Moshiri must get it right as Everton owner sifts multiple ownership offers

After being starved of interest in the past, Everton are suddenly now inundated with potential ownership offers, at least if you believe all the media claims doing the rounds at the moment.

One of those bids comes from a businessman based in London but with links to the Middle East. Vatche Manoukian has a Lebanese background but has made his home in the UK's capital.

Manoukian's bid looks like a strong one on paper with the tech business tycoon having a successful career and as well, wealthy backers from the US and Australia.

He is looking to make an all-equity bid, which I think in practice would effectively mean he won't be using debt to finance a bid and then possibly loading it onto the club.

Considering the level of debt that the Toffees are already carrying with money owed to a number of different parties - such as previous takeover front-runners 777 Partners and MSP Sports Capital who are supposedly still interested in the club - that is certainly a good thing.

This level of financial muscle and expertise might at last represent a decisive shift in the way the club has been run recently.

There has certainly been a strong impression created under the regime of Farhad Moshiri that this was not the case in the past, despite his own background in finance.

Moshiri's time became characterized by a constant turnover in managers, huge spending splurges on often mismatched and over-hyped players and eventually, an increasingly unsustainable level of debt built up as the team's performances declined inexorably.

In the end that has resulted in the Blues battling relegation from the Premier League in the last three campaigns and suffering a total of eight points deducted last season for breaching PSR.

So, while the prospect of ending that cycle seems very positive, the other named source of finance within this bid could be more controversial as it is from Saudi Arabia.

According to the media reports the Kingdom's royal family are potentially supplying some of the money behind Manoukian's bid.

That might not be everyone's cup of tea given the controversy surrounding Middle Eastern investment in Premier League clubs, particularly as champions Manchester City are still facing over one hundred allegations relating to PSR breaches.

There is another possible issue and that is the fact that the Saudi royals already have investment in Everton's rivals Newcastle United through the takeover of the Magpies by Crown Prince Salman's Sovereign Wealth Fund three years ago.

Would that not create a potential conflict of interests and breach rules about the same people owning multiple Premier League clubs? I don't know the answer to that question.

At any rate, while all Everton supporters want this saga ended as soon as possible, it is important that Moshiri takes his time and ensures that whoever he enters into an exclusive agreement with next (and he does not have a good track record there either) can answer all these and other issues clearly.