Takeover talk again as 777 back in for Everton purchase after MSP withdrawal
The crazy world of Everton FC continues with stories breaking this afternoon that 777 Partners are now once more back in negotiations to purchase the club.
This comes on the back of the withdrawal of MSP Sports from their agreement to loan money for the new stadium build and potentially a cash injection to the club as well.
While MSP’s stadium loan is still on the table, they are no longer seeking shares and/or places on the Everton board.
So, that means that the future financing of the team’s development is up in the air yet again.
Now it seems that 777 Partners (who were in prelimenary talks with the Blues earlier this year along with MSP before the latter entered into exclusivity with Farhad Moshiri) are back in the frame and could well be finally ready to conclude a full takeover of the Toffees.
It is hard to know for sure whether there is anything more substantial to the rumours as we’ve heard them before, however they are originally coming from reasonably reliable sources.
What then are we to make of all this?
In one sense frankly anyone other than the current board and owner would seem a good idea given the chaotic nature of their rein and the constant crisis and gloom that has enveloped Everton over the last few years.
Huge and sometimes highly questionable transfer spending on often horrendously over-priced players and a managerial merry-go-round that would make your eyes water, have left the club in a terrible mess.
It is almost inconceivable that a football club could have so much wealth, spend so much money on talent and still end up tettering on the brink of relegation and financial oblivion.
And yet of course, that’s exactly what has happened at Everton with this season’s dreadful start being the worst in the Blues history.
For their part, 777 Partners have stakes in a number of European clubs, although obviously none in England’s Premier League so far.
They seem to specialize in taking stakes in smaller clubs that are struggling to make progress and the Blues certainly fit that profile. A full takeover would appear to be a break from their usual approach though.
I have no idea of this group of investors are about to seal a deal to buy Everton, or if will prove a decisive and meaningful step forward and away from the upheavel and misery of Moshiri’s rein, but we may be about to find out.