I'm struggling to get my head around 777 Everton takeover - fans deserve more
Whichever way you look at it, there are a lot of questions to be asked about the potential takeover of Everton.
I’m struggling to get my head around it, because from the outside - and obviously, we don’t know the details of the deal because few have been released - the record so far of the new owners doesn’t look great. I’m not knocking them. I don’t know the people behind 777 Partners to do that, and it is clear they have big ambitions, with a ‘multi-team ownership plan’. But this is Everton, one of the most historic clubs in world football.
They are not just another club - let’s face it, another distressed club - to go into a portfolio of struggling clubs who can be ‘rescued’ by clever commercialisation, as the new buzzword in football seems to be. Look, I also know that you can’t judge 777 on the struggles of the clubs they’ve invested in so far, because in many of the cases, they are minority shareholders. Yet from a fan’s perspective, you have to admit it doesn’t look great.
Modern football has moved on, I know. There has to be a much wider perspective now, a football club, no matter how traditional and community-based, has to look globally to be able to compete in the Premier League. But again, this is Everton. They mean far more to the city of Liverpool than being part of a global group of clubs who all seem to have only one thing in common - they are a distressed asset.
That’s not me saying that, by the way, that seems to be the message of the current owner, Farhad Moshiri, and 777 themselves, in the press releases they gave explaining the reasons behind the takeover. And that’s the crux of the matter. Everton fans deserve better. They have deserved so much better for a long time. They had so much hope when Farhad Moshiri took over the club, and he clearly hasn’t delivered.
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Let’s be honest, in part that’s because of sanctions because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moshiri’s long-time business partner Alisher Usmanov was a major sponsor of the club, and they’ve been hit hard by the loss of his money.
Since he withdrew his association with Everton, the club’s revenues have decreased, and that has had a big knock-on effect in terms of spending. Reality has hit Moshiri, and you can understand his reluctance to keep financing the club, especially with so much money still to be found to finish the new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock.
Farhad Moshiri is closing in on a deal to sell Everton (Getty Images)But these high-profile football club takeovers remind me of politicians at election time, though. They always promise the world to get elected, but when they get into power do they ever make good on those promises? Do they hell.
Moshiri spoke of taking Everton into the top four, but the first thing he did when taking over the club was sack a manager who had done just that a year before, and had taken the club to both cup semi-finals that season. He’d snap the hand off if anyone offered that now.
The point is, Everton fans have been let down badly. The club is in a mess, so you can understand the suspicion of potential new owners who come with a not-overly-impressive track record. As I say, this is one of the most historic clubs in world football, and this is the Premier League. Let’s be honest, if you are putting money into a club at that level these days, it’s a bottomless pit. Does anyone turn a profit at a top-flight club?
So a deal where new owners seem to be borrowing all the money to buy the club to be part of a chain, (a bit like a discount supermarket chain?!), doesn’t sit entirely right with me. Everton fans deserve their club to be run by people who get it. Moshiri, quite clearly, didn’t get it.
I’d be amazed if it still happens now though. It would open an incredible can of worms because everyone - and I mean everyone - will be looking at this takeover to ensure it is done properly. Everton fans will. They are already cautious, and that is understandable, given how badly they were let down by Moshiri. So this needs to be a stringent process by the Premier League and the Financial Conduct Authority.
This is not just another commodity, bought and sold like a supermarket. This is the heartbeat of a city and community that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. So it has to be done right.
My San Siro regret
I’ve never played at the San Siro, can you believe that. I’ve played in most of the great football stadiums around the world - scored in quite a few of them too - but I’ve never set foot in that Italian citadel. Which is why I’m as jealous as hell of Newcastle when they kick off their Champions League programme with a trip to the historic city of Milan.
I’ve actually heard a lot of talk about a ‘group of death’ and moaning that Newcastle have been unlucky with the Champions League draw. Unlucky?! It’s the best draw they could have hoped for.
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The iconic San Siro stadium (Getty Images)My regret at never playing in the San Siro tells you that. I’d have loved to have faced AC there, to have played against Inter there, and I’d have loved to have scored against both of them there. That’s what you are in football for - you want the biggest games against the biggest clubs, and you want to beat them.
With Liverpool, we had some incredibly tough draws on the way to winning the UEFA Cup in 2001 for instance. We won in the Stadio Olimpico, and we drew in the Nou Camp. We won the final in Dortmund. All historic stadiums. It made the win special - elevated it far above Europe’s second trophy into a story up there with the best in Anfield history.
Would we have swapped those for easier draws against lesser teams? Of course not. You’re in it to play the best, to beat the best. That’s where legends are made. And Newcastle’s players should embrace that at the start of what I hope is an incredible journey for them.
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