Well Michael, the new comment system has finally got some decent interaction.

Darren, your shaky integrity is showing again. Sure, I happily clapped what I saw in our future when the Friedkins took over and to have them do all they did. Proud to clap. But you KNOW with absolute certainty, because you read my posts, that I was never blind about it, that I criticized them for hiring Moyes, and for sacking Thelwell, and for hiring a CEO with only commercial development quals and none in football, and for not talking to us (even though I warned that they wouldn’t), and for not sacking Angus for the Beto blunder, and for not explaining the last day of the window. And I repeatedly used the word “stupid” to describe their not showing up to games, even though I didn’t give a damn myself. And you also know perfectly well that just about everything about my side of the pond currently turns my stomach. So take your deliberate misrepresentations and slip ’em into a bottle for Australia.

Bob, “There seems little sense in what they are doing.” They picked up a distressed asset on the brink, for an initial outlay of £25M to £40M… if that. They have since invested more than £400M directly into the coffers of the club. They are now looking to sell for upwards of £800M. Where’s the sense in that???

I wonder what will come out in to the open some way along the track. There seems little sense in what they are doing. Surely, they can’t be regarded as stupid. They are a considerably successful company. Something stinks IMO. Always begin with the end in mind is a saying I have used in my business life. So what was their target? And are they tied up with others, who wanted to take over Everton but didn’t appear to have the “clout” to be backed to get Everton back to be a desirable target? Who knows what goes around in the billionaires’ club? I’ve been a Blue since I was 5 y.o. in 1953. A bit flabbergasted TBH. Planning a trip back to UK to include a game or 2 at Hill Dickinson. I hope they find a top grade owner that truly wants to bring us back to the way we were in the mid-eighties.

It doesnt rankle with me Mike. Although It clearly rankles with you. It wasnt a joke on your part, it was a deliberate attempt to isolate me (like that was going to work) for railing against Koeman`s crazed spending spree rather than Joining your merry band of whooper`s and hollerer`s cheering our transfer window madness. It was a tactic you tried again when I told you (as a matter of fact) that Carlo was not going to sign a string of superstars. There are many other instances. You may claim that you “took the brave unpopular path” but you are a natural born happy clapper. You have a long history, going all the way back to the days of uncle bill, of confusing support for the club with supporting everything the owners do. Nothing wrong with that of course, but there will always be others who are prepared to give these matters a little more thought

Usmanov can move freely around all of the EU and deal the uk and america have not yet released him but i think these will be addressed soon . We need Andy on the case but its only a suggestion who knows.

Personally I don’t give a shit about the Friedkins other than thank them for more or less saving my Club Going to games and all the rest of that is nonsense These guys came in and stabilised a sinking vessel. Got rid of a crap Captain and put us on an even keel – note I’m ex Merchant Navy So they’re gonna make a bomb out of selling us so good on them Yes they could have been a lot more interested, yes they could have shown a more visual impression etc etc etc Thing is as long as we are now a more attractive proposition to any prospective buyer who will hopefully show more interest is enough for me. TFG dug us out of a hole, thank them and their massive profit and let’s, like we’ve always done, move on

MG mate you definitely said that Friedkin was falling in love – or something similar – with us but I don’t recall you saying that he ‘gets’ us

Mike. Stop digging. You`ve reached Austrailia. You were not just guessing. You were insisting. You were often mocking the opinions of people who saw the writing on the wall when you couldnt even see the wall. There is a very real difference between boldly nailing your colours to an unpopular mast and blindly Happy clapping everything that originates that side of the pond.

Thanks, Larry, for the support… but no worries. I enjoy making predictions and I’m never afraid to nail my colours to the unpopular side of an opinion divide, and so I’m perfectly comfortable taking the inevitable hits that result when I guess wrong.

As for restructuring our debt, a trained chimp could have done that with a £1 billion brand new stadium as securitisation.

TFG published a “long-term football strategy” in December 2024 because they needed one when they bought the club; as I recall it had 4 bullet points and they contradicted it immediately by hiring David Moyes. This was a commercial exercise from TFG from the start, and the decision to extract a dividend payment of £45 million from the club would have confirmed it for any person who cared to look. I got a lot of stick for pointing this out. TFG saw a distressed asset with a brand new stadium, and took the chance to buy it and flip it for a huge profit. They did nothing wrong, but it was entirely cynical. It appears to me that the people who praised them as stable leaders with a long-term, prudent plan to grow Everton are now the same ones who are now claiming that they did us a lot of good, and were reluctant to sell us at all if they could secure a minority investor. Next they’ll start claiming they will only sell us to the right owners.

I was genuinely optimistic that Friedkin, remote or not (and I predicted he would be) would ultimately turn out to be an excellent long-term owner for this club, a major step up after three decades of disappointment from Johnson, Kenwright and Moshiri. I am profoundly saddened that it’s not going to happen. And I am deeply concerned about who we will get next. I’m skeptical of the widely-held idea here that there are lots of potential owners out there like Patric describes who combine wealth, “grand vision” and strategic ability — not to mention Evertonian leanings. I greatly fear we will instead wind up the property of a Boehly-style publicity hound for whom we are an expression of ego and self-promotion. Somebody here even brought up that Satan incarnate, Musk.

MG did say that Dan the Man was falling in love with us Philip and was getting us.

LOL, January will improve us. There will be no January. These twats will be selling not buying.

Larry, if the site does not hold a comment box at the top of comments with a ‘welcome Larry O’Hara above it, let Michael and Harry know what you are using to visit the site. That sounds like a bug.

What is the point of having ‘fit and proper’ rules about ownership if they don’t prevent rich people from using clubs as opportunities to simply enrich themselves further. It’s an absolute disgrace that the hopes and dreams of thousands of ordinary people can be played with by self-interested billionaires.

I personally don’t think Roma fans are unhappy with the Friedkin Group after all Roma is top of the league and the project for the new Stadium has been fully approved and the building should start soon

I was watching. But find it very tedious I seem to have to log in for each and every comment. My patience is not infinite…..

Todd Boehly? The weirdest owner in the league? Sacked a Champions League-winning manager after 7 games? Spent insanely? Gave Raheem Sterling a 5-year contract at 250K per? Antagonized fans, fellow owners and players with strange acts and comments? That’s who you’d rather have?

Mike Gaynes has loyally supported the Friedkins: fair enough. But he was not privy to their plans and has been hoodwinked. It happens. Time to move on and stop getting on his case,

I express lots of opinions, Philip. No recollection of that particular one, but I have a number of obsessive fans who seem to have limitless memories. I made a joke probably a decade ago about Tinkerbell from Peter Pan that still rankles with one such fan who still brings it up.

If I had a mustache I would be twisting the end of it, thinking about your incisive remark there, John.

GO FUND US anybody? 🤔

Welcome back Larry O’Hara!

Do you know when he put the application in Mike?

They stabilised a sinking ship, then went AWOL. Thank you and good night. Amanda Staveley are you ITA?

I’m not sure I want to support a team call ‘X’

mike can you please confirm , did you once state that dan friedkin ‘gets’ everton ? if you did say that why – what proof did you have…… yes i know they spent money on everton and put us on a safer financial footing..thanks for that dan.

Could it be that they saw, in Goodison Park, an opportunity to make a huge financial gain – but have been thwarted by the ‘planning regulations? Never underestimate the pull of wealth for the wealthiest, or their disdain for the rest of us.

Interesting, but irrelevant. Where Everton is concerned, Roma isn’t the top competition for Friedkin’s attention. Sometime in the next 60 days the NHL will decide on his application for an expansion hockey franchise in Houston, and he will be required to present checks for $3.5 billion. That massive investment wasn’t anywhere in the picture when he closed on the Everton deal two years ago.

yeah tfg NEVER sell an asset and i seem to remember mr m.g. saying that dan the man ‘gets’ everton ! i may have mis-remembered this but i’m sure other toffee webbers queried this and asked how he knew . imagine if blue bill had bought a american sports team 10 years ago (i know its far fetched ! ) would i have defended him to the hilt just because he’s english like me . the answer is no , i did’nt know him personally but i would just state the facts .And warn anyone of the harm he had done to efc……it was obvious tfg were in it just for the money but i thought maybe 2028 would be the sale i am expecting pelters now off tfg supporters but its criticism of tfg not all u.s. evertonians

Anyone saying that they are not thinking about their own future when they’re in the last year of their contract is usually telling lies, imo.

Moyes is playing the fans we’re used to his rubbish he will be looking for another contract no doubt about it . Well i believe TFG have moved us in the right direction the rubbish they have got rid of has been amazing . I think we have a young squad who seem to be able to manage games and i still think january can move us much higher it might not be pretty under moyes but we know how to stay in games and come sunday iat Hull i think 3 pts will be there for the taking . Moyes dont worry about TFG its you who is holding us back . Attack for once in your life.

I think you are right, Ian. I don’t believe this was the plan from the start. I’m guessing that the chaos of the summer window precisely coinciding with Friedkin’s $3.5 billion commitment to the NHL expansion franchise in Houston was very possibly the trigger for this decision. Friedkin must be prepared to close that deal within the next 60 days or so. Yes, I’m very surprised and very disappointed. I like hockey but… FFS.

Publicly and vociferously accusing EFC of holding back the careers of our two best players because we wouldnt sell the pair of them to his new club for buttons is not the action of a shit father. Its the action of a complete wanker who cares nothing for this club. Made up Bainsey fucked him off. Even more made up that he had to pay more just for Fellaini than he originally offered for the pair of them. The gob on him when Evertonians taunted the living daylights out of him after Oviedo gave us our first win at OT since he took over was worth the entrance fee alone

Tony yes I’ve seen that subsequently too. Probably for the best, I’m not sure I could have taken another ten years of the Mosh spending money and messing it up again.

You can love your kids and still be a shit father. Moyes is managing Everton the only way he knows. Doing what comes naturally. A large portion of the fanbase don’t like it but he is who he is. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He’s just only able to be David Moyes, like it or not.

001-666-666-6666 CB

Whatever the situation, it is another disappointing episode in not taking the club forward.

Call Hell, Charles. They will take a message for him.

From the minute Moshiri, sold the club, Kevin, I’ve personally listened to a couple of astute people telling me that they still believed that it was Usmanov’s club. Someone has written on this thread (I’d have went and found the name of that person if Toffeeweb still had its old format) that Usmanov, has only had his sanctions lifted by The EU, and not The UK, though, so it’s going to be interesting to see who comes in for Everton, in the next few days/weeks/months.

This sounds very plausible to me Ian, but maybe it was the plan from the start? They’re Portfolio builders, and at the end of the day these type of businesspeople, are only invested in making money. Sometimes they play the long game and sometimes they look to buy a distressed asset cheaply and then flip it for a quick profit, and Everton, definitely fell into this bracket.

Does anyone have Elon Musk’s phone number?

My own view is that at the very minimum, they saw that filleting Moshiri and 777 was an opportunity too good to miss and could not but make them money. I don’t think they had decided at that point we would be flipped but I wholly disagree with those on here- well mainly Mike G- who claimed this would never enter their thoughts. They never demonstrated any real commitment but I think they did want to keep their options open then decided with all their other impending sports commitments, they might as well profit from their filleting now rather than delay. I think they have only been seriously moving in that direction since last summer. It was always an option.

As I replied to someone else, isn’t it only his EU sanctions that were lifted, not his UK or US ones? Did I miss something?

The trouble is the Premier league is now a multibillionaires plaything rather than an investment opportunity and there aren’t that many multibillionaires around who would be interested .

Tony trust me its a long way from semi final to picking that Trophy up mate . In my eyes theres Spain and France then after that we have 4 teams below them and England are one of them so yes there not far away but them top 2 know where they are tony i can assure you winning is really difficult sometimes a bit of luck helps i can tell you that for sure tony.

I wonder how long it will take for Roma to follow Everton’s experience? There have already been rumblings of concern at the management level and questions must have been raised regarding the cost of building a new stadium? Everton are fortunate in having been gifted Hill-Dickinson by Moshiri but its unlikely that Roma will be in a similar position.

Everton are a massive opportunity. The trouble is does anyone actually see us as that? Has money ruined the game? Once we were one of the big 5. Since those days Everton and to a lesser extent Spurs were edged out by Chelsea and Man City two clubs who had to spend fortunes to get to the top. Both breaking rules along the way. TFG has no doubt realised after seeing how much City had to spend to gain success that it’s an impossible task in the EPL. Roma is a better opportunity for them.