Farhad Moshiri has responded to the latest open letter sent to him by Everton supporter groups as the current crisis at the club continues.
The owner has in turn published an open letter of his own in reaction to the increasing anger and frustration among Everton fans as another season descends into abject failure.
In it Moshiri sounds a bizzarely optimistic tone, effectively saying everything is fine at the club and he’s happy with how the business is being run!
He claims that under his leadership the club has always strived for success and that he has regularly made changes to achieve that success. Well, there certainly has been plenty of turnover in managers and players that’s for sure!
Moshiri also says he has confidence in the key people at the club, specifically the board and the plans they have put in place recently.
This is frankly an incredible statement to make given the dire situation the Blues’ are in once again with another season decending into a spiral of defeat and dire trouble.
Let’s look at the bald facts. Both on and off the pitch things could hardly be any worse with Everton in appalling levels of crippling debt and with a first-team that is a laughing stock in the Premier League, sitting three from bottom in the table.
On top of that there is a brand new stadium still to be completed with the ongoing funding of that ground not 100% certain.
In most businesses failure of this kind wouldn’t be rewarded with a vote of confidence from the owner but would instead see the senior people in charge pay the price.
However, at Everton, those who have overseen the spectacular decline of a once great club are it appears as safe as houses in their jobs, while the team slides towards an almost inevitable relegation from the Premier League.
Most of the anger supporters have felt and expressed, particularly over the last twelve months or so, has been directed at the board of directors rather than the owner himself.
He has largely escaped being held responsible for the constant problems at the club. After this profoundly misjudged letter I think that will change.
And of course, ultimately the buck does stop with him. Moshiri was the key figure for example in appointing Rafa Benitez in summer 2021 after Carlo Ancelotti left.
That decision was very controverisal and always seemed likely to backfire badly as soon as anything went wrong and that’s precisely what happened just a few months into his ill-fated reign.
In some ways there seems to be an element of a strange bunker mentality at the club with the owner and his board doubling down on their failure whenever they are criticised. They seem to be living in a parallel universe to almost every other Evertonian.
And, even if victory is achieved on Saturday against Southampton, followed by at least a point at West Ham and a very successful transfer window this month, it feels as though there is no way out except with fresh ownership.