Everton, the Senior Club in the City, and the Importance of Ownership

No leaks? No insider info? Are they getting closer or are they being dumped? Watch this space!

Should somehow be sent or delivered to Farhad Moshiri!!!!

I'm of the opinion that Moshiri doesn't care about Everton; otherwise, he would have never gone down the 777 Partners route. Waiting for them to be Shanghied by the Premier League is definitely casting a very black shadow over our club right now.

Will Everton end up with 777 Partners, or will Everton end up going into administration? What a choice we have… but I live in hope, and will always believe that better days are around the corner now that Moshiri is coming to the end of his disastrous tenure. And we don't have to tolerate Mr Good Times anymore.

It seems inconceivable that the Premier League will find in 777's favour and that they will be given the green light to take over. But then nothing concerning the Premier League is straight-forward, so we must wait anxiously for their decision.

I am old enough to remember when we were truly the senior club in this city; sadly many, many years of inertia and poor management means we can only make reference to past successes and initiatives, and our most recent record is best forgotten.

The appointment of new owners with proven big business experience and the desire and financial backing will be essential if we are to begin to repair and rebuild the club. And maybe only then will we be believed when we call ourselves the citie's Senior Club.

In the meantime, I hope that your reports are widely read by all those who have an opportunity to influence the future management and direction of our club. Thank you, and please continue with your articles, and perhaps common sense will prevail.

But be careful, detailing how less than perfect we are might upset the "I don't wanna hear it" kids presently stroking each other on another thread.

Top Blues they are.

That's a slogan sure to attract the next generation.

Something has got to give very soon though, and even though a large percentage of our match-day crowd have never seen Everton win a toffee, they are still a very proud bunch, Brendan, and would be right behind the senior club on Merseyside.

I doubt it's the "senior club" slogan though?

Somebody said the other day that 777 Partners were just loading debt onto the club with their loans — this is their plan to put off any other interested parties who are maybe waiting to see what happens?

No doubt about that — and perhaps "senior club" might even float their boat? I'm just not sure?

This lot are dubious at best and alleged pyramid merchants at worst.

Rumours abound about Investers in hiding/waiting... I'll take that chance please.

Is there no end to their villainy?

Tuning into TW these days is like tuning into the Weather Forecast. Warnings about forthcoming storms.

Storm Sodem – Very good chance of a 6-point deduction due to strong recommendations.

Storm Good One – strong winds and 777 bid blown apart.

Storm Ono – Placed into Administration as financial headwinds rip into Goodison.

Storm Donefor – 9-point deduction following tailwinds from Storm Ono.

Storm Demoted – Heavy seas and not a pot to sail in see EFC relegated.

Storm Fire Sale – Storm damaged goods: players, new stadium sold off to satisfy creditors. Followed by the bleakest sunset ever seen over the Mersey.

It's the positiveness of being a blue that keeps me going.

If the Premier League grants confirmation status on 777 Partners, then we are powerless to prevent this. The backer has walked away, funds dried up. What follows next for 777 Partners is sale of assets to meet its debts.

Given the history and their performance so far, there is no way in heaven and earth that this deal can be verified by the Premier League. Forget even the downgrading of credit status to a C, their plug has been pulled, new investments (ie, Everton) are impossible to fund on a continuing basis.

Deep breath because, unless there is another investor in the wings, Moshiri has to continue to fund or lose it all by going into receivership... that's the reality. A further 9 points plus the other outstanding PSR charge may well sink us. But it would make us a lot more attractive to another buyer, assuming of course we are not wound up... then that's a different issue altogether.

So to priorities:
Do we:

1. Gather as many points on the table as possible? Absolutely! We would need to be approx 12 points ahead of Burnley, Luton and Sheffield Utd by the end of the season to stay in the Premier League.

2. Should Moshiri underwrite costs until another buyer is found, thereby not going into liquidation? Absolutely, it's his responsibility to do so or lose it all.

3. Hope to god the Premier League (a) reject the takeover, or (b) pass it? Devil and Deep Blue Sea because, if it's passed, we are stuffed.

There is also another problem for the Premier League: Leicester City currently look odds on to be promoted back to the Premier League but also appear to be well in excess of the 3-year PSR requirements… How will the Premier League handle that one, a club in breach being promoted back to the Premier League? Whilst at the same time relegating another because of the same breach?

They have royally fucked this whole thing up... if they continue, it will have resounding impacts on promoted clubs, relegated clubs, titles or league positions previously held, financial revenue and profitability.

The way forward is littered with controversy, legal action as club sues club, or clubs suing the Premier League, disputes and shame... The damage to clubs may be terminal; the damage to the Premier League will ensure they become a laughing stock.

And over the hill are the armies of lawyers of Man City and Chelsea… waiting.

The Premier League has lost the plot. They should drop all charges against clubs, abandon PSR and wipe the slate clean for all parties as it cannot be fixed, the inequity of sanctions when they can only be selectively applied.

The continuing application of sanctions may well indeed have to live on for at least another 3 years until the current sanction periods are ended; otherwise, clubs who would have been in breach if the rules still applied, gain a sporting advantage — you cannot condemn one and not another for the same breach!

The league will be gone before that happens... pure folly.
Wipe the slate and start again.

I want 777 Partners nowhere near our club. How can anyone think them to have a single ounce of credibility given the now little library of journalism exposing them for exactly what they are? This has dragged on for far too long and my hunch is that this spells bad news for 777's venture capitalist bid for our club.

So, like Christine said, the first priority is to get points on the board.

But Paul, if 777 Partners disappear forever from our radar (as they should), what happens next? Tony (A), who I respect greatly, is convinced that there are others waiting to step in if 777 Partners sink back into their slime. I want to believe him because I respect him and I love Everton.

Do you, Paul, know if there are alternative bidders because it seems so dangerous to leave us in Moshiri's clammy hands? What then happens to the loans we need to pay back to 777 Partners?

Does anyone know if there is a timeframe at work here or was it just here's some bridging loans? Will Moshiri step in to handle debt and running costs or will he just let his pesky ship sink?

In an ideal world, that we rarely inhabit, new owners would step in and pay off 777's blood money (their desperate attempt to show the powers-that-be that they are reliable and dependable managers). But the stakes are so high.

It's fair to ask someone who blurts "Dyche out" who might be their preferred replacement.

Can I, with great respect, Paul, put it like this: one piece of the jigsaw missing, who comes after them, what next?

This new post of yours that we all know comes from the heart as well as the mind does little if anything to reassure anyone. It tackles the immediate short-term but the longer term is conspicuous by its absence.

What happens if 777 Partners are turned down? Can you offer me, us (?), some reassurance or hope for the months after 777, Paul? I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the post-777 months and longer.

I'm hoping that you have got the short-term sorted out for us and that Tony (A) is right about the longer term.

I totally agree with you that, when the Moores family stopped being totally involved in our club was the early '70s and that was the beginning of the problems. Everton started selling their assets in the '70s. We lost Steve McMahon and David Johnson, and Kendall built his team on buttons until he'd won a cup and a title.

I can remember writing to the Echo (no ToffeWeb then) and saying that Everton had to keep McMahon at all costs and it caused quite a lot of consternation at the time.

If there is anyone else other than 777 Partners, who are they and are they ready to move quickly?

If you want to stay in business, Wipe the slate clean.

I do think they will be regretting what they've started though.

Paul F, the latest bit of news about the story I've been told is that these other investors have more than covered all the bases with regards to financing a takeover, but I'm fed up thinking about it now until the Premier League do the right thing and tell Moshiri that they won't be accepting 777 Partners.

We survived last season and Leeds went down but I suggest that their long term prospects are now better than ours.

If 777 Partners are approved, then we have a short-term fix but limited hope of ever getting back to where we belong.

Granted the fans deserve a lot better than the dross we've had to put up with for years. But the club is a shambles and it's hard being a Evertonian in this city these days.

But back to where we belong... I ask you?

Any thoughts?

I just don't see how we get out of this mess short of some state-run fund coming in and buying us – and while that would save us, is that what we really want?

At present, I'm not seeing a way out of this. I really don't. I hate being a pessimist because it's not in my nature but, man, if Everton don't make it hard.

I've always thought if we go down, we'll have to sell off just about every player we have. We'll have nothing worth keeping.

I could easily see us doing a Sunderland and dropping two tiers in two seasons. Easily.

I was nearly packing it in after the last game at Goodison, which I thought we should have won but managed to lose. And that seems to have been a similar outcome today.

Anyway, I was saying to my mate that I was thinking of packing it in. He wrote back and said he'd felt similar but that he had two young lads and he wanted them to keep going; to support our club.

My other mate has been going since the mid-'50s and he comes down with his lad who's in his 30s; and I think he was around to see us win the 1995 FA Cup Final.

Also, my dad used to bike it down from a mining village outside Wigan and saw Dixie score his 60th goal. So I'll be carrying on supporting our club.

The thing is, I wonder how many offers Kenwright had to buy the club, which he refused? The only one I know of was directed up the road to another club, after only offering the buyer investor terms.

In my view, he was instrumental for his own monumental arrogance and selfishness, for the beginning of the potential destruction of Everton Football Club. That's when he declared to all our fans "I've got us our Billionaire!" Then… disaster awaited us!

I think the Premier League have come in at the other end of the story, and started something they don't know how to stop.

I think they felt they could make an example of Everton Football Club, and have all the other riff-raff clubs below the Sexy Six trembling in their football boots and never be naughty again.Well, I think they've opened a can of worms that they cannot close.

The Premier League won't give a tinkers toss about Everton if they can get themselves out of the Gordian knot they've tied themselves up in; if it means saving Everton, they will do; If Everton go down the pan but save the Premier League, then they'll let it happen.

As a supporter, I haven't a clue what's going on behind the scenes, I gave the benefit of whatever doubt I had to 777 Partners but there seems to be some extremely dark clouds around them, and consequently, our club.

I can only hope, an amateur football club started in a methodist chapel in Everton, called St Domingo's gets a bit a good luck for a change, and forces political, sporting and legal, all join together to help us in our fight to to keep Everton Football Club alive.

The delay in the Premier League's decision regarding the truly appalling 777 Partners is yet another example of the scandalous manner in which we have been treated.

Even Moshiri must surely have worked out that 777 Partners cannot possibly be approved as fit and proper owners. He will simply have to bail us out in the short term and talk to other potential buyers or lose his entire investment.

I really cannot believe that nobody other than 777 Partners is interested in our historic club with an exceptional new stadium nearing completion.

I honestly think Everton Football Club is a bargain, even if the club is in desperate need of a complete rebuild.

In their spare time, do they steal tuck money from little kids?

It seems odd that it took Jim Ratcliffe a matter of weeks to be shooed-in for a 25% stake in Man Utd, after moving his residency to Monaco to save £Ms in tax and being classed as a fit and proper person to have a stake in a club, while we are still waiting.

Surely by now they have enough due diligence to say they either can or can't buy us? It's the waiting that drives us mad.

Either way, I will be there next season (no matter what league we are in), never in danger of giving it up, it's in the blood, and nothing is as bad as the football under Mike Walker.

My association with Everton started in the early 50s when I played on Goodison Park for the school. I carried on supporting Everton at Goodison home and away until 1976 when I emigrated to Canada. I have supported them ever since with trips back home and fees to different companies for TV coverage.

My complaint is what is the Premier League's agenda in this farce, as they seem to appear to block any way they can for a takeover by 777 Partners. They may not be the right people for a takeover but it could have been settled months ago. Instead, they just seem determined to punish Everton FC as the first club that has broken the PSR limits, even knowing they are not the only ones.

There may be other people who have wanted to take over Everton but, with the Premier League delaying the takeover, will this increase the dept to be paid to 777 Partners, whoever wants to purchase the club? That is if there is any one else, as most of what you read is rumours.

Hope when I come back in April, the 20th and 27th games will not be must-win relegation battles.

I will stick with the saying "The Cream Always Rises To The Top".

You can (and some do) pine about the past achievements and players all you want but that doesn't matter. We are in the "now" and it's been coming for a long time.

The football landscape has changed, the issue is... we didn't follow the change, we stood still with the arrogant attitude of "We're Everton". The inevitable has come home to roost, we (the club, that is) have gotten what we deserved for years of mismanagement.

Whatever happens will happen, it's always the fans that suffer, see Sunderland, West Brom, Leeds as examples – all clubs with a rich history.

Forget the past, it is what it is... a wise man once said to me, "You can't change the past, live in the now and shape the future". All our yesterdays and reminiscing will not make this shit show go away.

I also don't share any optimism that the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock will be our resurrection because we'll be paying mega-bucks for decades to whoever, if anyone, ends up as its owner... but that's coming soon too.

My optimism on the integrity of the Premier League, the Sky Six, the current UK so-called government, and the ability of Liverpool City Council to do anything whatsoever to improve our viability is lower than Trump's grasp of altruism. It simply doesn't exist.

Moshiri worshipped them all of course (Trump being worked like a puppet by Putin), and pathetically entrusted Kenwright and his boardroom leeches to outwit all of them.

How he must now miss Kenwright's advice on dealing with 777 Partners and everything else credibly threatening our very existence!

Take your bloody blinkers off. We're in deep deep trouble, on and off the pitch. That lot over the road don't even consider us rivals anymore, we're that far behind.

Where we and Moshiri go from there is anyone's guess. The very worst scenario is the stadium is not completed, the club is liquidated and AFC Everton 2025 apply for entry to whichever lower tier of non-league football will have us. I know more than a few supporters who would quite enjoy a journey from the foot of the pyramid.

No football fan on the planet is remotely interested in who first had floodlights, programmes, undersoil heating, two-tiered stands, a three-tiered stand, a totally useless alleged owner or his lying unaccountable self-serving buffoon of a chairman.

Is it the worst-case scenario if the club was liquidated?

I am sick of this crap.

Dyche last week informed us that the Academy had no-one good enough for the first team squad. Everton is being run as it always has been run for the past 30 years, at the whim of the owner, who disappears as far as fans are concerned as the de facto leader of the club.

See no Evil, hear no Evil, speak no Evil.

It reeks of looking backwards. Moshiri may never have lived up to one iota of what he said, but he was absolutely right in signalling that we needed to stop being a museum. Honour the past, yes, to eternity, but never be defined by it.

My question to 'The Esk' is always the same. I agree with so much of what you say, but please confirm what relationship you might have, if any, financial or otherwise, with any creditor or interested party in Everton Football Club Limited or its linked companies?

Without transparency, and with so many claims to be 'in the know', you owe it to your readers to set this out as a basic tenet of honest journalism and public commentary.

Or we can assume it is in service of just another agenda looking to set a narrative around our club.

Does that mean I don't speak to them? Of course not. I have regular communications with our creditors, potential investors and many in the media. (I'm saying that just for clarification.)

I was in the city centre earlier today for a family meal and must have passed about 50 Liverpool fans, all with their scarves tied around their necks (why don't we do scarves?). Not a single one of them was speaking English (well apart from a couple of Americans).

I know they're a global brand but shouldn't we play on our local roots and authenticity?

Can I ask what your view is of R&MF, and why it is not a greater focus of your ire? They seem to hold a noose around our neck in terms of collateral and in blocking previous moves from MSP.

If it were not for them, then it seems 777 Partners and all that might never have figured in our little post-Moshiri psychodrama. And yet... whatever we may say about 777 Partners, and I don't doubt they have no business running us, they have pumped £170M into the club and do not have the club over a barrel in quite the same way.

For me, R&MF appear truer villains with a far greater threat to our ongoing existence, and yet get none of the attention or scrutiny that the young chap in the baseball cap does. Why?

"Senior Club In the City" is just about the clunkiest thing I've ever heard. It reeks of old men, a crumbling stadium, bitterness, nostalgia and an acceptance that all we have to celebrate is in the past, as we've been overtaken by our younger cousins in the city.

On second thoughts, it's a brilliant slogan.

But I agree totally with Dave @38. Great post, lad, well said. And Don @39 and @42. We all need to wise up and accept the reality of our situation as it is now and it's not a pleasant experience.

Like John @41, I believe the examination of 777 Partners has gone on too long for them to be given the go ahead, the time elapsed indicates that there must be some cause for concern and I sincerely hope they get knocked back. No way can they be good for our club in the long run.

.

Your argumentations are well defined and clear that I wonder where you are? They are the kind of arguments that come from far away, such as New Zealand or Australia. Whichever, I support your views. The only way forward is for the Premier League to clean the slate, admit its faults, and get on with a new world of the Premier League.

You are a true Blue and I respect your views on TW. Thanks!

I hope Paul doesn't mind but here is most of the post I put on his website. Powerful, emotive and passionate stuff from the heart, Paul.

We, both as a city and as Evertonians are more passionate than anyone, despite the attempts to paint those loveable Geordies as the best supporters in the land.

Sure, they are passionate as are supporters of all clubs they follow.

But there is something different about our mentality in times of hardship. The nearly years in the 70s and the dark winter of 1983. Our current challenges and those we faced as a city back in the 1980s when we fell on hard times. But we were resilient and fought back. Everton can now.

It's my city. It's our city and we are proud people. I too have travelled a lot through professional and personal reasons. Some nice places I lived in, some not so nice and I just hoped I was coming home or at least in one piece. I now live in west London, but the city of my birth is always the place I call home.

Wherever I've been, people are intrigued when they hear you are from Liverpool. More intrigued when they find out who I support.

We are the senior club.

1878: The Originals. The bird is blue.

I don't prescribe to living in the past, but I also don't see anything wrong with fighting for what you believe in, so we can't just down tools and say hey, that's the modern world.

The majority of UK residents will know where Everton is but foreigners won't have a clue.

The clubs who voted against were Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, West Ham, Aston Villa, Wolves, Forest, Palace and Bournemouth — and as Collymore said, Bournemouth in their 144 years of existence, have spent 120 years in either the 3rd or 4th tier of English football.

He has also said today that Man Utd have told season ticket holders that if they don't attend 17 of the 19 league games they will have their season tickets taken away and resold. Spurs apparently next year are withdrawing the subsidy for pensioners.

He also states part of the Holte end at Villa which used to be for season ticket holders is now given to day trippers at an average cost of £140 per game. Fulham are charging £160 per game next season for a seat in a certain stand next season and doesn't include any hospitality.

This used to be the game of the working man but these decisions show that they don't care about loyal supporters and will do anything to maximize their profits to pay the mercenaries who play the game unsustainable amounts of money. Unless these clubs realize they can't keep ripping off supporters and need to introduce a wage cap that is open and transparent.

Rant over.

Personally, I think the Premier League are doing it on purpose to cause maximum disruption.

Stan also posted on Twitter this fab quote from Bill Shankly: "The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That's how I see football, that's how I see life."

That's the reason West Ham have put ‘London' on their badge. No one would know where they were from either.

[Even though I was born there, I still struggle to say that city name!!!!]

Apparently when the RS were formed, they wanted call themselves Everton Athletic, but Everton objected, claiming something like the two teams couldn't have Everton in their name, so the RS just called themselves Liverpool instead.

We are like a skeleton club. Big massive offices in the liver building and just 2 fellas, Chong & Thelwell both sitting at each end of a massive boardroom desk, with no one else in sight shouting across a massive empty office.

"Have I got any money to bring players in, Col?"

"Dunno, Kev."

"Have I got to sell players to balance the books, Col?"

"Dunno, Kev."

"Who knows, Col?"

"Dunno, Kev."

Doesn't this show they are not professional in their approach? Doesn't this show they haven't got their finances in order? Doesn't this show it's the first step into taking control of our club and they are already messing it up?

It's a PR disaster, for them, for Moshiri, and for us as a club.

Ratcliffe passed this test in a few weeks when taking a stake in Man Utd, because he's legit, above board, professional and transparent.

Doesn't that tell its own story about 777 Partners??

When the club were first charged with breaching PSR, I said on these pages that the Premier League wanted a patsy and that the rules would be changed immediately afterwards having shown the world they didn't need an independent regulator. The new rules adopted from Europe's model ensure the massive gulf between the top clubs and others will be so far removed from a level playing field as to make it a sick joke.

Did not anyone notice that the term 'FFP' rules (Financial Fair Play) has been dropped because they know it isn't fair? The goal of a level playing field has been ditched in pursuit of a trickle-down theory? (That always works, doesn't it?)

As for other points, yes, these days, I write from as far away from home as you can get, here in New Zealand. But I am not sure what difference that makes. I was a season ticket holder for nigh-on 40 years, my first experience of Goodison was when I was 4. I left my wedding reception to stand on the Gwladys Street terrace in my dress and denim jacket as we beat Man Utd 2-0. Raised in and around Scotland Road, my families go back some five generations in that square mile.

So what? We all love our club, there are thousands of us scattered around the globe who share history and love with our club, everyone with a story.

Mine, God willing, isn't over yet, the new stadium sits squarely in my family's one square mile. Plans are already underway for my return home, so future posts will hopefully be given post game from my seat in our new home at Bramley-Moore Dock. My home.

I said a couple of weeks back that I thought it was odd for David Dein, the ex-Arsenal CEO, to come out and suggest that the Premier League should allow 777 Partners to take over Everton. Why would Dein be concerned about who took over at Everton?

Not in any way connected with this story… but didn't Mr Dein sell his Arsenal shares to Mr Usmanov???

Indeed, given the facts to date, it's hard to understand why they are still being considered as a viable purchaser. Their financial dealings have been littered with failed payments, lack of transparency, and litigation. Exactly where the money will come from now and exactly how they will secure funds for the next 3 years is why any approval is still pending.

There are loose threads that need pulling in all this, follow the money... it all leads to Bermuda, lol!

If there was anything "fair" about FFP, it would be put together to enable clubs to compete on a "fair" level. That's not even asking or a level playing field, that will never happen now.

The sponsorships, endorsements and non-competition income of the super-rich clubs is mind-blowing compared with even mid-level clubs. Man Utd get £900M for their kit deal, £90M per yer…10 times more than Everton's current deal.

Competitive sport can't be run like other businesses, eventually you will have 1 or 2 big players, like in any sector of business, who will fight for market share. This is what's happening to football.

If you have capitalist businesses operating in a survival of the fittest environment, that eventually leads to the weaker falling away (clubs out of business or uncompetitive). Add to this the skewed FFP and P&S rules, and you have the perfect environment to stifle competition.

Imagine in other businesses, large firms being subject to the same FFP or P&S rules. It doesn't make sense, it actually goes against competitiveness.

How a body like the CMA (Competition Markets Authority) hasn't looked at these rules is beyond me.

The leagues may make huge money in the short term, pushing their favourite big clubs around the world, but eventually, without competition, meaningful competition, where a club can rise from the Championship to win the Champions League or Premier League, they will only be selling the equivalent of Major League Baseball… Who watches that outside of Americans???

It won't be football, not football as we knew it. Not football where the appointment of a brilliant manager could take you on a journey to win the Premier League and on to Europe.

That's where financial "fair" play should be applied. Man Utd, Madrid, Barca, Bayern shouldn't be left to just run over the rest because Addidas, Audi, Allianz or any other corporate entity wants to give them money.

Well, strike another match, yeah, go start new, go start new, cos it's all over, Baby Blue. [Or Alisher U!!!]

Heard a few conflicting stories today, on something like day 180 since we were informed 777 Partners were going to be purchasing Everton, and still it continues to drag on.