777 Partners reportedly seeking funds from new private equity firm

I am sure there must be other investors who would be looking at us.

It shouldn't be an ex-Liverpool player saying this he wrote, it should be ex-Everton players shouting from the rooftops. But enough ex-Everton players turned up at Bill Kenwright's funeral, even though they must have known deep down what he had helped do to our club.

A must read, it's on the Everton page now, and it's not even behind a paywall. Carragher is a red, but because Everton never leaves us, he definitely understands what us fans should be doing now.

The problem I have with that is Moshiri has not got a good record in sorting out anything and he or his friends seem to be prepared to offload Everton to whoever can get access to funds, ultimately provided from the murkiest areas of the financial system.

I think that if there was any chance of a successful takeover of Everton in its present form, MSP Capital would have taken up their option and did what Teneo should do, without any interference from Moshiri & Co.

But I am still open to Russian connections with MSP Capital Sport which AI is still bringing up from somewhere, but not as has been verified by the US Federal Government in Teneo's case.

It is just a complete mess and we are just chasing after 777 Partners distractive press releases at the moment. No reputable financial institution will be dealing with too hot to handle 777 Partners unless they are already caught up with them and trying to recover their monies.

Hopefully someone can dig it out because I think it fits how a lot of us Evertonians are currently feeling. I'll keep searching to see if it's turned up elsewhere.

Google the title and add 'Carragher' and 'Telegraph' and you might be able to find it someway then hopefully mate.

Everton’s takeover screams danger – 777 could pose a bigger threat than relegation

Everton's traumatic recent history is the result of a catalogue of catastrophic decisions by Farhad Moshiri. I fear he saved his worst until last when agreeing to sell the club to 777 Partners.

The biggest danger for Everton this season was never the impact of an 8-point deduction or the prospect of relegation. The greatest threat remains the club ending up in the hands of the wrong owners.

It has been seven months since Moshiri agreed to sell to 777. Since then, everything about the American investors screams danger, countless stories appearing to cast doubts about their fitness to assume control of such an established institution, which is in urgent need of financial backing.

The more questions are asked of 777, the more suspicion grows that the Premier League is in a difficult position, eager for the necessary guarantees Everton will not face further financial trouble and wary of approving the wrong bid.

Those with the club's best interest at heart need to show the same passion for this subject as they did the points deductions. Not for the first time in Everton's recent history, it feels like there are too many bystanders waiting for a bandwagon to jump aboard rather than driving it. When something looks wrong, feels wrong and smells wrong, it is no use waiting in the hope it will turn out okay in the end.

Last year, I wrote a column accusing Everton of being the worst run club in England. A day later, I received a phone call from one of the club's board members.

Then chief executive, Denise Barrett-Baxendale, took exception to my comments. It was a cordial conversation in which I held my ground, while Barrett-Baxendale explained the challenges facing the club.

My overall impression was of an Everton board working in fear. Fear of potential relegation as the team was becoming increasingly worse.

Fear of the supporters' backlash to the on-field problems, with much of the focus at that time on the position of Barrett-Baxendale herself and former chairman Bill Kenwright.

And most of all, fear of Moshiri pulling the plug on his financial backing, Everton unable to sustain its huge wage bill or pay for a £500 million stadium if the owner walked away.

By the end of the conversation, my anger and incredulity at how Everton was being run was balanced by a touch of sympathy for Moshiri. He cuts a tragic Premier League figure. To use a well-known Liverpool phrase, he has ‘had his kecks pulled down' by the football industry. His intentions when buying Everton were noble, but the evidence suggests he has been used as a cash cow by agents and players.

Farhad Moshiri is often blamed but is not solely responsible for Everton's strife

To end up with a wage bill that is 92 percent of the club's turnover – and having nothing to show for it – proves he has been taken to the cleaners.

There is guilt by association for everyone who followed Moshiri's dream and turned a blind eye to the red flags as the club overspent and began to rely too heavily on his business relationship with Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

To the outside world, it is obvious that the partnership between Usmanov and Everton was as important as – albeit a significantly less profitable version of – that of Sheikh Mansour to Manchester City. The branding of USM around Everton was once as prominent as that of Etihad at City.

Nobody with Everton affiliations wanted to cast an impartial judgement on Usmanov's role, even though there were accusations the payments received from his sponsorship did not reflect market conditions at the time. Who else was going to pay Everton £30 million to secure ‘first refusal' on naming rights on the new stadium, for example?

Whenever questions were asked about this or whether Everton risked breaching PSR, those affiliated to the club robustly defended it.

There appeared to be no recognition that their actions could lead to charges, never mind punishment.

When that finally happened, rather than direct all their fury at Moshiri or the board members who either created or acted as enablers for the mess, supporters and high profile politicians turned their fire on the Premier League. Everton had no defence against the charges to which they pleaded guilty, so the focus was the extent of the punishment.

The fans' reaction to the eventual eight-point penalty is understandable. They see the club as their family. We all occasionally defend the indefensible to protect those we most care about from anything we perceive as an external attack.

They were terrified a points deduction would lead to relegation, and they found plenty of high-profile figures rallying to their cause.

Manchester's Mayor, Andy Burnham – who I know cares deeply about Everton – effectively became the interim chairman in the absence of any Goodison executives of real authority, Barrett-Baxendale eventually leaving the club and Kenwright having sadly passed away.

I was more cynical when other politicians put themselves centre stage, playing to the gallery to perpetuate the idea that the Premier League is to blame for Everton's predicament rather than the club itself.

Even the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, decided to get involved, questioning the integrity of the independent Premier League commissions making a judgement on the club's overspending.

Even Mark Carney has waded into the saga of Everton's takeover

Why were those influential voices so quiet when valid questions were raised about the extent of Usmanov's involvement with Everton?

Why are they not questioning how the club could find itself in such a financial mess, owing £225 million to Rights and Media Funding, paying 10.25 per cent interest on an £80 million loan taken in 2019? The figures are mind-blowing.

And why are those influential voices so silent on whether 777 are truly ‘fit and proper' custodians for their club? There should be indignation that an organisation with so many questions to answer is the preferred bidder.

With respect, it should not be an ex-Liverpool player saying this. It should be those who hammered the PSR outcome and ex-Everton players shouting from the rooftops that Moshiri and 777 owe the supporters a full and detailed explanation as to why the Premier League is wrong to delay. If they can't detail why this is a good deal for the club, how can Evertonians expect to be on board?

There are elements of Everton's grassroots support who have demanded answers from day one. The fans advisory board keep being told there are confidentiality agreements which prevent further discussion. That sounds like a brush off, to me. The issue is too important for silence.

To an extent I can understand it if there was a feeling that the on-field issues had to be prioritised until the team was safe. Awful though the situation was, it was recoverable. Credit goes to Sean Dyche and his players for ensuring the points penalty did not lead to Championship football.

Now there may be an element of ‘crisis' fatigue among hardened fans, who want to enjoy the moment of guaranteeing safety.

Deep down, they know the reprieve will be brief if 777 brings as many negative headlines to Everton as owners as they have as bidders.

It's a concern I've made on numerous occasions and I am far from alone. In fact I recall even Moshiri talking about the possibility of 'an existential crisis' over a year ago. Well, he's sure got one now.

We (or many of us) have also been hyper-critical of the management of the club, if we can call it that. From the former CEO's truly laughable 'strategic plan' to a hard-nosed assessment of Kenwright's role in all this, in contrast to the worshipping treatment given him in most of the media.

The problem is, how does anyone create pressure and leverage with the current situation? With the Premier League, it was easier, they are a very visible entity, worried about future government regulation and therefore, at least in part, answerable to politicians. Lobbying could work, to a degree and maybe it did, maybe it didn't. But how do you get at an Iranian in Monaco?

Then I had my bright idea. Moshiri would answer to Usmanov. He in turn would answer to Putin. And the latter in turn would increasingly answer to Xi, these days.

So could someone pick up the phone and call the President of China and put in a good word for us...?

I see Carragher on the CBS Champions League Post-Match panel helmed by the goddess Kate Abdo.

A Red he may be, but he is smart, funny, self-deprecating and rolls out well-articulated opinions. I have grown to respect him greatly as a commentator. I would bet my next mortgage payment he wrote every word of that.

Gabriel de Alba is no joke... he has significant long-term expertise in bailing out distressed business entities. Buying Cirque de Soleil out of bankruptcy is one of many deals he reportedly pulled off for venture firm Catalyst before launching his own company 18 months ago with Boehly's backing.

From LinkedIn:

GDA Luma seeks opportunities to partner with creditor groups and stakeholders as a “white knight”, providing balance sheet and restructuring process stability, executing business transformations, and ultimately positioning the company for success while generating outsized risk-adjusted returns. Our network of world class operating partners and executives can provide strategic leadership in our target sectors, which include media & entertainment, telecom, technology, healthcare, financial services, and consumer products.

I don't find him remotely funny. I don't find him very insightful either. I care not for his opinions on Everton Football Club. He has absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of what is happening behind the scenes and his publications are a bunch of thoughts mainly informed by a gang of people who probably claim to be close to the club. In other words, he is inciting gossip.

Gossip aside, Everton FC as a business has guaranteed and eye-watering revenues available to it as long as it remains a Premier League club. As long as it remains as such, there will be no problem.

Let's not be over-dramatic and over-emotional scouse about it. Let's be pragmatic and clinical. Should Dyche steady the ship and keep Everton in the Premier League for one more year, then it is a Premier League club with an incredible stadium. And a new beginning starts right there. A plethora of investors will be waiting for the correct time to step up.

Any lending is guaranteed by these factors.

When Neville first broke onto the scene, I quite enjoyed his professional analysis of how defences set up. That all went out the window once squeaky arse turned up, and it all degenerated into a bad Laurel and Hardy show.

It's a poor version of the game.

Hope eternal.

UTFTs!