Everton – a five-step recovery plan that has to start now

I'd like to think that there are more reputable people or groups out there that would be fantastic owners for Everton and that a relationship like that could help bring them to the table.

Bill Kenwright is gone, but Moshiri plus one are still here, that is the singular obstacle now.

Thanks, Paul, let common sense return soon please.

No one with any serious professionalism is going to touch it with a barge pole. It has all the hallmarks of when Trevor Birch came in to fix Everton. Frustrated, he walked within months.

I can't see any new CEO or board until it is sold. Who would join this, knowing they could get bulleted in short order by new owners, and working for that clown? And why would the club take on more cost? The Everton Way is just puddle on, and save a couple of quid.

Our only hope is that creditors can be appeased long enough for us to find new owners to sort the issues out.

Refinance the stadium, buy out Moshiri, and clear the Rights & Media Funding loan. The club is a basket-case, but the stuff that really takes time to solve are done — Premier League already, huge fanbase, and new stadium.

Here's hoping for a real owner, with money, vision, that gets the right people around him and takes this club forward. For too long we've been run by poor quality people that aren't maximising what we've got.

Thanks for your analysis once again and the fact that it has a positive overtone. Good to see the 5 point plan because the current situation needs A PLAN. Adage, 'fail to plan means plan to fail'.

Certainly, we need an expert with heaps of experience in helping distressed companies avoid administration and there are some really good ones in UK. Balanced minds are needed, of course!

Personally, I do believe there is enough IP capital within the Everton banner and the selection of the expert is likely the most important decision to be made. IYO who will hold the key card in the selection of this expert?

However there is one factor that, in all the discussion on this, has never truly been explored. That is the value of the stadium development beyond just the place we play football in. Actually I'd go further, I've never actually seen anything resembling a business plan for it that projects incremental revenue and where that would come from. Is it really a hugely exploitable asset or the white elephant I fear it is? That is before we get to the issue of what the club actually owns and has rights over in the development.

The more there is hidden value in the project that is certainly not visible to my eye, the less of a haircut those investors will be willing to take. More of a trim than a number 4. The usual solution to such a scenario is a debt for equity swap but do we really want 777 as long term minority shareholders?

I'm not actually convinced that removing Moshiri from the board, even if he was willing, helps much. Better the person with power, however useless he might be, than his mouthpiece at the top table, especially given that some regard him as merely the mouthpiece for Usmanov.

Moshiri is set to cede majority control of Everton with a new share issue in favour of new investor (MSP) diluting Moshiri to below 50%. New investor will control budgets plus board composition allowing for change in key Chair & CEO positions.

Despite how Moshiri's people have presented it, Everton will not find sufficient debt funding for BM given our current position. The only way it gets funded is by issuing new shares. That share issue plus the warrants will almost certainly put Moshiri in a minority position.

Hmmmm…

Point 3 on the plan. An external bank to handle the sale of the club. Who's actually facilitating the sale of the club at the moment? Are there any actual experts or external companies involved?

MK @6.

Isn't this how MSP get the shares they originally wanted at a now knockdown price?

Doesn't it make sense for R&MF to allow them to take the stake they originally wanted now? Converting the debt to shares?

Wouldn't that relieve at least some burden and bring competent people on board?

Survival financially is obviously the first order of business and it is a problem as we all know too well at our favorite club.

Once the powers to be get that sorted perhaps we can look forward to a much better season, which all being well will be the finale at Goodison.

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest and as Everton's home record at Goodison has become shabby over the last few seasons, I, for one, welcome the move.

While I agree with a lot of what you have suggested, this is all dependent on Moshiri and we know that he is only interested in minimizing his and his boss's debt.

Certainly bringing in a company to try and restructure the debt will have to be a priority as, without the agreement of R&MF and MSP and also 777 will be wanting their money back. So, until agreement is reached, nothing happens.

The truth is this is a club with around £1B in debt and, while some will point to both Man Utd and Chelsea being in a similar boat, they have a lot more liquidity than Everton.

I just don't see where the attraction is for a new investor, as you have pointed out. Kevin Thelwell has said that players will be sold. So that suggests the squad will be weaker possibly next season.

Even super-rich Saudi Arabia are finding with P&S rules you can have all the money in the world but there is very little wriggle room to invest. That is unless Man City can win their case against the Premier League which would then allow Saudi Arabia to plough in millions of extra funds into Newcastle.

Other than what The Mirror quoted which was Moshiri was minded to extend the agreement with 777, we have heard nothing from our owner. So has he extended the agreement with 777, which would preclude him talking to any other possible investors?

And why does he believe given the myriad of court cases 777 have to answer that they will get the go-ahead from the Premier League.

Amid all the gloom, here's a positive thought. Maybe the Saudis are not averse to riding more than one horse. Not owning us, can't do that under the rules, but how does the Riyadh Air Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock sound?

£50m a year and it's theirs!

Point 5 is the greatest and should have been looked at in parallel with the stadium build. This is what has and is happening in East Manchester with Man City. The development opportunities are vast in an integrated leisure-based environment. Link this to the arena, museum and cruise liner terminal.

It takes vision, determination and leadership to see this through and it's generally private business rather than political push that achieves the vision and success.

We are where we are because Moshiri gambled a fortune on managers and players plus so-called experts to buy the right players.

It was a gamble to presumably get us playing in Europe and actually win something after all these years. It's fair to say we were all for it.

Then Moshiri decided to build a new stadium, no doubt with Usmanov behind him – again the majority of us were all for that. We now know what happened next which no one could have foreseen.

Hence we are here; sure, Moshiri has made mistakes… but circumstance and bum advice from so-called football and business experts have played a major role in the situation we are now in.

That scenario seems a tad reminiscent of Man City's journey, although City were never in the sort of mire that Everton are now in, and Everton have had to pay for their new stadium, of course.

He will take the next ‘best' offer he can get that gives him some return and an early exit.

At the moment, he has big incentives to keep us floating until a deal is agreed and I'm sure he is in a rush to get out as quickly as he can, so won't be wasting time in agreeing a sale.

In terms of money, it's all gone quiet on the stadium naming rights which I thought a few months back had been progressing well to the point of securing a partner. Could any income here by the 30th June help us with PSR? Rather than sell players.

Michael is referring to this rumor mill item of a year ago.

Link

Paul had to have some "in" with negotiations to post this, "Moshiri is set to cede majority control of Everton with a new share issue in favour of new investor (MSP) diluting Moshiri to below 50%. New investor will control budgets plus board composition allowing for change in key Chair & CEO positions."

That's too matter-of-fact for him to have made it up. Instead of waiting for an official announcement, he posted as if it was a done deal.

That was on June 1, 2023. On August 15, we learned of what did come out of the negotiations, which left Paul with some egg on his face.

Which Michael here is quite happy to remind us.

Any potential buyer might be wondering how soon it might be before a profit is turned and if that was the best use of the money. Unless there is an Evertonian billionaire out there with time on his hands.

I am not an accountant but let's be honest, when Moshiri and Usmanov took over EFC, very few people were unhappy.
It soon became obvious to me that Moshiri was just a front for Usmanov.

It also is kind of obvious that after our actual owner Usmanov got on the wrong side of British foreign policy because his evil mate Putin invaded Ukraine, Moshiri's paid-for front was crumbling.

I actually respect Usmanov and Moshiri because they have built a magnificent stadium. Think about that… who else has achieved that?

Now he wants one thing and one thing only, to retrieve as much of his money as is possible. For him, 777 Partnera offered the best return and so he hoped it would work and was not willing to give the chimera up until it was proved not only to be dead but cremated as well.

He will sell, not to the offer that offers the best future for Everton FC, but to the one which offers him the best personal return and the two may not coincide.

The interesting times, in the Chinese sense, have not yet gone away.

This nob who says he wants to buy 45% of Everton but Roma will be the No 1 Toy in his set!!!

For me, this happens, I am done!! I am not interested. I'll take my 62 years of memories and go watch Tranmere. He can shove it, play with his football set. Everton isn't a toy for a weathy billionaire film director.

Half full stadium!! drop into the Championship and ⅓ full, done, gone.

Let's pray A Bell, G Downing and MSD Partners buys us.