To sell one of their few assets, Anthony Gordon, to Newcastle United for £40 million without an immediate replacement lined up is an epic failure of leadership from the top, impacting on transfer strategy.
It would be incomprehensible at the best of times. If the club was in mid-table pushing towards the top six you would scarcely believe they would self-inflict such damage to their ambitions. To do that when the team is 19th and in dire need of quality to avoid relegation defies belief.
If the club fails to recover and goes down everyone involved in this almighty cock-up - from majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri to the boardroom executives Bill Kenwright, chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale and sporting director Kevin Thelwell - will be held responsible.
There ought to be a full and frank explanation as to how and why Everton are the only club fighting relegation who have come out of the transfer window with a weaker squad, otherwise positions are untenable.
I called them the worst run club in the country on Monday Night Football ten days ago. Some people disagreed. I have been proven right.
We can all accept the club was hampered by financial restraints and the fact Everton are an unattractive destination at the moment, but forget the fact they had no new faces on the morning of February 1. It was staggering they had no deals in place by January 1, when the side was already in deep trouble and Frank Lampard was on borrowed time. What was going on between September 1 and the opening of the transfer window? Why was Moshiri promising a new striker if no guarantee could be made? Was Thelwell working with his hands tied behind his back, or is he simply another misjudged appointment, unable to get deals over the line?
There will be no hiding place when the fans gather at Goodison Park on Saturday demanding answers.
Since the last home game I have felt the current Everton regime has reached the point of no return. Over the last few years my belief has been that the ultimate responsibility lies with Moshiri. He is the one who appoints board members and sporting directors and is supposed to be deferring key responsibilities within the organisation.
We have seen countless examples of him failing to respect any kind of structure, too often acting like he is the sporting director when it comes to approaching and interviewing managers. There is no way ex-sporting director Marcel Brands suggested Carlo Ancelotti or Rafael Benitez should be Everton manager. Equally, there is no way Thelwell was compiling a list of possible replacements for Lampard with Marcelo Bielsa’s name on the list, let alone top of it.
Liverpool enter talks with Saudi Arabian and Qatari consortiums over a potential £3BILLION takeover
in FF - Football Forum
Posted
It's a myth all investors want a majority shareholding or nothing. FSG itself is made up of minority shareholders. They get the benefit of being in a bigger group able to invest in professional sports without full ownership.
David Moores was majority shareholder of the club. At one point he 'only' owned 51% of the club meaning others owned 49% but couldnt outvote him. They retained their investment until he sold to the 2 cowboys.