The best article/post/response I've read all week Nick. Balanced and fair, but gets to the point.

Your last line gets to the nub of it. We were supposed to be beyond all the nonsense, the 'Everton that' bull. Most of the window seemed to point to it. Yet, it's the same old familiar feeling. Again. I'm disappointed more than anything else.

What I am happy about, is the collective fan response last Saturday. Like with the atmosphere created outside Goodison for games a couple of seasons ago, it showed that Evertonians aren't completed jaded yet, that there is still power in our own hands,. The Friedkin group listened.

I am also bizarrely enough, happy with the national media response. I'm hoping, like the fan response, it helps provide a steep and quick learning curve for the Friedkins.

I don't think they're bad owners, I don't buy into the doom scrolling conspiracy theories doing the rounds at present. While not the Fenway group, they're definitely not the Glazers at Utd, like many fans would have you believe. They're not asset stripping the club. They're not moving tens of millions in profits from the transfer window into their personal accounts as I type. They're not trying to run the club into the ground, or flip it fir a quick profit.

What I do think is that there's a naivety to them, a lack of guile needed for a football business moreso than greed or incompetence. To have done so well in other areas since buying the club shows there is quality there. (See the article on their time at Roma.)

For now, the squad is what it is. Depending on a league Cup run, we may have I'm guessing twenty games to the January Window. There will be a couple of international windows before that to give players a rest. It's not like they'll all be disappearing on international duty either.

Let's see what lessons the owners show they have learned in January before collectively throwing ourselves into the Mersey. If it's anything like the Liffey here in Dublin, I'd rather not.

Great article nick, the photo shot has our great Angus front and centre and Mr masters in the row behind (he must have removed his man.city chelsea 50/50 scarf ) no idea who the other muppets are yes everton rarely offer much hope nowadays so you can't even say that it's the hope that kills you ! I have seen some supporters writing our elite recruitment team will make amends in the January transfer window - dream on ! False bids, phoney excuses etc,seen it all before
Everton are like a burst tyre a big let down!

Philip, does your post mean the recruitment teaam got nothing right in the summer? KZDH has been a complete disaster then over the last twelve months? Not every transfer window or signing at clubs will bring what was hoped for, But some credit where it's due.

What happened in this transfer window, will likely finish any chance we had of a decent season, a place in Europe, a decent Cup run, and my guess is United will illustrate the point to perfection on Sunday. I can well imagine the scene, we will start ok with the crowd in full voice. Whoever, plays at right back will have a difficult game, Barry will not fancy 90 minutes up against Maguire, and Grealish will try to win us a penalty, forgetting that we have just sold our current penalty taker.

Then on about 60 minutes, United will begin to take control, and our Boys will look tired, Barry will hobble off for an early bath and Moyes will look at his bench, who to bring on Charlie Alcaraz or Michael Keane ? If we happen to be 1 nil up, my guess it will be Keane, brought on to help in defence. Will we hold on I doubt it.

The Manager and the players have been left in a very difficult position, what has happened in this last week with chaotic player trading has been a total disaster and those involved should be held accountable. Something has to change we cannot enter another transfer window with so little regard for the Manager, Players and above all the Fans.

Every Club in Europe will know how weak our trading situation is, and come January we will be desperate for some additional players. As a result agents and selling clubs will be keen to do business with us but as things stand we have no chance of resolving this current mess. There has to be a fundamental change in our recruitment strategy and in the personnel and decision process that got us into this mess. We simply cannot go on like this as ultimately we risk returning to the dark days of the previous owner.

Great article Nick.

We get taken over, by billionaires, we move into our new stadium, allowing us finally to compete with the big boys, adding an extra 15000 spectators to every game. Turnover goes up to (£250m?) it's time for the blue phoenix to start rising from the ashes. Finally.

Remember that?

Meanwhile back on Planet Reality we go on to have the lowest net spend in the league. Ipswich Town spend more assembling their first team than we do. I don't mean just in this current window. Their whole first team cost more to assemble than ours. Drink that in. Further meanwhile tottingham and chelsea who both finished nowhere, go on to spend hafl a billion each. It's the rules, apparently (rules our dear leaders voted for, mind). We just aren't generating enough income. We need to raise the prices and start selling players if we want to compete..

So what exactly is going on.

I look around our new stadium, and notice it could be anywhere. there is nothing about it that has it marked as ours. 'Oh, that will come, we just want to make sure it's all done properly'.

'Really?, I don't think it will ever be ours. The learned financiers don't want to put off neutral punters when they are getting their hotdogs for the rugby with random messaging about the current tenant. Let's just leave it bare.

Our new owners haven't even had the decency to show their face, home or away since they bought the place. In fact, they've never even had the decency to introduce themselves to the manager. Is it time we started waking up to what is going on here. This is not incompetence, or a mistake, or bad comms in my view. This is the new reality.. Our club is in the dead hands of American financiers who have zero ambition for the club beyond sweating the asset, and who will keep us at the level required to maintain our status in the league, and no more. I'd expect relegation to be phased out, And lots and lots of Summer tours in the States, and if we're lucky maybe start hosting home games there.

It looks to me like we've all been properly had.

Kevin, turnover of £250m is closer to Ipswich Town than it is to the big boys. So the billionaire owners have the same issue as the owners of Newcastle United. It is no longer possible to just buy a seat at the top table as Blackburn, Chelsea and City did previously.

Yes, we are richer than we were pre-takeover, but there are still at least 10 clubs who are richer than us.

Robert
I did't think in one bound we'd be the new Chelsea. I did think though that we'd be heading towards what villa and others have done. Tottenham spent £400m this summer despite finishing below us. We didn't spend a penny. I'm not arguing we should be spending like Man United, I'm asking why the hell we can't outspend Ipswich Town. it's misdirection to suggest 'oh we didn't get the luck in the last couple of days'. There is something much more fundamental here that is amiss.

Robert, many fans seem very willing to forget the mountains of debt, the poor revenue streams, the miniscule cash reserves, the cost today of building a garden shed, let alone a 50,000 plus stadium, the cost of running said stadium, a modern day PL wage bill, paying all the non playing staff and all the other day to day bills. Oh yeah, there's also the tax man, the gas bill, the electricity bill, extortionate public insurance costs for match days, this year's tranch of transfer fees to other clubs we owe.

It doesn't matter what positive stuff the new owners have done. It doesn't matter that the club is in any way in better shape than it was before they took over. That's all smoke and mirrors and shady accounting anyway didn't you know.

The reason why?

It gets in the way of a good whinge at the owner's expense. The new owners are only a shower of wastral self serving greedy incompetent assest stripping muppets. Its obvious they hate the fans, the club, it's history, the country, the food,the beer, the weather and the T.V.

Im starting to think it's the x files meets the housewives of... on steroids.

Objectivity, credit where it's due, a balanced view, forget about it.

have they said one word to us since they bought the club Kieran?

One word?

and so oh, the new stadium isn't an asset now? it's a liability that we have to be grateful these people are managing for us? Oh thank you sir, for taking over the running of this big problem stadium.

And thank you for buying our club. Cos when you bought it, and put us on a shoestring budget, and never picked up the phone once to speak to the manager, that was you doing us a big favour.

Thanks so much!

Kevin, Spurs have been a couple of seasons in their new stadium. They had a much better chairman running the club in Daniel Levy than we had for decades. Their finances are in a much better shape than ours. That is an unfair comparison. Yes, their managerial selections have been farcical, but as a business, they're been much better ran.

In terms of Ipswich Town, the answer to your question might be that they're doing what a lot of newly promoted clubs have done. Spend their way to staying in the league. This can be risky as they may not have the revenue streams medium to long term to get away with it. But for many promoted clubs, it is a risk worth taking. The PL is a fabled cash cow after all.

oh yes, Kieran, much better not to take any risks. We're. much better not spending actual money. We might waste it, after all.
And you're right, I'd forgotten they also have to pay the employees who don't play football. It's a big undertaking.

Kieran.
Have the mountains of debt gone now TFG have took over the club?
Not shifted onto another financier?

“David Moyes says he has never met or spoken to Everton owner Dan Friedkin since returning as manager in January 2025.

When asked if he had ever met or spoken to Friedkin in the 20 months since he was reappointed as manager, Moyes' answer was a simple "No".

Friedkin leaves the day-to-day running of the club to his son-in-law Rishi Majithia, who works in tandem with chief executive Angus Kinnear.

"My real contact is Angus," said Moyes. "Angus is the one who I would go to see. Rishi is the next one and then the head of the Friedkin family in America.

"I don't really get any direct conversations with them, but I do through Rishi, he is the one I would speak to."

BBC Sport

What is wrong with these owners? I am beginning to think they are really odd.

Kevin, I would agree that there had to be a certain element of nothing ventured nothing gained. I think that when the time is right, a little risk taking will help propel the club forward.

I am only too aware that every new signing is a risk, and a potential waste of money. George and Hackney would both bomb. Mainland Niles could break his leg tomorrow against Utd and be out for the season.

But spending like Spurs, when we haven't got their resources, is not sustainable. Even in the short term. I think the same could be said for Ipswich.

People slag off stability as a lack of ambition. Right now, I'll take it, as I never want to go back to the dark days again.

If I tell others to be objective. I'm happy to be objective myself. If people in the know tell.me in a month's time that we could have afforded to spend more, I'll put my hand up. I will acknowledge it on here.

And no, I'm not happy with the owners not speaking with Moyes in all the time hes been back. No, I'm also not happy with the squad being six senior players short.

But I am willing in responding to any article to acknowledge the good and the bad. Many fans don't seem to want to, or seem able to.

There is no good at this point Kieran. Making excuses for these scumbags actually clouds the issue. They didn't build this stadium they pushed it over the line. They bought the club for a song, and refinanced the club in a standard way an institutional investor would. Getting better rates of borrowing from third party lenders. From Wonga to JP Morgan. Well whoopee shit.

And they are now treating the fanbase with contempt. They need to Foxtrot Oscar, and if they don't they will reap the whirlwind of the disapproval of the entire global fanbase.

I stand corrected Kevin. The Friedkin Group out it is then.

On a separate note, what did the Romans ever do for us?

John at 12, is that a serious comment about the debt? Any owner would want to be a serious magician, or a trillionaire of epic proportions to have wiped out the debt.

What the new owners have done, take note Kevin also, is renegotiate and consolidate the debt at a better rate for the club. An upgrade on what previous owners had done.

I would have thought that was one for the pro column rather than a con.

Please, explain how I am wrong

Kevin, to be be honest, I think we still are heading towards what Villa and others have done. It's just that we're doing it from an extremely weak position and so it takes time.

The revenue is already materially up (on formerly disastrously low levels) and will continue to increase. That will allow us to spend more. As we all know, we need to invest more heavily in the playing squad.

We've had two big setbacks this summer (a) the failed Balogun deal and (b) the Burnley compensation. The former looks like circumstance and some individual incompetence. The latter is a legacy of Moshiri's serious mismanagement.

It is all bitterly disappointing, yes, but neither looks like a doomed strategy from TFG or evidence of them being rip off merchants.

The serious culprit in all this is Moshiri and, before him, Kenwright. TFG don't go in for PR - but I heard plenty of PR from these two charlatans as they set about destroying the club with their vanity and incompetence. I'm not too fussed about PR now.

why does it take time Robert? why do we find ourselves 'in an extremely weak position' with a turnover of over a quarter of a billion, and playing to packed houses of 54000 every week? Why is it that we can't spend more than £50m in a summer window without the wheels falling off and us telling the world that Armstrong is up for sale?

nobody told us this was the gig. We were told once we got in the new stadium with reich owners then the sky was the limit. Now that' we're here, we find that we're more skint than ever, that we need to have net neutral spends in order to balance the books. It's BS. the whole thing, the whole set up is a crock of shit. There is no more from us to be extracted that would allow us to gear up much more. We've got the extra punters in, we've got the new commercial boxes. It hasn't made any bleeding difference according to these twats.

Kevin

"We were told once we got in the new stadium with rich owners then the sky was the limit."

Who told you that?

Kieran @ 14,

Kevin is not suggesting that Everton spend like Spurs; nor is he saying that TFG spend in an unsustainable manner.

Angus Kinnear revealed in his recent interviews that the 2025-26 commercial revenue was £265M. The Premier League's Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules cap on-pitch spending at 85% of total football revenue, and we finished the transfer window in the high 60s according to the Esk against his own conservative revenue estimate of £245 million. We were comfortably inside the Uefa threshold of 70% despite us not being involved in Europe.

We had significant additional headroom to spend on recruitment, but ended the window 18th in terms of net spend. It was a decision by TFG to make the transfer window net neutral; we actually ended up with a net positive spend. Also, no money out until player exits were signed and delivered.

Put simply, they did not want to put in more shareholder money to fund on the field success. This is the opposite of their strategy for Roma where they finished the summer with a net spend of €109M.

It is also a relatively straight-forward task for a financier to restructure long-term debt when there is a brand-new stadium as securitisation.

sorry Robert I can't be wading in treacle like this over obvious points. have it your own way, no indications were given that a move to a new stadium would be an improvement.

Kieran 17.

Not at all,i was being sarcastic.
People put it across that they cleared the debt.
They didnt as far as I understand it,just moved it to another financier.

Steve - on deadline day a bid of £38.7 million was rejected by Stuttgart for Jamie Leweling - on the same day they were putting up £40 million for Balogun. They should probably have spent that £38 mill on a couple of properly decent fullbacks and a better CF, and not left it until the last minute, but they were prepared to spend £78.7 million which would have represented about £50 million net spend. Still not enough, but I doubt they set out to make a profit.

Steve, thanks for the very detailed response. I can see how improving the squad when we have the resources to do so can drive the club forward financially. I can see how fans can advocate for this. If our revenue continues on the same trajectory, it does make me hopeful, and that little bit more expectant, over the next couple of windows. Perhaps then we should have spent more this summer.

However, I can see the approach of the owners being based somewhat on the horns of a dilemma, given the mess they inherited.

We aren't a cash rich club. Building up cash reserves, especially when you've been on your uppers for as long as we have as a business, is important. I do also think, and again am open to correction, that our credit rating isn't exactly triple A. We need to keep creditors onside, build back up trust again after years of neglect, and near bankruptcy.

So, spend more of your turnover on players, and ignore other very important and pressing demanda on it, or try to manage them all so you get to a level where you can go for it on players.

It's a no win situation for the owners. Fall behind on the pitch, stay weakened following years of financial neglect, fall out with the fans, no matter what you do.

It's all opinion, splitting hairs, and conjecture amongst fans. I'll stand by slow and steady for now.

I guess we can all position things however we want. We can all certainly agree it was a disappointing end to the window. On a brighter note, I have just finished watching Newcastle v Bournemouth.

It was an extremely boring game of football.

Newcastle were awful. Good full backs but wide open defensively, error strewn in the build up, non existent in midfield and struggling to put any passes together in the final third. Bournemouth worked very hard and had a good defensive shape but generally forced chances from Newcastle errors rather than actually creating anything (although in fairness Alex Scott looked a class act).

They will both have better afternoons I expect but it won't be plain sailing for many clubs this season. Arbeloa, Sage, Emery and (in particular) DeZerbi will be under huge pressure without a win this weekend.

We've made a decent start, let's hope we can keep that going against a Man Utd side that looked very ordinary against Hull.

John @23 - who put it across they’d cleared the debt?

John @23, apologies on my part. Debating with other fans via squinting at the little comment box on my phone isn't a great way of doing this. (No offence Lyndon.) You end up.missing the nuances.

If I had my way, id be discussing all of the above in the flesh over a pint.

A favourite dad joke of mine popped into my head earlier.

There are these two cows standing in a field. One cow says 'what do you make of this mad cow disease?'. The other cow says, 'it doesn't affect me I'm a duck!'.

Everyone on the outside looking in see the craziness in being a football fan. It's just a pity at times we can't.

Nick, great piece. But wasn't incompetence. It was strategy.

Roma spent €109m net this summer. We spent nothing. That tells you everything. UEFA's multi-club rules mean Everton is the cash cow, Roma is the priority.

The £38m share issue in July and the investor search now? They're de-risking, not building for glory.

Moyes has never spoken to iDan Friedkin.Moyes himself as explained the communication structure, stating his direct contact is with CEO Angus Kinnear, then Rishi Majithia (Friedkin's son-in-law), with any communication to Friedkin going through them

This isn't "same old Everton." It's something new and worse. They want us just good enough to survive. That's all.Moyes himself as explained the communication structure, stating his direct contact is with CEO Angus Kinnear, then Rishi Majithia (Friedkin's son-in-law), with any communication to Friedkin going through them

The club is a professional football club, all of it should be. So why is our recruitment team allowed to act like rank amateurs? An either fit or injured Balogun would be an Everton player now if, the people whose job is to deal with incoming players, weren't running around like clowns in a circus.

He should have been looked after in one part of the building with people massaging his ego, whilst the headless chickens calling up every potential player as back-up, should be nowhere near. This isn't rocket science, just basic professionalism.

Proper professionalism of course, would mean not leaving a £50m signing to the last minute.

Everton do of course have previous in this. The excellent Nigel Martyn could have been an Everton player years earlier, if only they had put the effort in, rather than telling him the best way to get to Leeds, who he then signed for.

Kiran @ 3. in the main the recruitment has been crap to average? But if you mean dewsbury hall ?
He has been the exception to the rule..he has been a steal at 25m.a lot of the players signed you have to say the jury is still out on them as they haven't been given a run of games...
Would you say barry, dibling have been been great buys ? And did our recruitment team do a good job over the past week?

Yes Philip, I do think that some of our sugnings have been good. Ask any fan at any club and they will give you the same answer. Some players have ended up excelling expectations, some have been slow burners, some steady, and some very underwhelming or crap.

That the recruitment team didn't sign enough players quickly enough over the window is on them. Thats poor. But I don't think it ahould be used as a stick to beat them with over the quality of signings that have been made over the last twelve months.

Likewise Moyes not playing Aznou and Dibling. Thats a stick to beat him with, not the recruitment team.

Ask me, or anyone else, again in January, and then again in May. A smaller squad may well force Moyes into playing everyone. This will give us a chance to have a proper look at the signings made over the last twelve months.