Absent Friedkins Never Gave Themselves the Chance to Be Touched By Everton

AJ Bell, please come forward.

The main surprise of TFG seeking to sell is the timing. Had I been a betting man season 27-28 would have seemed the time to sell.

Lyndon, it's hard not to believe this was their primary objective. They had the savvy, the money and opportunity to do a fixer upper, however I think it was quite possibly a three year plan to put the finances right and then the team. Alas the reality of wheeler dealing meant selling the crown jewels to do it in their eyes but it showed their naivety. Much more money would be needed and that wasn't in the plan. A vastly underestimated one. Hence sell early.
If all had gone to plan in their eyes we would probably still been up for sale, just a year later. Take the handsome profit, they deserve it, but yes, they have done what they set out to do.
The constant, unforgivable clamour of "stability" just hid the reality for their lack of emotional commitment.
Oh well, I guess Dan can get into his Spitfire and fly off with a bit of dosh under his wings, in search of the next Dunkirk...

The acquisition by TFG was basically a private equity type move.

Buy a distressed asset cheaply, overhaul management, streamline supply chains, restructure debt, and make the business run more efficiently. Then, inject modest capital to generate more commercial revenue.

Once the P&L looks better, flip it for profit- minimum £250 million in the case of TFG.

They came, they saw, they profited and they left just about sums it up.

Well put, Steve. Frustrating from our perspective as fans who can only hope that a) the next owners arrive quickly and b) they’re prepared to inject significant money into the club to fund our forward progression without any guarantee they’ll get it back.

To the tune of “unforgettable” by Nat King Cole, I just hope Everton can get people through the door that are just “so professional”🤞

We nearly signed Balagun, but we nearly sold Harrison Armstrong, which with hindsight was nothing more than a very cynical move.

It didn’t take long to realise that they didn’t really give a fuck about us, and because i’m an Evertonian, who knows and still believes, that we can be great again, I found this very disrespectful, but I suppose they didn’t tell many lies, and hopefully soon they will be gone.

The bigger the price, the more chance we must have of being sold to another investment company, but what are we without hope? something I just never really had with those invisible Friedkin’s.

Steve Brown

Great Buisness on their part, especially when you consider how they tightened their belt during the Transfer Window, while at the same time selling off one of our most creative players, since James Rodriguez.

Addressing our most urgent need, for a Right Back, by spending a paltry 4 million on a well worn Maitland Niles.

One would be forgiven, for holding a conspiracy theory, that Davy was well aware of the plan.

A straight swop, mediocrity, for mediocrity.
Swapping players is rare in modern day football, but, hey!, if your going to save a few quid.. why not?

The Armstrong affair !
Even myself, I can’t help but believe, that the acquisition of Norgaad, for the Princely sum of 7 million, was a cynical attempt to replace Armstrong.. Conspiracy Theories all around !

I think you wrote something similar to Steve, in one particular paragraph, Lyndon, but otherwise I think you have been very kind to TSF, imo mate!

Paul #6 some good theories there mate, they’re timing was 24 hours out with selling Armstrong though wasn’t it, bet Angus got a right bollocking for that!
The worry now is when this drags on and on what investment in the squad will TFG make then? No doubt it will be player trading, you need a striker,a left back ?
then a Garner a KDH or the crown jewel Jarrad Branthwaite will be sold.
They need to be gone asap so whoever comes in needs to build a squad rather than flip a squad, the writing will be on the wall for Goodison too, that was their idea for running it for the ladies team,can’t see that lasting under new ownership, they get crowds that average 2000, doesn’t cover the leccy bill.

They saw an opportunity with a distressed Everton acquired on favourable terms.
They de-stressed us financially, for which we have to be grateful, but in truth any sensible owner would have done the same.
I’m not convinced they intended to sell so soon but circumstances ( Roma stadium, Hockey franchise, money required at Everton- seems they underestimated) dictated it.
Running any longer we’d have gotten more of the same, frustrating cash tight transfer windows, sale of better players, simply existing in the PL.
The frustration would have grown.
So yes it’s frustrating. Yes we’re faced with more uncertainty. But the sooner it’s resolved, the sooner we can move forwards, hopefully with new Owners who have both ambition ( and the means to support it) and an affinity for our Club.

Steve#3

That is basically what TFG have done.
A new majority investor would be buying a stabilised platform with unrealised upside. TFG did the hard restructuring work: debt refinanced, stadium built, financials cleaned up. What they didn't do was push the football side forward or fully develop the property potential.

The Sums I worked out are full sale or sale of Majority stake in less than two years in, and reportedly want around $1B including ~£502m debt. They bought for ~£500m, so the target profit is roughly £250m–£350m.

I think its the lesser of two evils for both parties. TFG can't afford to keep us, especially with what Roma's new stadium and the new hockey franchise are going to cost them. If they had stayed, they would potentially have drawn more and more profit down from the club to pay othe costs,
While at the same time investing less and less. Bad for us, slower financial revenue streams for them.

A sale, with a net profit of 200m-400m, in one lump makes things easier and quicker for TFG to pay for all the other things.

Would I have preferred they stayed, yes, even if only for another couple of years.

I didn't think there was any slyness or anterior motives with them. I just think that the enormity of what it would have taken to see the project through long term was beyond them.

Going forward, it just is what it is. I'm not going to get sucked into into conjecture, ifs and or buts around the sale of the club and how TFG will approach it. I'll only drive myself mad, and make more of a battle for myself in trying to enjoy being a fan.

I can do without the worry of something that will only come to light as the sale process played out. Like Ian @9, I will just have to live in hope for now.

If these people are going to be pulling up close to $5 Billion, for two other ventures, then isn’t it clear that they have definitely got the money but they have never had any real inclination to get really stuck into Everton?

You could make a case for the idea that we, the fans, forced them out or helped them make a decision. And all with no blood-letting. We just protested the Harrison sale which meant they realised that it's better to leave now than for it to become a war of wills with the fans in the pursuit of maximising their returns. I bear no ill will against them though. Both Moshiri and TFG have been important parts of our story and whilst both reigns have been ultimately disappointing, the stadium and financial stability (and dare I say it stability on the pitch even) have set us up for a promising future that looked and felt like a distant dream not so long ago.

This could be a good thing. They have got us back on our feet, although dazed, we are pointing in the the right direction.

They clearly have no interest in us to compete at the top, so there is a chance that someone passionate to do so, could safely come in, knowing that all the skeletons have been removed from the closet.

TFG were one of the poorer owners in the Premier League, yes we could do worse (again), but law of averages say we could well do better at last.

we know what this crew are about, we've got six years of Roma to analyse. Spending the bare effing minimum.. And that's when they're keen to impress! So it's galling that these lying carpetbaggers have turned us for a fast profit, but it's great to see them in the rear view mirror, cos they were never going to shape up. From the moment they appointed Kinnear it was clear what their priorities were. And then their general rudeness just cemented that.;

Good riddance.

Big game right now. Club in a period of insecurity due to TFG sale. A loss might be blown up into, "Chaos at Everton" which I don't believe is accurate. Avoid the drama and over exaggerations of a Club in flux, please.

Lyndon... we seriously need a live forum for games here at Evertonia.

Well, it’s taken my mind off Man City!

We obviously don’t know how long this will drag on for, or indeed who the new owners will be, but I’m feeling optimistic for the first time in a while.

I posted on another thread the other day that the Freidkins were golfing in Scotland but now we know why they had no inclination to venture south.

Grateful they have put us on an even keel but happy they are willing to move aside and let (hopefully) someone in who want to move us forward.

TFG has done us a favor.

They've rescued us from sure financial disaster. Thanks to their economic clout, they've had the leverage to restructure our crippling debt. The club is now out of the relegation disaster area of the table. They've sold assets, but left us with a competitive, yet thin, team.

Hopefully new owners will come in, add to the squad, and keep the team financially stable and out of the relegation battles of sure death.

I have zero issues with TFG making serious money with the sale. They've actually done a good job stabilizing the club. Pray for good ownership moving forward.

I've actually seen some commentators say TFG are "asset strippers". If so, how in the world are we 4th in the table if we beat Hull? That position in the table doesn't quite jive with the "asset stripper" narrative.

Hopefully not Jamie, let’s hope that a sale goes through without a hitch

Definitely, Tony.

I see TFG just wanting to sell, make some (a lot of) dosh, and get out. I think a sale will happen soon-ish and will be smooth.

So much for top 4. M-N got skinned.

I reckon, some organisation approached them, indicating they would prefer a majority holding. TFG, thought about it and said ok. A bird in the hand so to speak. Anyway as long as the new owners are genuine, lets hope they get on with it. We need players in January.

Lyndon please sort out a live forum for this site. It's desperately needed.

Get Burnham to nationalise us and Carney in to run the finances…..sorted.
I’m with Jamie and Jack, we need a Live Forum. What’s going on at Toffeeweb is dreadful.

Si, that's what I was thinking. Burnham is nationalising everything else maybe us too, 'Great British Everton FC, the people's national club'. You can forget defence, the NHS and education we've got the people's club who need investment in the next budget. Sound familiar of a club down the east Lancs?

I'm just very sad the way it's all turning out, because I had high hopes for a long marriage here, but to borrow the title of an old Scarlett Johansson movie, Dan Friedkin just wasn't that into us.

I think they missed out, but Jamie, I thought you of all people would mention what kind of hot number they are dumping us for. The opportunity in the new, suddenly explosive growth of hockey is exponentially larger than for Everton, and Friedkin just secured the inside lane to the expansion NHL franchise for the 5th largest market in America, Houston. He will need to write a check for $2 billion in December and then immediately spend another $1.5 billion for an arena. So he probably needs the Everton cash.

My concern now is who comes next. A blowhard egotist like Boehly would be a disaster.

TFG haven't done us any favours. they did themselves the favours. they|ve extracted considerable value out of the club that could have benefited another owner who then ploughed that value back into the club. Instead, that value is now heading to Texas. We are no longer a bargain, and will be sold for maximum dollar. the Echo confirmed today that our threadbare squad was reduced without the say so of Moyes, he had no say over any of the departures on deadline day, that firesafe was the Friedkins parting gift after they let the entire fanbase renew their season tickets on the basis there would be ongoing investment in the squad, knowing they would be pulling the rug in the last couple of days.
Let's have it right, they are mercenary scumbags, who along with the rest of these owners are ruining professional sport in this country.

After the window closed, Everton were down in 15th place among Premier League clubs for net spend. The club pocketed over £100 million on deadline day through the sales of Iliman Ndiaye, Beto, Tim Iroegbunam, and Nathan Patterson. They were one of just half a dozen clubs to make a trading profit.

At least 777 are out of the equation.

Knowing our luck we'll get 666.

Kevin @27, what value have they taken out of the club. They've potentially sold it for a huge profit, profit that the people buying the club will stump up, not the club itself by the way. But what have they physically taken out of the club?

Have they physically in a sly, underhand and illegal manner 50m, 80m, 100m, out of the club's bank account and placed it in their own? What figure do you have exactly?

Have they taken out a loan secured with club assets and placed it in their own bank account?

Have they taken that 100m profit from player sales in the summer that Jerome mentions and put it in their bank account?

Are you accusing the Friedkins of taking all the season ticket money and putting it in their own bank account?

If you cite me proof, a set of accounts, articles by respected journalists fine. I woll happily agree with you, change my opinion and stand corrected. But this thing of just typing angry posts without proof seems meaningless.

I read somewhere, possibly on Evertonia or Toffeeweb, that they drew down a dividend of 40m. As owners of a business, that is their right, and I don't have a problem with it. Given the sums involved in running a PL club, it sounds a reasonable sum to me.

But these accusations that they've asset stripped the club to the tune of every last penny, and seemingly left us worse off than before they bought us, seem way off the mark.

If a sale goes through Kieran in the next couple of months whereby the Friedkins sell Everton for hundreds of millions more than they paid for it, without themselves putting that money in through investment, then yes they've taken money out of the club. They took advantage of the fact the club was seriously undervalued owing to the jokers who owned it before, they gave it a makeover and then have rinsed us good and proper.

If that set of circumstances take place, will you be 'yeah, fine. '

if so, fair enough, but that will not be the attitude of many, I would hazard a guess.

It would be like a property developer buying an old castle from an aristocrat who was down on his luck and didn't realise the potential of the castle. The developer tarts it up at minimum expense and sells it for ten million six months later. It may be legal, but the aristo has still been done. Cos when he bought it off the aristo he'll have said, 'yes, I'll be a good custodian, I'll look after your history. I'll treat it like my own. '

Kevin, I see it differently. I think they've done enough in a short period of time, in a proper and business like manner to improve the club and increase it's value as a business. Theyre business nen, not a benevolent charitable trust.

While they may be guilty of not following fans' hopes, dreams and aspirations about their club's owners, I think they have done well by the club. They were the right owners at the right time. For me, they are leaving the club in a much better condition than how they found it.

I just don't see that they have ripped club off or stolen from it. Would I like owners who stay for the long term, yes. Would I like to see steady investment over many years,yes. But I think the Friedkins have been a short term version of that.

jamie @18 you say our squad is competitive ! we have 1 striker and 1 full back 9 or 10 midfielders = totally unbalanced squad. if anyone thinks different then you don't know anything about football. we may be 5th in the league but you have to acknowledge the fixture list has been kind to us so far.lots of tougher games coming up, lets see where we are in january.btw please don't say jake & naitland miles are full backs.
mike @27 thanks for filling us in with the info why the poor friedkins need to liquidate assets and search down the back of the couch for any loose change.
maybe I could walk up and down regent road on saturday morning with a collection bucket for hard up billionaires - I am sure I would get lots of sound financial advice !

They have done nothing wrong Kevin, in fact they may have saved us from bankruptcy.
It's pointed all along to the fact we were just a business deal to them and I dare say we will be the same to our next owner or owners.
I doubt we will be sold to a sole owner, I think we will be sold to two or more individuals or companies. Who knows!
Whether that will be a good or bad thing we will have to see, it could be good in some ways or it could be a case of 'too many cooks'.
It's what football has become, it's supposedly progress but it's like a lot of other things nowadays I would prefer it/them as they were.

There is an an article by Tribuna (whoever they are) talking about our possible new owners. Here's the summary:

Three individuals are named:

- Vatche Manoukin (leading a consortium combining a wealthy lead investor with other sports-focused partners - probably as part of or with a view to a multi-club model).

- Andy Bell (presumably the owner of the wealth management business, not the former singer in Erasure)

- John Textor (potentially reviving the previous failed bid to add Everton to his multi-club portfolio alongside Botafogo and Lyon etc - presumably in place of Palace).

Otherwise they talk more about the type of ownership model - and don't rule out continued TFG involvement albeit as a minority investor.

Andy Bell will be popular because he is an Everton fan and so that does have some superficial appeal - especially for those who find the Friedkins' quiet approach objectionable.

Personally, I think we're much better off longer term in a multi-club model (with or without Andy Bell). In the Premier League, City, Brighton, Palace, Chelsea, Man Utd, Hull, Fulham, Ipswich, Leeds, Forest, Bournemouth and Villa are already there to a greater or lesser degree. Arsenal and the RS are already heading in that direction too. I think it will become the standard model to help secure and develop a "stable" of talent, manage financial rules etc and manage down exposure to a massively overheated transfer market. We'll see.

By quirk of fate I ended up working on the very fringes (and I do mean very fringes) of a failed bid at the end of the Moshiri era but I can't go into any details, I'm afraid. Unlikely for that to happen again too, I expect.

With all due respect, as columbo or any wise guy might say Mike gaynes,nobody who supports Everton really gives a rats arse about hockey or yank footy or the world series of trumpism, we only care about our club. They stabilised the club but once they saw we wouldnt take their selling Harrison shit without a protest, they decided to sell. thanks yanks don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out

tony that was my point - thanks yanks for saving us -why should we care what happens to them now ? I thought I had logged on to friedkinia.com !

Without going into any details, when that bid was turned down Robert, how did the people who had lost out, react!?

Robert #35, are you not aware that Textor has lost control of his entire football empire?

His Eagle Football Holdings is gone, placed in adminstration in the UK. Michelle Kang bought him out of Lyon. Botafogo punted him out of his board position and is trying mightily to remove him from ownership as well. And he's in desperate legal disputes with them, with Kang and with Ares Equity, to whom he apparently owes about a gazillion dollars.

His credibility has been blown out of the water this year, along with apparently a major share of his fortune.

He cannot be a potential buyer for Everton.

Phillip @ 33 -

Just saw your comment.

Is the squad a bit "unbalanced" as you say, or simply short in certain positions?

There's a lot of folks here at Evertonia that have been posting for years over on TW. They can attest, this isn't the first time this American has been told, "...you don't know anything about football."

Perhaps. 😂

Cheers.

Mike, according to many on TW, you should be off aomewh6in sackclith and ashes, attending for the sin of saying something positive about the Friedkins. The audacity of you to say that the Friedkins were in it fir the long haul.

Instead, you've just moved to here to contribute. Really Mike, really????

Mike, joking aside, I'm sure you're well able to fight your own battles. But it didn't sit right with me how you were singled out.

Hope you stay on here contributing. If for nothing else, you're as close as I'll get to another holiday in the States.

Anyway, is Textor gone from Palace. It sounds like he is. I like how they've done things in the last couple of seasons, and am a little curios as to what type of owners they have.

Antony # 38, to the extent I had much visibility, it was a very normal "corporate" reaction. Basically frustration at considerable time and money lost in pulling a deal together that ended up collapsing. Some of the stakeholders have performance / delivery bonus (or similar) that was lost - so that frustration hits at a personal level too. But although there was a football club at the heart of it - it was just a very normal transaction where a purchaser is interested in assets / revenue stream but only on the "right" terms. In that case, it came very close but the parties couldn't find a way to make it work. It happens. To be honest though, TFG were a massive upgrade on that particular bid.

Mike # 39, I didn't bother fact checking the article. Just thought it was an interesting summary. Thanks Lyndon (presumably) for adding the link.

Jamie @40 I just checked my post, I didn't actually say you don't know anything about football. And our squad isn't a bit unbalanced

It is totally unbalanced- surely you can see a small squad with only 1 recognised striker and 1 recognised full back cannot be competitive, plenty of choice in midfield but moyes only starts his favourites.

A competitive team would have taken 3 points on sunday as they were there for the taking.

I scraped the money together to buy my first season ticket in 1970

£6 & 10 shillings I think so I have seen the best of everton now the past 4 or 5 seasons have been the worst.

Jamie if you think Everton's squad is competitive that's fine everyone is entitled to an opinion (even americans !!!! )

That's an attempt at a joke by the way...

The entire saga has the stench of Dion Dublin about it! Homes under the Hammer. See a place with a lot of potential, cover over cracks with second rate shirt deals, kit supplier, naming rights, flip for a tidy profit. They never intended getting emotionally involved, and they rarely told lies, so I suppose we should be grateful that we weren't completely stripped of valuable assets and then sold on. Our only hope now is that they honour their intention to sell to a buyer who will help us kick on and reawaken this great club.

I have always thought that you know your football, as much as the next poster Jamie. We all get some things right and some things wrong, that’s just the nature of life, and as for the difference of opinion between you and Phillip, I’d say you’re both right!

Once we get a few injuries then because we are still very short in certain area’s then it will automatically become unbalanced, especially in those fullback positions that have been badly neglected for way too long.

Let’s just hope we get through it, get sold and get owners who want to take us forward🤞We have waited very patiently for our new stadium, whilst being kicked from pillar to post, only to get there and find out our new owners, were only really interested in making a fast buck, (this was clear to some of us - and was why some of Mike’s views and continued defence of TSF, became a little bit difficult to accept, for me personally Kieran) so hopefully the next owners have a bit more ambition to try and gain some success, rather than just being all about money.

This obviously concerns me though, because the only thing that seems to be sacred these days, is money.

TFG have shelled out £830m for Everton and done a great job getting all the debt restructured and cleaned up. They wanted to sell Harrison so that more money was in the pot for transfers. That was an error and a short-term fix that would have saved them putting up more money and it didn't happen thankfully. They have not stripped any assets and who cares if they make a bob or 2 after shelling out £830m - I'm guessing they'd like more reward than if they'd just sat on that money - can't argue with that!

TFG shelled out 830 million ?

Was this always TFG’s plan or did they come to realise over time that the PL is a closed shop with a glass ceiling, above which the ladder was yanked up some time ago? And that the Sly Six inflate the market to their own ends by buying the best players from ‘lesser’ teams for tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of pounds?

Perhaps they felt that they have a better chance of success elsewhere. I don’t buy the argument that Roma are where their passion lies (they don’t seem to have any passion for football at all) based upon feedback from Roma fans but I suspect Serie A is less of a closed shop than the PL.

Anyway, thanks for saving us at least. Unfortunately I think that to move a non-Sly Six club like Everton forward will require someone with serious money and a genuine love for the club. Hopefully someone like that exists out there somewhere!

TFG did not shell out £830 million for Everton. They spent £400 to buy 98.8% of the club.

Moshiri accepted £25 million for the sale of the club and wrote off £451 million in interest-free shareholder loans owed to him by agreeing to convert them into equity and wiping them out.

TFG will walk away with minimum £250 million for the sale of the club. This is after taking £45 million out of the club in December in the form of a dividend payment.

Compare and contrast.

TFG bought a distressed asset cheaply, restructured the debt using our £1 billion new stadium as securitisation, injected modest capital to generate more commercial revenue. Once the P&L looked better, they flipped it.

Some posters seem happy to have their pants pulled down by TFG, but most supporters see them for what they were.

Steve Brown, spending 400m of your own money is buying a distressed asset cheaply, really? They then spent more of their own money trying to bring things up to some sort of half decent standard. Say somewhere over half a billion pounds in total.

You make it sound like there was zero risk for them and that it was all very very easy money

Im such a gullible fool, perhaps I should email the Friedkins and see if they have any magic beans for sale. Thank Christ I wore clean underpants this morning.

A thought has just come to me regarding Farhad Moshiri, after reading how much he wrote off Steve. I’m not sure there are many people who would be prepared to write off that much money, and it’s got me thinking about what is around the corner for Everton.

Could Usmanov, come back? Surely not? But a quick google of Moshiri’s name, and net worth is incredible. In 2021 Farhad, according to the Sunday times rich list, had an estimated net worth of £1.7 Billion.

Fast forward five years and his net worth today according to Forbes, is now $2.7 Billion. The first one was sterling, the second was in dollars, but when you consider that he allegedly wrote off £450 million, less than two years ago, the man is doing very, very fucking well, indeed.

A distressed asset playing in the richest league in Europe, with a fantastic new stadium is a lot different than just a distressed asset though Kieran.

Steve, a question for you. What value would you have put on the club, if the Friedkins paid too little for it? Do you really think we were worth much more, given the state we were in?

While I'm at it Steve, it took Moahiei taking a serious haircut to make the club attractive at all. If you want to blame owners, perhaps vent more of your spleen on Kenwright and Moshiri.

If you want serious owners with proper business acumen, who would you rather, the previous two incumbent or the Friedkins. I know who I would rather have running the club.

The Friedkins achieved more positive changes under a two year timeline than Kenwright and Moshiri did in decades.

Tony # 51, I think there's a simpler explanation for Moshiri's willingness to write off £451m. It makes sense if...

It wasn't his money.

It was Usmanov's money.

Usmanov wrote it off because he had to. Sanctions forced his hand. Moshiri was only ever the front.

It is possible he could step back in because he seems to have only recently had his sanctions lifted (very controversially).

However, after all the business with Man City's ownership, do we want a chap like that at the helm?

Personally I would much rather have a consortium of private equity, running us as a business and (forgive them) making a few quid in the process - than a regime, an oligarch etc etc here for the sportswashing.

Anyone who wants to win, would do me Robert, someone who is prepared to put up the money to achieve success (even if it is someone else’s!, mate)

Kieran, is very logical when he says he would prefer people who know what they’re doing, but only if they’re also in it for the good of the club, which I have never felt was the case with TSF group.

Usmanov’s money delivered us a fantastic new stadium, I’d sooner have him at the front rather than another equity group, but I’m a person who believes every single pound note, has been infested by some kind of corruption somewhere along the line, and this is also why I believe we have got the current unelected Prime Minister, worrying that The Sheiks, might leave

Kieran #41, no worries. I've been nailing my colours to unpopular masts on TW for 20 years, because it's fun, and it doesn't bother me a bit to have my predictions turn out wrong. I was the only person on there to correctly predict that Friedkin would buy the club in the first place, and I even described how he'd do it. I'm just heartsick they're bailing out, because I was truly optimistic about our long-term prospects under their ownership. And I've tried to post on TW but find it currently impossible to navigate. But anyway, thanks again for your support. I'll buy the first round when I come over in April.

(You might save yourself the trouble of trying to have a principled debate with the fellow you're currently debating. You'll find a dearth of integrity there.)

Tony #51, yep, I posted about a year ago when I noticed with considerable surprise that, according to Forbes, Moshiri had dramatically increased his net worth during the time he owned Everton. Apparently whatever business he's in now has done well, even while he was taking a drubbing in football. I wish him well -- I believe he always had the club's best interests at heart.

Robert #54, amen. I desperately hope we're acquired by an entity viewing Everton as a quality investment, rather than a Boehly or a Ratcliffe who will treat it as an exercise in egotism.

Kieran, in particular you should note that this specific claim is fraudulent:

"This is after taking £45 million out of the club in December in the form of a dividend payment."

It never happened. As confirmed by the club's last annual financial statement, as well as published analysis by Paul "The Esk" Quinn on 1 August, the announced dividend was never taken by the Friedkins or their Everton ownership entity Roundhouse Capital. Only us tiny shareholders were issued payouts.

Your integrity-challenged opponent not only still claims that the Friedkins pocketed the declared dividend (the amount of which he exaggerates) but that it came out of the club's SCR transfer budget, thus betraying a lack of knowledge about where dividends actually come from (assets, not revenues). Your discussion partner will apparently never stop his misrepresentations on this subject.

So you'll probably want to take any factual claims he makes with a grain of salt the size of Michael Keane.

Antony @55. There have been umpteen prime ministers who have not been “ elected “ as you say, going back to as far as Sir Alec Douglas Hume in 1963. He wasn’t even an M. P., when the tories chose him to be their leader. That is the way our electoral system works. It’s not Andy Burnham fault.

In a kind of related way to the topic of owners. Josh Wander of 777 Partners infamy; has been found guilty in New York of fraud, and been ordered to repay 500 million to investors. He could be in line for a 40 year lockup.

Whew!!! We dodged a stinky mess there!

Of course it is Les. The masters make the rules for the wisemen and the fools, and whilst people keep defending certain individuals or their own ideology, then that very important middle ground, keeps gets lost, imo mate.

And this is why I am getting and to a large degree already have gotten, turned off by all things modern football.

There is far too much attention paid to the business side and administrative side of the game these days. We see headlines about Infatino, The Glazers and debt, Russian oligarchs, cheating state owned clubs, dodgy rules, break away leagues, VAR, star referees, rules not fit for purpose, a constant background noise of finances.

I remember when it was a sport!

I love Everton. but the cack VAR, spineless Referees, and the lack of any euality and governance is turning me away from the PL, but I enjoy watchinv the Bundesliga these days, good value for money.
Off to the game and hope Everton have learned a harsh lesson from the Hull fame.
Praying JB is fit to play and imho at RB play Jimmy, and start Hackney in midfield.

No unforced errors today and hopefully play wihh spirit and belief.
Get in their faces and get an early goal.

UTTs!

Moyes has a small squad and still doesn’t play the right player in the correct position,

AMN is the fourth best RB at the club,

Dibling can hold onto the ball better than Johnson and Rohl in the forward right side position,

Hackney is a better option than Norgard as a substitute to try to get back in a game.

These are all irrefutable facts that everyone at today’s game knew both before, and after, the final whistle,

apart from one stubborn dinosaur.