Mo' Money, Mo' Problems?

My fear with investment is that it can create lazy, simplistic short-sighted management... if we just pay enough money for him, him, him and him then we’ll have a team

Blend is everything in football.

When HK spent relatively small on a Liverpool reserve (Sheedy) and an injury-ravaged crock (Reid), I don’t remember getting particularly enthused.

Big Nev wasn’t exactly a marquee signing at the time either was he?

Looking at above we may as well accept the new director will rob us and send us to the championship while he walks away with a nice profit.

Most if not all have wanted a new investor to take the club forward, we now have one, we cannot alter it any more than removing RM from our club so lets be positive that things will change for the better, it will not happen in one year but believe it will.

Complaining and forecasting doom and being negative as his foot crosses the door of Goodison is just negative, be positive.

He built a new stand in our ground. He bankrolled us – we broke our transfer record several times while he was here (Samways, Amokachi, Speed, Ferguson, Kanchelskis, Barmby etc).
He appointed a trophy winning manager.

I don’t know how long he owned us – maybe 5 years? But personally I was far happier with Johnson in charge for his stint than I have been for Kenwright these last 15 years.

I hope Moshiri can repeat some of Johnson’s successes without making the same mistakes...

Johnson wasn't what we needed in hindsight but that doesn't mean that the new guy isn't exactly what we need. I'm certainly not expecting to see money being splurged on transfers in the summer or indeed anytime soon nor do I expect Everton to be paying players £200k per week either.

Mr Morishi offers stability and more financial wriggle room, which may help the club to compete a little bit better in the transfer market and the biggest part of his remit will be to redevelop Goodison or help fund a new ground. Everton needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century commercial reality, whilst hopefully retaining it's more endearing qualities.

At the end of the day, success on the field is the biggest driver and as long as most of the effort, if not all of the money, is aimed at that on-field success, the rest of it becomes easier and will mostly with the right people in charge, take care of itself. I hope Mr Morisihi is as astute and demanding as was Sir John for most of his tenure, however, football is a fickle sport and we can't guarantee anything, but at least for the moment we have another opportunity to improve our status as a club in the modern era.

Moshiri should be looking at long term, careful, forced evolution built on solid foundations. The signing of a top class manager would truly be a statement to the team and the rest of the football world.

We also need to remember that Moshiri is a very hard headed business man who will not throw money into players to try to buy success. He will be investing to make money himself and will do it responsibly and that is exactly what we need, sustainability.

Seriously though, I think comparisons to Johnson’s arrival in the 90’s is simply not true. The recent ’mega deal’ media money has simply transformed every club in the Premier League’s finance’s to such an extent, that no club now should ever suffer from the threat of going bankrupt, not even Everton!!

The BIG question for me and all Evertonians is this, ’How ruthless will Mr Moshiri really be’?

Given he now effectively owns and runs the club, Roberto’s reign will be under more scrutiny now than at any time of his three-year tenure. It’s a results led business, and last season and this, he’s simply not up to the required standard, for a club wanting to progress.

It’s over to you Mo lad.

We have a lot of problems at Everton and I don't think anyone in their right mind is just going to blow his fortune on instantly gratifying our (the fans) desire for the Elysian Fields of glory and unending success. Not yet, anyway!

"Build a new Stadium?" "Sure, I'll write a cheque, start tomorrow" Get a new manager in? "Definitely, I'll bring the Special One in and drop him a couple of hundred mill."

"Get new players in?" "Sure, I'll splash the cash and we're off and away!""

I don't think that our new future is going to start in anyway like that.

Neither do I think that Mr Moshiri is anything like in the same financial position as Mr Johnson was. He is a business partner of Russia's third richest man and has interests and investments in some world class businesses. So I can't see him going bust either (assuming there's no further financial crashes!)

I'm sure he will want to see what (if any) plans there are for redeveloping Goodison Park. How far (if at all) has any thought or plan been developed for a new stadium, either in Walton Hall Park, or anywhere else (Stanley Park for example?) What sort of sponsorhip deals do EFC have and how much do they bring in? What, if any business partnerships are in place before a new stadium can be started, naming right for stands and all the rest of the business questions.

What is in place to bring EFC retail to a country wide and world wide retail outlets. What is in place and what is projected to bring the "Brand" (as I suppose business men will call it) to the households of America, Asia and specifically, China.

It is going to take time and more than anything, it is going to need a business plan, so that Everton can resolve the problems we have.

I think, first and foremost, he will be looking atmost important first building block, e.g. what he thinks the manager can deliver in bringing success, where we want it, on the pitch, is he the right manager to achieve it and if not, who?. Before he starts splashing the cash, then he's going to look very closely at the position of Manager, and all related issues about training, medical and the rest of the back up staff.

So I'm not looking to compare him withy Peter Johnson, or with Mr Lerner of Aston Villa. I think he will be much more savvy than either of those men and I think he wil;l lay out his vision to us, aftyer he has spoken to all the Board and Shareholders of EFC.

I'll be quietly enthusiastic again if he can provide a blueprint for success on the pitch. All the rest can follow but we have been sadly starved for decades, and I'd love to see us on the lines of the great teams of the Sixties and the Eighties....

Only this time, for our kids and grandkids will see it as well.

That'll do for me cocker!

Barely 10 years ago, it is believed the not inconsiderable fortune of Randy Lerner of MBNA banking fame was put at the disposal of Villa after it was rumoured he had looked at Everton but received little encouragement from Uncle Bill. Approximately £250 Million later, the historic Midlands club wish they had never heard of him as they head for certain Championship football. Lerner is said to be a broken man – in more senses than one!

Whilst most clubs' fans see money as the answer to everything – and for Chelsea and Man City it has proved so – for so many it has proved to be fools gold. At Anfield the dream became a nightmare and at Blackburn the money quickly turned to chicken shit. But at Villa and so many other venues failure can be attributed to naïvety and, far too often, the very poor choice of manager (s).

As the saying goes, "If you want to make a small fortune from football, you need to start with a large one." So let's just hope 'our saviour' is blessed with deep pockets and sound judgement.

The club and the team need to develop incrementally and that will not be achieved by throwing £100m into the squad this summer. I would prefer most if not all the money to be invested in the stadium and helping to put the club on a sustainable commercial footing consistent with our position as one of the Top 20 richest clubs in world football.

It seems to me that the new major shareholder will have a number of priorities, but they won't be mutually exclusive. However, I think there is a danger, here and now, that the current manager has lost or is losing rapidly, the faith of the fans to bring relative success on the pitch.

This will likely lead to a further poisonous atmosphere at home and, I wouldn't like to see it, our better players wanting to up sticks and leave for a team that's in the Champions League, or at least regularly in Europe and/or winning a Cup.

So, unless Mr Moshiri is satisfied that the current management set up, can regularly achieve say the same level of consistency as, say Spurs, while the Stadium is being developed/built, we could end up like Aston Villa and seeing a number of short term and desperate appointments, in the hope of rescuing the club from a downward spiral on the pitch.

So, in my view, it isn't a matter of throwing a £100 million or whatever at bringing in new players. It's more a matter of him satisfying himself that he has a Manager who he has faith in to bring a sense of progress, to the club, the team and the supporters.

And I think it isn't only on ToffeeWeb that that the question of do we have the Manager who can achieve this is being pondered on.

I'd love to see a new stadium and I'm sure we will, as a club, be having this as a priority.

But to me, the overwhelmiong first priority is to have faith in a managerial team to improve the quality and the relative position in the league, of our team.

He may be able to use his contacts to facilitate the Stadium development, with partnership agreements. Again this would be an improvement on selling our soul to Tesco, for a 'free' stadium.

He may be able to do 'a Philip Green' and underwrite transfers, but do it openly, with no strings attached, which would be an improvement.

He may even use his own money too.

As regards PJ, I did some consultancy work for Park in the late 90s, and got talking to him about Everton (after he had left) and he was still pretty raw about the whole thing. He bought into Everton after floating his company on AIM. He then brought in a fair few decent players, built a new store and underwrote a share issue etc.

Unfortunately he left his company in the hands of idiots and they damaged it badly, driving down the share price, which necessitated him firing the Board and needing cash to shore up his ailing business. Consequently selling players and spending a lot more time in his business.

It might have different, but that's Everton!

His take on Fergusons sale was that Smith knew all about it, having the same agent and all.

He seemed to be telling the truth, but who really knows?

Can you imagine the lifelong trauma inflicted on those shell shocked kids whose first experience of going the game coincided with an Everton team trotting out to the 'techno techno techno' shite of 2Unlimited and 'Mr Toffee' acting the twat and giving them the 'funny eye' from under his foamy cap?

Link

'Everton Lemonade' seems to ring a bell from that era as well but...to be honest...i'm not sure if that's one innovation I just dreamt up myself.

His first job will be to get rid of the incompetent people who have us in a position where we can’t buy a shirt in High Street sports shops. The people who did the deal for the shirt sponsorship, which is undervalued, and the people who have overseen the Kitbag deal.

"Those who control the club run the club. Mr Kroenke's group controls the club and they control the day-to-day management.

"I hold a 30% stake in Arsenal and therefore the board's success is shareholders' success. I have no plans to exit. I wish Arsenal success and hope that they win trophies."

If Usmanov himself has (or had) no input in the actual running of the club then there's no way his right-hand man would have.

I've no doubt he will improve almost every aspect of the club, from the stadium issue to finding someone else rather than Chang to sponsor us, but this is his first foray into actually running a club. The bar hasn't been set particuarly high, has it? "Eh, Joe, gizza stadium, go on."

Who knows... a possible silent takeover by Usmanov? Is Mr Moshiri just doing the groundwork for Usmanov? For once, can't we dream big!?

Mr Moshiri's main focus has to be on the stadium. If he can sort that out, as well as the above, we will be on a solid financial rock. He's a self-made billionaire accountant so he obviously knows when and where to invest his pennies.

The only thing I'd ask for is, can we change that photo of him? He looks slightly sinister, a bit like the Tim Curry clown in 'IT'.

Then there's wild baseless made-up nonsense, which is this Usmanov stuff. He just doubled his shareholding in Arsenal. He'd have to sell them all before buying in to Everton. There's zero indication that is the plan.

Just saying.

I've been a frustrated Blue for too long. Maybe I am getting over-excited! Time will tell

We already know roughly how much it would cost him to complete a takeover at Everton. I would imagine a sizeable difference in the two figures.

If he really wants a Premier League club as part of his empire why not join up with his former partner at Goodison? Maybe he has a point to prove?

Not really. Morishi is now by far the major shareholder with 49.9% with the nearest to that only 13%. Reportedly the intention is for him to increase his holding to 75%. He will be running the show and making all the major decisions. Unlike Kenwright he is a highly successful businessman and hopefully will rejuvenate the club.

Paul, if you must speculate, you could take the numbers bandied around for Moshiri's deal:

Sold 15% of Arsenal for £200M. That values Arsenal at £1.3 Billion.

Buys 49.9% of Everton for £87.325M. That values Everton at a paltry £175M. (That's around ONE-EIGHTH of Arsenal's valuation! Oh how the mighty are fallen...)

Some people clearly think Usamov is now going to buy 50.1% of Everton. If the prices are the same, he gets £400M for his Arsenal shares and only pays £87.675M for all the outstanding Everton shares.

That leaves him loads of extra moulah to invest in players, stadiums, and dancing girls... no wonder the dreamers are cock-a-hoop.

The big flaw is this: I don't see why or how Usamov could buy up all the small shareholders. There is no reason to, and a bunch of them (being Evertonians) probably wouldn't sell anyway. The whole notion strikes me as ridiculous.

Perhaps it could happen if he somehow got to 90% by buying out Moshiri and all the other bigger players. But I still think that relies on getting a slew of smaller shareholders to sell to him before they are obligated to (if these rules actually apply to Everton FC Co Ltd).

However, you can never say 'never'.

As you quite rightly state all of this is merely conjecture and without substance. However, I would much rather have the current scenario of Moshiri with a rich friend in Usmanov than the previous Kenwright with a good friend in Philip Green!

Since dreaming is the favoured form on TW, I wonder if the truth about Sir Philip Green might one day show that he really did play a key role in keeping Everton solvent through our darkest times in the 00s??? He was a really good friend of the club, you know...

That particular revision of our perceived history would be met by a solid wall of confirmation bias, methinks!!!

I wouldn't be so sure about the smaller shareholders selling, if the price was right, and to enhance the clubs future, I am sure they would.

I’d guess that being a partner of Mr Usamov, he would have considerable experience of a number of major international firms and it would seem a reasonable guess that he has considerable knowledge of the workings in Arsenal,seeing that it was likely he would have supported a bid from Mr Usamov to buy a major stake in Arsenal.

So it would seem reasonable to me that he is also quite well in with a number of large businesses and will be looking to use his connections to bring in more income through advertising and sponsorships; partnerships and, when/if we get round to it, naming rights for the new ground and for the stands within it.

I’m sure he will also be looking at the retail outlets and contracts that we have.

So, although I’m not expecting him to provide the football equivalent of Harrods, I have some faith that we will go past the Open all Hours superstore we have now.

For the foreseeable future, it will be the same folks defining the Club’s business strategy. As such, while I see the emergence of Mr. Moshiri as a positive on the whole, significant reorganization at the executive level is needed to get us truly moving in the right direction.

I will remain cautiously optimistic for now and will feel better once the likes of Elstone and his ilk are removed from the picture. I truly hope that Mr Moshiri intends to bring with him real leaders with true vision and a business plan/strategy to properly grow this Club.

I keep saying this... the Emirates stadium opened in 2006. Moshiri and Usmanov did not acquire their first shares in the club until 2007. He had absolutely nothing to do with the acquisition of a new ground. Nor did he have anything to do with the ’selling’ of the old one. The ’Highbury Square’ apartment complex may not have officially opened until late 2009, but the proposed flats first went on sale in 2005 and were all snapped up by May 2006.

As Michael said earlier though, people seem to be buying into and projecting whatever they want to believe about the new guy, even if there’s fuck all evidence to back it up.

Yeah I remember many people bemoaning the fact that Lerner didn’t buy us. I think perhaps BK has either done well or stumbled into what could be the best deal we could of hoped for.

Other than that – I actually hate just reading Barmby's name. I remember when, actually it was mum rushing up to me in a panic. "Have you heard – Barmby wants to go to the Redshite". I thought she’s been on the snowballs again. Little shitbag.

I see the parallels in this article and it’s well written and pertinent but there’s a hell of a lot of hindsight going on. I’d say let’s give it till summer at least before we start sending the crows south.

Michael says ToffeeWeb has become a world of dreamers. I’d put this point to you Michael. Don’t you think after the successive failures of the board and the turgid football we had to endure during the Moyes years, forgetting Martinez for a minute, Evertonians can at least take a few weeks to, go off the rails a wee bit and dream? A billionaire owner has just taken over the club. You’re right – no-one knows yet what his plans are. Some people add 2 & 2 and get four, others get 5. At this stage, it’s all up in air. No-one knows who’s got the right answer. Let people enjoy the very brief moment in between the long periods of despair that comes with being an Evertonian.

Anyway, good to see you commenting again Michael, your match reports are excellent but I’ve missed your editorials and posts.

Agree with that. I’m sure that Kenwright and Woods will no longer have a major input from now on though. BK will be merely a figurehead.

Time will tell, of course, and it's only speculation at this stage as we know very little of what Moshiri's plan is here. However, I do believe BK and his minions will continue to exert a strong influence in business and footballing matters possibly well into next season. And to that point, I do not see the emergence of Moshiri as triggering or accelerating a change in manager in the near future as several hope or believe. For the same reasons noted above. As long as BK and those who hired him have direct involvement/input in club matters, I suspect he will be given more time. I am thoroughly convinced Roberto will not see the sack whilst BK is still in the picture. Everton do not do the sack