“Not the job that was pitched to me”

“Not the job that was pitched to me” – how many managers, directors of football, coaching staff, players, administration and support staff across the business could testify to the words of Everton manager, Sean Dyche after our 4th successive home win secured our Premier League status for yet another year? The third successive year in which “success” can only be defined as escaping relegation.

Yet, despite that comment and all the reasons behind it, Dyche and his team have delivered – not always prettily, nor in the traditions of many Evertonians, but in a results driven business he has provided the required results – to his enormous credit. We are indebted to his strength of character and ability to focus on the immediate needs of the club and deliver.

To Dyche’s point – no doubt the pitches over the eight years of Moshiri’s reign have changed significantly in tone, ambition and yes credibility. Although little was really known about Moshiri when he acquired his initial 49.9% of Everton in February 2016, on paper at least, the credentials were good. Successful businessman, self-made billionaire, an advisor chosen by Usmanov to run his huge and complex businesses across Russia and the former Soviet States. A football man (of sorts) – significant investor in Arsenal, advocated for by David Dein, a would-be owner had the Arsenal board not foreseen what the Everton board failed to see, a supposed football nut with an “encyclopaedic” knowledge of football as it was described to me in his early days.

The perfect partner

Moshiri was described by the then Chairman, Bill Kenwright, as the perfect partner – “After an exhaustive search I believe we have found the perfect partner to take the club forward. I have got to know Farhad well over the last 18 months and his football knowledge, financial wherewithal and true blue spirit have convinced me that he is the right man to support Everton.”

In seeking a “Hollywood” manager, Moshiri made it clear what his ambitions were. The initial pitch, swallowed hook, line and sinker by an equally unsuitable individual in Ronald Koeman, was European football within a couple of years followed by regular competition for and participation in the Champions League. Laughable now especially in the context of the recruitment decisions and wildly ill-disciplined spending of the early years.

One of the first of many poor decisions (in Koeman) and the total lack of leadership and strategic thinking by the Everton board, their inability to reign Moshiri in, their inability to run a football business is well documented, particularly on these pages and elsewhere, yet the constant interfering in recruitment, the constant changes in football managers, directors of football, and the decisions which ultimately led to the Profit and Sustainability rule breaches which so nearly sunk our great football club continued.

The numerous misjudgements, poor decisions and lack of strategic direction has created the club we have today. Some point to the Bramley-Moore stadium as a justification, a mitigation, as a tangible positive that somehow balances the Moshiri ledger. It does not. Dispassionately, and if one looked at this as an non Evertonian, as a none related party to the city of Liverpool and the potential redevelopment and economic impact of the stadium, one might question many aspects of the stadium itself and the strains it has put on Everton football club and the failure of the board/owner to mitigate those strains.

Bramley-Moore Dock

This maybe controversial, heretic to some for sure, but the stadium project, its costs, the initial confusion over design and purpose, its potential use for a never-to-be fulfilled Commonwealth games in Liverpool, the delays in starting construction as a result of the above, the idea that the City Council would assist in funding costs, the reliance on Usmanov for much of the future funding indirectly through USM, and the lack of a senior debt partner have been enormously costly. The club have argued that macro events such as Covid, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic consequences have all played their role in the cost of the stadium. There is, of course, some truth in that, but equally had planning been sought earlier, had senior not piecemeal funding been secured, had the offer of funding been accepted many of Everton’s current problems would never have arisen or at least would have been significantly smaller.

The point is though, that if viewed from a distance, the whole project, taken as a whole, carries all the baggage of Moshiri’s chaotic management and ownership. His choice of board and executive team amplifies these points. I should stress that the actual construction phase (largely out of Everton’s hands) is exempt from the criticism above. Overall, it is a reflection of Moshiri’s management of Everton. Neither does question the need for a new stadium, only the leadership, management and decision making around it.

Which brings us to the last and perhaps greatest folly of Moshiri’s time at Everton – the choice of 777 Partners as potential owners of the club. Moshiri’s words justifying his choice strongly echo the words used by Bill Kenwright in acclaiming Moshiri’s suitability as owner. There are distinct parallels.

The best partner

However, it is through my lengthy discussions with 777 that I believe they are the best partners to take our great Club forward, with all the benefits of their multi-club investment model. As a result of this agreement, we have an experienced and well-connected investor in football clubs who will help maximise the commercial opportunities, and we have secured the complete financing for our new stadium, which will be the critical element in the future success of Everton.

After more than seven months of viewing 777 Partners trying to satisfy the Premier League of their ability to fund the purchase, fund the stadium, recapitalise the business now and for the future, the football world is waking to the realisation that they (777) cannot meet their obligations.

Indeed, such has been the scrutiny that 777 Partners have faced, such has been the performance of their business portfolio, such has been the numerous reports as to their funding model, the reliance on debt and in particular funding from 777 Re and increasingly A-Cap in the United States, that the prospect of 777’s success in acquiring Everton has diminished greatly.

Potentially the light shone on the use of reinsurers’ balance sheets by private equity companies, and the use of their balance sheets in related party funding, may bring huge changes to the regulation, ownership and future funding of such companies – the insurers and owners of the management groups alike. Any future threat to the security of policyholders’ current and future benefits has consequences far beyond the funding of a football club.

I have always held the view that they (777) could not fund Everton, have said so consistently, besides questioning their multi-club model, their management capabilities and capacity, I have expressed wider concerns over their other portfolio businesses and their funding model. Over time the number of people and organisations sharing similar views has increased considerably. That inevitably includes potential co-investors and other funders, again making the likelihood of 777 Partners acquiring Everton markedly and increasingly less likely.

Meanwhile Everton have accumulated significantly more debt, including from 777 Partners, had to deal with the uncertainty around the takeover, see our competitive position decline and make the task of attracting suitable investors even more difficult. Everton through Moshiri’s insistence, have become less investible by association with 777 Partners.

All at a time when the current owner Farhad Moshiri, or more accurately, his PR companies express blind faith in the deal, whilst he (contractually bound or not – I believe not) fails to permit or even examine alternative rescue plans.

Moshiri’s treatment of the Fan Advisory Board, his failure to meet previous promises and commitments to meeting, engaging and informing fans (let alone shareholders) reached new levels of contempt with his recent promise to meet in mid-May. Unintentionally, a clear indication that even he recognised that 777 were unlikely to conclude in the most recent suggested timetable.

At the time of writing I am not aware of any comments from him regarding the players and manager’s achievements of surviving relegation despite incomparable obstacles. Another contemptuous omission.

Why is all of this important?

It’s important because whilst the on-field achievement of escaping relegation removes a huge uncertainty an the consequences of not being in the Premier League next season, it doesn’t solve the crisis surrounding Everton – the existential crisis created by Moshiri, his choices and misjudgements.

Just as Dyche managed to focus on the immediate tasks required to secure our position in the Premier League, blocking out the noise as he put it, someone – most likely us the fans, have to perform a similar task in rescuing the club from Moshiri’s actions. He has proven time and time again his judgements are not sound.

At this particular moment he has us in the most perilous position in our existence. The failure not to provide new funding, the failure not to seek suitable new purchasers, his failure perhaps not to seek further support from existing backers, his failure to bring in corporate recovery and yes, insolvency expertise as a contingent (minimally), pushes us closer to the edge, and above all else his insistence on 777 Partner’s ability to successfully conclude.

I suspect we will see ourselves over the line in terms of the end of the season. Somehow the remaining funding for the next few weeks will be found. But this is no way to run a football club. A hand to mouth existence just to stay in business. A football team and manager who performed way beyond what should normally be expected of them given their relative competitive position. A future in which our best players will be sold to meet cashflow and regulatory requirements, or as is probable, will seek to leave (as have so many in the Moshiri era). A time when we will be spending millions a month in interest payments, because our funding model is wrong and because Moshiri didn’t seek the right acquirors.

Our future is measured in weeks because of the position Moshiri has placed us in, due to his decisions. Naturally at the end of the most stressful season (and coming after the previous two stressful seasons) most fans will want to relax and will probably see this form of opinion or intervention as unwelcome, divisive and damaging. Yet sadly, these issues have to be drawn to the attention of the fan base and all stakeholders involved in Everton.

This last week has demonstrated all that is great about our club, our determination to beat the odds, the willingness of supporters to go way beyond the normal requirements of supporting a football club. Equally, as this article first stated, Dyche’s ability to pull the the team together, to get us over the footballing line once more.

Yet without an immediate change by Moshiri, the primary cause of all our ills, it might all be in vain. The events of last week, the Derby in particular and memorable, indeed never to be forgotten. Yet without immediate action regarding the future of the club will ultimately, apart from the experience, be rendered worthless.

There are, as one significant stakeholder put it to me this week, people “working night and day for a solution”. There are people, not in the public domain, working as hard as Dyche and his team to ensure our survival. Moshiri must give those people the opportunity to resolve our existential issues. He can partially redeem himself by allowing capable, resourced individuals the authority to rescue us from his decisions. One redeeming act in a period of what is frankly madness.

The fan base, the media, the footballing authorities need to know this and play our/their part in rescuing our great club. Moshiri needs to listen and respond. The need to do so, and the shortage of time to do so, has never been greater.

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