Is a possible takeover a good thing for Everton
Suddenly, after almost exclusive talk about player transfers since the season ended, news has emerged that Everton might well be taken over by a consortium headed up by Peter Kenyon.
We’ve looked at the details of the people involved in this consortium, which according to several media reports are some way down the road to possibly acquiring Everton.
This is a development that follows only a few days after current owner Farhad Moshiri seemed to be re-afirming again his commitment to the club in a letter he published, outlining his views on the past season and how to move forward in the future.
So, should Blues’ supporters be excited or nervous about this potential change of club ownership?
Many Toffees’ fans will probably be more than willing to see Moshiri depart and have new people, hopefully with serious additional funds as well, come in and take control of the club.
No one, no matter how generous they’re trying to be, can say that the Iranian’s time as majority shareholder and owner has been a success!
Last season’s debacle in which Everton so nearly fell through the relegation trap door and into the Championship, was the latest in a progression of ever more frustratingly average and underachieving seasons under a bewildering succession of managers.
In his six years as owner, the Blues’ have finished seventh, eighth, eighth, twelfth, tenth and then sixteenth. That’s a pretty clear downwards curve and it’s certainly not Champions League qualification and maybe even the trophies that Evertonians hoped for when Moshiri took over.
As we all know Moshiri has spent heavily on players and has hired an ecclectic mix of experienced big names and relatively unknown young coaches to try and bring success.
It hasn’t worked of course and as success on the pitch became ever more elusive, Moshiri’s approach seemed to be more and more desperate culminating in the ill-fated decision to hire Rafa Benitez last summer.
In addition, one of the most serious criticisms levelled at Moshiri and the board of directors he heads up, is the lack of a clear sense of direction and strategy and the related, and at times, seemingly almost negligent absence of effective communication with supporters.
This reached a head last season with mass fan protests as results on the pitch declined disasterously with the unpopular Benitez in charge.
There was a sense at one point that the club seemed to be coming apart in a potentially terminal crisis on and off the pitch because of this failure and discontent.
The club’s finances are also in a serious mess after all the failed spending on average players and their massive salaries and huge payouts to sacked managers. That could well impare current manager Frank Lampard’s plans to transform the team.
I also think Moshiri himself perhaps wants a way out having been forced to cut his ties to his friend and business partner Alisher Usmanov, so starving him of the additional resources he expected to help finance his plans.
He can’t either have enjoyed seeing the level of discontent and at times hostility directed towards himself and the board seen in the protests last season, although he’s so rarely at Goodison Park that’s probably not a major concern!
However, if it’s true he wants a way out I think this all might go back to last summer and Carlo Ancelotti walking away suddenly to re-join Real Madrid.
The Italian was the coach he had always wanted and having finally got him the owner hoped this would mark a turning point at last and bring success on the pitch.
His departure ended that hope and maybe Moshiri simply no longer has the same commitment he once seemed to for this project.
The new stadium build is finally underway, which does increase the club’s potential value and his apparent willingness to entertain talks about this takeover bid might indictate he is ready to sell.
All this would appear to make potential new ownership by a new group of investors who have serious additional sources of finance, a good outcome for all concerned.
But, it’s perhaps not that simple, and of course we need to know a lot more about who these individuals are and what their plans and strategy will be. After all, just throwing lots of money about to bring success hasn’t worked has it?
And, having perhaps had our fingers burned with Moshiri, it’s surely necessary to be cautious of another set of overseas-based business people taking ownership of Everton Football Club.