A shimmering new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, located on the banks of the River Mersey and which will be ready for the start of the 2025-26 season, was an obvious attraction given the revenue-boosting spin-offs that can bring.

 

So, too, is the belief that once the club’s finances are straightened out strides can be made towards infiltrating England’s elite again, while recognition that Everton has a loyal and passionate fan base was also perceived as a positive as a course to future success was plotted.

 

Now, after the completion of its takeover and the acquisition of Farhad Moshiri’s 94.1 per cent stake, TFG must harness the power of all those possibilities.

 

Headed by Dan Friedkin, the American businessman and film producer whose hobbies include flying aircraft, TFG initially backed out of a deal in July amid legal concerns arising from a court case involving one of Everton’s previous suitors, 777-Partners/A-Cap.

 

It returned to the negotiating table in late September, doubts dispelled, to strike an incentivised deal with Moshiri and accelerated the buy-out process within 48 hours by paying back £140million in loans to the club from MSP Sports Capital and local businessmen Andy Bell and George Downing. The writing of that cheque was immediate evidence of the resources at their disposal.

 

Friedkin, 59, had not initially intended to be seen as front and centre of his latest venture, as he has become, along with son Ryan, at one of the other football clubs in his empire, Roma. Yet his decision to assume the role of Everton chairman has been taken out of “respect” to the club and how seriously he is taking the purchase. “We strive to deliver extraordinary experiences that ignite people’s passions,” he said in a statement.

 

However, this is very much TFG — which has more than 11,000 employees and boasted revenues of $13.3billion (about £10.5billion) in 2024 — taking charge of Everton, rather than a private family office.

 

With that should come new faces at the top of the organisation, which is something Moshiri failed to do when buying into Everton in February 2016 and, according to sources, he now deeply regrets. Marc Watts, the president of TFG, will be Everton’s executive chairman and Ana Dunkel, TFG’s chief financial officer and who is on the board at Roma, is another prospective appointment, while Nolan Partners are looking to identify a new chief executive.

 

While it waited for takeover approval from the Premier League, the FA and the Financial Conduct Authority, TFG discreetly dispatched representatives to Merseyside on a fact-finding mission to gain greater insight on how the club has been run.

 

Everton will no longer be subservient to an owner. A comparison with how Liverpool owner Fenway Sports Group has empowered the chief executive Billy Hogan to run the club on a day-to-day basis, while remaining in the background itself, has been cited to The Times on more than one occasion.

 

After years of drift, Everton, who have effectively been without a board since June 2023 when the previous incumbents resigned, should benefit from direction again. That is crucial because there is plenty of scope for growth off the pitch at a club that has become overly reliant on the broadcasting deals negotiated by the Premier League to stimulate an improvement on it.

 

“If you wrote down the attributes of The Friedkin Group in terms of their business portfolio and what they have the capability of doing, along with where Everton are just about to find themselves given the new stadium, then there are a lot of things that align and that means this has a very strong chance of being successful,” said Neil Joyce, the chief executive of the CLV Group, a leading data and insights company for sport, media and entertainment.

 

That raises, he says, the possibility of a Netflix or Amazon documentary charting Everton’s next steps — although the drama of recent seasons, on and off the pitch, would be hard to match — pop concerts to rival nearby Anfield, which staged a Taylor Swift gig in the summer, the prospect of hosting NFL games and also making sizable — and innovative — inroads into the US market.

 

“There are 83 million soccer fans in the US, larger than the whole of the UK population, and 36.5 million of those fans haven’t picked a team,” Joyce said.

 

“Everton have strong stories around their history and the new stadium and also have a very strong overlap with US footballers. You have Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, Joe Max-Moore even, and TFG has powerful storytelling and content capabilities through Imperative Entertainment, which they own.

 

“Documentaries and podcasts is an area where we see huge opportunities for clubs in that it allows them to monetise their own content directly from the fans. We have already seen in our data sets that Everton have 200,000 fans in the US and 40 per cent of them earn more than $100,000 a year. Some 25 per cent of them are heavy digital content subscribers and engagers.

 

“They could generate the best part of £10million a year with a monthly subscription of just $3 from those fans. That is pretty much the same as the deal with their front-of-shirt sponsor at the moment, so you can immediately see some really interesting revenue opportunities.”

 

Everton believe that the move to Bramley-Moore Dock, which has a capacity of 52,888, could bring in an additional £40million in revenue per season. There will also be a significant reduction in the club’s interest repayments, which had been around £60million towards the end of Moshiri’s tenure, from a variety of lenders for the new stadium. They were weighing down the whole operation and talks have been taking place with JP Morgan Chase and Co to help restructure Everton’s loans.

 

“The stadium was built using credit cards,” one source said. “Some of that will be converted into senior debt and more manageable loans over a longer period which would be covered by the stadium if it becomes, as everyone thinks, a success.”

 

While Everton’s financial health can be transformed, the key remains how wisely they spend the money so that there is overdue stability in the Premier League.

 

TFG may not have wanted to invest in Brentford, but becoming as consistent as that team would indicate progress. The night a deal was agreed with Moshiri, TFG’s delight was immediately tempered by the knowledge that top-flight safety remains paramount.

 

The futures of the manager, Sean Dyche, and the director of football, Kevin Thelwell, who are both out of contract at the end of the season, will need to be addressed but not before the constraints under which they have been working are taken into account.

 

Everton are the only Premier League club with a net positive transfer balance since the summer of 2022 — Thelwell’s first transfer window — with €173.8million (about £143million) spent and €270.1million (about £222.3million) recouped. Top of the table are Sunday’s opponents, Chelsea, who spent €1.3billion (about £1.07billion) in fees and brought in €544million (about £448million) over the same period.

 

Everton have not spent more than they have received in a transfer window since January 2023 and have only spent significant fees on players aged 25 or under in recent dealings.

 

Certainly, the turbulence TFG has encountered at Roma this year should highlight the importance of not rushing into any decisions and benefit Everton. Mistakes made elsewhere should have less chance of being repeated.

 

The Italians — coached at the time by Jose Mourinho — won the Europa Conference League in 2022 and reached the final of the Europa League the following season. Since then there has been a downturn in results despite TFG’s total investment to date being more than $1billion since buying the club in August 2020.

 

Roma lie 12th in Serie A, two points above the relegation zone. The appointment of the 73-year-old coach Claudio Ranieri last month was the fourth managerial change of the year after the sacking of Mourinho and the installation of fans’ favourite Daniele de Rossi who was soon replaced by Ivan Juric.

 

Protests from supporters had intensified and outside Roma’s Trigoria training ground last month a banner was left which read: “Presidents and directors, leave Roma, you are incompetent and unworthy!”

 

A fervent fanbase viewed as a positive one day can call for widespread change the next. How the two clubs co-exist will be interesting.

 

“Everton and Roma are identical clubs,” another source said. “Historic clubs with a fanatical fanbase. They will be watching each other. If the Friedkins buy a player for Everton, Roma fans will say, ‘Where is our player?’

 

“Other owners tend to have a big club supported by smaller ones. That is something they have to solve. No one has two clubs like that.”

 

As Everton fans envisage a new future the aforementioned banner would have struck a chord, a reminder of the marches they held against Moshiri’s reign as mismanagement left the club anchored at the wrong end of the table and forced to sell players.

 

The British-Iranian businessman will write off £750million with the sale of Everton, and the amount he will receive from TFG is difficult to pinpoint. Less than £50million has changed hands directly between buyer and seller, though that could increase if the club’s trajectory is positive.

 

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in Everton severing ties with a number of Russian companies owned by Moshiri’s former business partner Alisher Usmanov, he expected to make more than £1billion on the club he purchased eight years ago.

 

He seems remarkably sanguine, those close to him say, seeing Bramley-Moore Dock and the fact Everton have stayed in the top flight throughout his tenure as a positive legacy. Of the teams in the Premier League in 2015-16, ten suffered demotion in the seasons since.

 

Following the collapse of 777’s bid and TFG’s initial worries, Moshiri had wanted to sell to John Textor, a part-owner in Crystal Palace who also has interests in Lyon and the newly-crowned Copa Libertadores winners and Brazil champions Botafogo.

 

He saw him as a football obsessive, though the fact he did not possess the necessary finances was one of many stumbling blocks.

 

It speaks volumes that after what has been a tortuous saga of failed buy-outs and false dawns over a number of years the hard work is only just beginning for Everton and TFG.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...