Leaderboard

The dreams of three billion Evertonian lives ended on May 20th, 1995. The survivors of the Heysel disaster called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the Sly 6. The computer which controlled the machines, The Premier League, sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission: to destroy the Evertonian Resistance. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at us, in the year 1985. It failed. The second was sent to strike at us ourselves, Ian Rush, when he was still a child. As before, the Resistance was able to send a lone warrior, Bill, a protector for Everton. It was just a question of where the Arteta money had gone.

And buggered by Rooney.

My step mum died earlier this week. We’ll keep on going after the fuckers.

Anyone who uses "centrist" as a pejorative term is a bellend. Most people are centrists and have generally no interest in politics - right or left. They want a job, somewhere to live and for their kids to go to school. "Oooh you're such a centrist, I bet you've never signed a 38 degrees petition in your life!" Slacktavist fuckheads.

If he wants to go to Bayern rather than here, he's not our man. There's no logical sense why he'd make that move. It's not like he won't have to uproot his family for either club. The premier league is a better level to compete than Germany. Liverpool is the bigger challenge because of that. So even if everything is emotionally even, we're the right choice. Unless he doesn't feel ready. And if he doesn't feel ready, he's not the right man for the job.

Today is night 2 of 8 Work is shite and my body clock is fucked. Had to do training for SIA license. So worked Mon/Tuesday night, weds off,thurs/Fri days then Sat-Tuesday night. Weds off and back for 8. Overtime to make up for a short month and losing extra hours for the course. Anyway enough moaning. I'm off for a week soon Thanks to everyone

Here it is

Fuck that. Turdette gets musical education by listening to my songs. Blinded By The Lights by The Streets came on in the car yesterday (one for @Champ) and I explained to the kid what Ecstasy was.

Ah sorry chaps missed this. It all likely goes back to the mutiny of 1857 which resulted in the British government taking over from the East India Company and then the imposition of divide and rule based mainly on religion in order to maintain control over India. I mean it's what the Tories are still doing here, dividing people so they maintain power in Westminster. Curzon splitting Bengal along religious divides likely was the blueprint for what we have today. It's just a pity Radcliffe and Mountbatten decided to chuck a line through the Punjab because it's still a sore point for a lot of Sikhs. Isn't it amazing how the British Empire still affects the globe culturally and politically to this day and yet no government dares give us a warts and all history lesson about it.

It’s almost like people are desperate for the tories to fuck off regardless

Steve Wright dies unexpectedly, McKenzie is still breathing. Proof positive there is no God.

Labour heading for two huge by-election wins tonight, it's almost like Twitter isn't real life.

As part of the MA Film course at Liverpool John Moores University Screen School, we run a short film festival that is accessible online. Last year's students hosted a live event to present awards to the filmmakers, but this year we are intending to have five, one for each of the four strands that films are submitted in (Animation, Documentary, Experimental, and Fiction), along with an awards event. We've had over 2,000 submissions from all over the world to view, rate, and winnow down to the 38 that will be presented in the festival. We're just starting up a social media campaign to raise awareness for the festival, and you can find out more about it at: Home - LJMU MA Short Film Festival

Every time I see this thread bumped, I worry that he’s changed his mind.

Thought it might be a bit quiet in here today, guess not. Excellent stuff.

Who could have possibly foreseen this turn of events?

Regardless of whether this points deduction sticks or not the next 6 months or so are going to be absolutely wild for these cunts. The stadium build for them has got to be the most financially stupid decision ever made in football. They are too small of a club for a new stadium costing that much money in a city that isn’t London for it to ever be financially viable. I thought it was dead in the water when the commonwealth games situation was laughed out. Imagine the Joe Anderson loan proposal would have gone through. What sort of panic stations would the council be in now? The increase in capacity is minimal and nobody is travelling to the city to see that stadium and even if there are some people who will go there on non match days how much money is this actually going to bring in? After the initial buzz wears off the ticket prices will have to come down after the cold and difficulty getting down there kicks in. If you read GOT there seems to be this fantasy land where all sorts of bars and hotels will get built down there. For what? Once every two weeks for 9/10 months a year loads of people go to the stadium nearby and have a couple of pints and go home. It’s insane. Even if they survive this year which I think they will surely they’re going to have to sell players and not be able to buy anyone to turn these massive accumulated losses around. You’d expect the squad is going to be in an even worse state next year. Getting on to the ownership situation there’s a new article from the Josimar they’ve shared on GOT. It’s an interesting read on why 777 are anywhere near them. He seems to think that they’re going to use the fact that they own Everton as capital against taking on more debt to fund their insurance businesses. The whole thing is off the charts. A few of the posters think they’re going to get in and “sell” the stadium which doesn’t really add up either. The only benefit someone would have buying that stadium is rent from Everton who appear to be on the verge of collapse. With the stadium costing 500m+ that’s about 30 years of say 25m a year in rent before they started seeing a return (considering the time value of money before any points out my bad maths). It’s a comically bad risk to take. The whole thing is a shitshow.

Ended up getting it in the "Pepsi" style. Always liked the colour scheme, and I've got more blue shirts it'll go with. Might change the strap though to a jubilee. My house watch has one and I think the smaller links are more comfortable.

Oh I disagree, Grand Old Lady is very apt. Ancient, decrepit and stinks of piss.

I loved it when the cunt was door stepped after the Hillsborough verdicts were overturned, a great piece of Journalism by Channel 4 ? fella , though he should have gone 1 step further and slammed the twats head in the door while he was at it .

Nil Hasta Nisi Vista, Baby!

He is one horribly repulsive cunt and I hope he dies in the most horribly painful way possible. Very very few people I’d wish anything like that on but that cunt is top of the list.

If McKenzie was on fire, I think I’d show some humanity and try and put it out… …with a pickaxe.

As bad as Everton are, it seems 777 need them more than they need 777. https://josimarfootball.com/2024/02/16/everton-or-bust/ Features 16 February, 2024 A new document reveals who exactly is behind attempts by 777 Partners to acquire Everton, and just how badly the Miami investment firm needs Premier League approval for the deal. By Paul Brown and Philippe Auclair The clock is ticking for 777 Partners when it comes to their attempted acquisition of Everton. The process has now dragged on into a fifth month and the American investors are still awaiting Premier League approval. A new document seen by Josimar sheds light on why the Miami investment firm is so eager to persist with the purchase. The document suggests that 777 need Everton even more than the club needs them. It also outlines the strategy behind the attempted takeover and reveals key details of the deal. And yet, it was not put together by 777 themselves but by A-CAP, a New York “risk solution and service provider” operating a network of insurance companies. A-CAP is run by chairman and CEO Kenneth King, who is alleged of being part of a “complex and massive fraud” in an ongoing civil lawsuit in the USA, and has sat in on meetings of the 777 steering committee. King’s insurance companies have for months been propping up 777, with internal sources claiming it is facing a liquidity crisis. Those insurance companies are currently under investigation by US regulators for suspected breaches of financial rules. The full extent of A-CAP’s involvement in Everton, and how this may impact both the fragile finances of the club and the likelihood of Premier League approval for the takeover, is made clear in this document. Dated 31 August 2023, two weeks before 777’s agreement to purchase Everton was made public, the 44-page A-CAP “Investment Overview” gives the specific details of the deal to buy the Merseyside club, including confirmation that the ultimate source of the first 40 million pound- loan made by 777 to Everton was A-CAP, with the club paying an interest rate of 12.75 percent. 777’s loans to the club, made to cover working capital and ongoing stadium costs, have since ballooned to almost 200 million pounds, loading more debt onto an already debt-ridden club. Josimar has been told that it is A-CAP which is continuing to provide this money. It is a bold commitment, given how little security the borrower is able to bring to the table. The document confirms, for instance, that A-CAP’s money is secured by “entering the current Senior Lending Facility in a last out position.” The senior lender here is Rights and Media Funding, which has a charge over all of Everton’s assets, including its bank accounts. It also suggests that 777, and therefore ACAP and its insurance policyholders, are last in line for repayment. The document also claims that A-CAP capital “will initially be used to bolster the Everton roster via activity in the transfer market”. Yet Everton’s only activity in the January window was the loan of Mason Holgate to Sheffield United. In return for its investment, A-CAP “will receive a 2.5 percent warrant” in the 777 Football Group, in other words the right to own equity in that entity. The document goes on to say that 777 “will sell a minority interest” in its Football Group in order to repay a portion of this loan from A-CAP. The document explains that A-CAP’s “support” of the Everton acquisition will “materially increase” the overall value of the 777 Football Group’s multi-club portfolio, and allow it to “raise capital […] and sell equity, creating liquidity.” It estimates that owning Everton would justify a higher overall enterprise value for all 777’s clubs, generating at least 3.2 times more revenue for the group. This, it is hoped, would attract new investors and “increase the execution certainty” of an attempt to raise capital on their behalf by broker Tifosy, which has so far proved unsuccessful.The document says they expected “the floor” for a “debt raise including Everton” to be 300m euros. It is unlikely that this money would be used for new signings as billed, as the document also states that the 777 Football Group “is expected to have 240-300 million euro of working capital needed to reach stabilization across all clubs.” This is the paradox at the heart of the matter: Everton are in such need of working capital that they require regular loans from an entity which is in dire need of working capital itself. One projection made in the document, estimates that even then, the 777 Football Group “will need to sell equity between 30-50% to cover financing needs.” 777 Partners appears to be facing a huge squeeze on its finances. They have failed to make payroll more than once in recent months and have discussed pursuing a large headcount reduction plan in order to cut costs. Key staff have left the company without being replaced. They are facing multiple debt recovery lawsuits, and their reinsurance business was downgraded by a credit ratings agency. Some of its subsidiary companies have been forced to borrow money at rates of interest as high as 52 percent. In addition, two major sources of current funding are under threat. In Bermuda, the monetary authority has already placed 777re, the reinsurance business where much of the group’s assets are held, into administrative control pending an investigation into suspected breaches of financial rules. A similar investigation into A-CAP and it’s insurance companies could result in the same action, or worse, as the authorities there have the power to revoke the licences of those companies. Everton is not just the biggest sporting investment 777 have ever attempted, it is also crucial for the long-term survival of the firm itself. Everton already has other lenders to repay. US investment group MSP, who were initially Moshiri’s preferred choice to buy the club, have 137 million pounds invested into the Everton Stadium Development company. This money must be paid off if there is a change of ownership. The A-CAP document states that it will indeed be repaid, and converted into equity by 777, but that any such repayment is “contingent” on an outside capital raise. It is unclear what would happen therefore, if that capital raise were to be unsuccessful. As for the stadium itself, the document claims that “significant enterprise value/collateral value” can be “unlocked” via the Stadium Company once the build is completed, suggesting 777 and A-CAP intend to use Bramley Moore Dock to raise yet more finance. In the risk section of the document, there is also an entry stating that if the Stadium Company “cannot obtain third-party capital” to complete the build, “A-CAP can underwrite the construction and syndicate a loan.” Premier League is still conducting their Owners and Directors Test into 777, and given the amount of time this process has already taken, it is safe to assume that CEO Richard Masters has yet to receive the “satisfactory answers” he alluded to before a Parliamentary committee last month. Josimar understands that on Thursday of this week the league submitted a fresh set of questions into 777’s ability to fund its purchase of Everton, to both the Miami firm and club owner Moshiri. Josimar has been told by more than one source close to the process that the league will not allow any takeover of the club which saddles it with even more debt. And we understand there is a rival bidder preparing an offer which would avoid doing this altogether. [This links to a paywalled article, the first few paragraphs visible are included below] “I too have my doubts about 777” With no deadline for a decision, and no actual decision yet in sight, the importance of adding Everton to 777’s portfolio is also highlighted by the efforts the US group is making to keep its more problematic assets afloat. The rationale behind this is simple. Should one of their clubs face bankruptcy, any hope of convincing the Premier League that the group has the financial means to steady the Liverpool club and ensure its longer-term future would be dealt a fatal blow. Of these clubs, the one facing the clearest and most present danger is Standard de Liège, of whom sports economist Wim Lagae said in a recent interview with Nieuwsblad that “all [their] indicators were red” and that their financial situation was “the worst in the Jupiler League, together with Oostende”. Standard, who’ve been regularly late in paying their staff and were issued two transfer bans by the Belgian regulator in 2023 for failing to honour their commitments, have to find the means to pacify creditors who are due close to 40 million euros within the current tax year. 777 is also committed to paying the multi-million second tranche of what they owe previous owner Bruno Venanzi before the end of April. Sources have confirmed to Josimar, should they fail to pay Venanzi, the ownership of Standard would automatically revert to the Belgian businessman. The fragility of the finances of Standard (who were also fined 30,000 euro by the Belgian regulator on Valentine’s Day for not filing their accounts on time) is also illustrated by a bizarre twist of events which neither the club nor its CEO Pierre Locht have denied when contacted by Josimar. The club was meant to reimburse a 3 million euro loan taken from its former star player Marouane Fellaini in April 2023, but exercised the option to push back the date of the payment by one year. Meanwhile, Standard – who did not spend a cent in the January transfer market, to the dismay of their fans – offered a 3-year professional contract to 19-year-old French striker Maxime Mejjati-Alami, despite the fact that he hadn’t played a single game for Standard’s reserves when on loan from FC Nantes. Maxime happens to be the son of Fellaini’s agent Karim Mejjati. It has been suggested to Josimar by two separate Belgian sources that this deal was a ‘sweetener’ intended to placate Mejjati senior and, by association, Fellaini himself. We asked the club whether they could confirm this, and whether or not this constituted a conflict of interest, but have so far received no response. Standard CEO Pierre Locht interviewed on RTBF’s ‘La Tribune’ programme, 5 February 2024. Standard’s CEO Pierre Locht added to the uncertainty surrounding his club when he was invited to take part in “La Tribune”, a discussion programme broadcast by Belgian state network RTBF on 5 February. Asked about the questions about 777 Partners raised by the reporting of media such as Josimar, Locht replied: “People have doubts about 777, and, sometimes, I have mine too. But I’m not here to be the advocate of 777, I cannot endorse everything”. Mr Locht did not elaborate on what these doubts could be when asked by Josimar. Locht recently told a group of Standard fans that 777 would plough in another 15 million euros into the club via a share issue which can then be accounted against the club’s losses – the “accordion trick” which they’ve used several times before to support the club. But, as one source put it to Josimar, this was not the only or, indeed, the main motivation behind this new investment. According to the source: “777 is putting money into Standard in order not to jeopardise the purchase of Everton”. “One of the concerns about 777 is that, if they do acquire Everton FC”, adds football finance analyst and author of The Price Of Football Kieran Maguire, “there could be some more headroom, in the sense that the stadium could be of greater value than the existing borrowings, and that, therefore, 777 could use it as a vehicle to, in effect, take a 100 percent mortgage by topping up those borrowings and more. Therefore, there is a case for saying that 777 need Everton as part of their expansion policy. In terms of the existing clubs they’ve acquired, they have not been successful. The Premier League is the most moneyed league in the world in terms of revenue generation, although converting these revenues into profit has proved elusive for Farhad Moshiri. Given Josh Wander’s track record with his other clubs, it could prove elusive for him as well. So 777 aren’t the golden bullet as far as Everton fans are concerned, in terms of turning around the club’s finances off the pitch, and bringing success on it”. Paywalled article https://josimarfootball.com/2024/01/09/the-twilight-zone/ Features 9 January, 2024 The twilight zone It may be January sales season but for Everton the only question is who’s buying. 777 Partners agreed a deal to purchase owner Farhad Moshiri’s majority shareholding back in September, but three months on, they are still awaiting Premier League approval to complete a takeover. By Philippe Auclair and Paul Brown In public, the Miami-based company remains confident and has even been telling people on Merseyside that approval will be granted next week. In private, however, sources inside the company are more pessimistic about the chances of this deal getting done – and they are not the only ones who expect it to fail. Josimar understands that at least one other consortium of US-based investors is now readying a bid, in the expectation that 777 do not complete their takeover. This group has been put together by a prominent sporting figure with a strong knowledge of Everton, and includes investors with a successful background in finance and a deep interest in sport. The levels of debt at the club and the team’s on-field prospects this season, following a ten-point penalty from the Premier League over a financial rule breach, are a cause for concern; but the group remains interested in launching a full takeover of the Goodison Park club, as a source close to the bid confirmed to Josimar: “there are concerns about the level of debt and the team’s on-pitch performance. But these are serious investors.” Josimar also understands that another group of US investors who share the belief that 777's bid is doomed to failure were also in the process of putting together an offer for Everton just before Christmas. This group, which is a... 2

Have a good one

He's 77 now. Can't be long but hope its miserable and painful

Only a turd like him would consider this an insult.

I wouldn't say I hate the man but if he was on fire, I'd stick an aerosol up his arse.

Fuck him. The fucking cunt.

Always a point to liberalism, not least because Lib Dems can beat the Tories in places where Labour can't, like Somerton and Frome last year, a by-election where Labour lost its deposit, which I of course didn't crow about at the time, because that's just what happens when voters unite behind one anti-Tory candidate, and I'm not a pathetic trolling piece of excrement that should be flushed down the nearest bog.

Barrington’s trying to force Ali out and bring Adrian back in.

Democratic systems are supposed to be centrist. That's the whole fuckin point. At some point - within the last 10-15 years imo - as a politician it became ok to say out loud that you were representing "only the people that voted for you." No you gimp - you are being paid to serve everyone in your district. This has now become - at least in the US - that one can not get elected without saying/doing similar.

And Inter. He's basically a snide old cunt who seems to think he's doing every club he's at a massive favour by managing them.

'And if you don’t have a plan, you can’t deliver real change. And when the general election comes, that’s the message I’ll be making to the country. Stick with our plan, because it is starting to deliver the change that the country wants and needs.' Has the prick been drinking turps? Who is advising this moron, whoever it is, keep up the sterling work!

So he can go in the summer?

Im genuinely surprised that after that someone didn’t work out his address and go and seriously fill him in. If Rees-Mogg walked past me in the street I’d call him a gobshite. If that cunt walked past me I’d spark him clean out

The very organisations that pile the pressure on to managers will now be lecturing the rest of the population on the importance of caring about mental health. It's like Nazis taking a pause to warn about discrimination.

Happy Birthday.

It’s just a wasted few hours, with real upsides. You sit there like a dum dum while some bloke who thinks he’s a comedian tells you ‘Speeding is bad m’kay.’ Zone out and answers the bleeding obvious questions when asked to engage.

Trying to work back 9 months from mid-Feb to see why there are so many around now. I know Stig and myself are tomorrow. All the best, CD.

Roy is in good health, it's his ego that was admitted to hospital.

When you say I'm being a dick, do you mean it in the negative way?

Not really. I think they’re both similar. They have principles that they want to see with their teams but then have both changed their set ups and formations based on players and tactical choices. People were saying/hoping Haaland wouldn’t fit into Guardiola style football and he made it work. All the talk on this thread about his use of fullbacks. His main idea is the same - dominating possession - but the set up has changed loads from his Barca teams to various Man City iterations. Similar to Klopp whose main idea is the counter press.

Code's election agent.

Even though the manager who replaced him was a cunt who you put your not inconsiderable weight behind.

It's like they're not even listening to what Gnasher is saying. WAKE UP SHEEPLE