Reporter Notebook: Everton and its fans have shown they're not for moving - but new owners have huge job on their hands

Reporter Notebook: Everton and its fans have shown they’re not for moving – but new owners have huge job on their hands

Posted by Admin April 29, 2024 Football

Everton will play in the top flight of English football for a 71st consecutive season next August.

That, despite overcoming historical circumstances, with two separate points deductions and subsequent appeal processes, a long drawn out proposed takeover and the death of a chairman leading to an interim board running the club.

Quite the achievement considering all of that and one in which a number of people will come out the other side with much credit but also with many, many questions remaining.

Manager Sean Dyche should rightly receive plaudits for keeping a relative calm at the club while many were losing their heads all around him, he has had challenges which no other Everton manager, at least in modern times, have had to endure.

His straight-talking, balanced and equable approach has been both a source of comfort and place of sanctuary for many.

Of course, he has suffered some troubling periods, a run of 15 games without a win concerned the fans and understandable criticism came his way.

But even then, he stuck to his principles, except when it came to dress code, donning a tracksuit for the usual shirt and tie for the last three games – but that’s as far as he was prepared to go.

There is a quality to simplicity and Dyche knows that. Everton have not had that for a very long time. The basics at the club had been set aside in recent years, replaced by individualism and agendas. he has made it about the club once again, and that can only be a plus.

The players too have stood up when it mattered. It is clear the off-field ‘noise’ has affected them, regardless of the denials in the weekly interviews. Let’s be honest, it has affected everyone connected with the club.

The interim board, led by CEO Colin Chong, has had to combine the duties of such a high profile role with his day job of overseeing the build of the club’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, and he has done it with dignity and professionalism under trying and testing conditions.

But most of all, it has been the fans once again who have defended their club passionately, peacefully and credibly.

They have rallied behind the manager and the team home and away, while protesting what they see as an injustice, despite the knocks coming on a daily basis at times. They have undeniably made a difference, and for a third season running.

Sadly, if any of the above think the struggles are over they are very much mistaken; tough times are ahead.

The ownership issue needs to be resolved first and foremost. That, and only that, can bring some direction at the club once and for all.

Whoever and whatever that direction takes is still unclear but a way forward is crucial and essential if the club is to begin to repair a long period of decline – and you can pretty much take your pick on when that descent began.

Part of that repair will require tough decisions, a continued period of austerity and a business plan rigid enough to eradicate the threat of financial instability which has led the club to be where it is today.

777 Partners are the company in pole position having secured a deal with majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri last September but the process has taken far too long for most people’s liking and a source of desperate frustration and uncertainty for both fans and staff alike.

777 appear to have that strong and ruthless business sense; they’ve made such changes at other clubs like Genoa, Hertha Berlin and Red Star Paris, all part of their multi-club model, with success.

However, they have also attracted a lot of negative publicity, with questions being asked about their ability to fund the club, not just by the Premier League – whose Owners and Directors test and financial scrutiny remains an ongoing process – but by a number of external entities and the fans too.

However, they have also funded and supported the club to the tune of £200m to date – much needed vital funds for both working capital and some stadium funding.

Without that support, it is unclear what position the club would be in, however my understanding is suggestions of administration are wide of the mark and it appears that scenario is not likely even if the 777 approval doesn’t come.

The money they have loaned would only be repayable should another purchaser step forward to buy the club (Moshiri’s shareholding).

That seems unlikely with a full buyout of Everton likely to cost anywhere between £600m to a billion pounds with the finances to move forward and a squad restructure taken into account.

In summary, Moshiri needs the deal to go through with the Miami-based investors. He believes it is the best way forward for the club’s future mainly because the money invested by them is equitized and at this time it would appear to be the least difficult situation to deal with. After all, there doesn’t appear to be a queue of alternative suitors forming.

Whoever ends up taking Everton into their new stadium on the banks of the River Mersey for season 2025/26 has a huge job on their hands turning around what has been in the past a huge cruise liner and wants to be again.

The stadium is a vital component of any success which may follow.

Everton has been on a downward spiral for far too long now. Three relegation fights has taken its toll, and there is a lot to fix at a club which has spent more years in the top flight of English football than any other. In football, three words are key: responsibility, accountability and opportunism.

When things are going wrong, it’s usually down to an unclear responsibility structure, that leads to no accountability and allows for opportunism of the wrong kind.

When things are done properly and people are clear about their responsibilities, accountability follows and a much more attractive form of opportunity shows itself.

There is a huge job in restructuring the squad.

Players who carry the burden of previous overspending and exuberance will need to be cleared out and those bright talents such as Jarrad Branthwaite kept.

Director of Football Kevin Thelwell must be allowed to source players fit for purpose and for the road ahead, but he will be restricted financially – of that there is no doubt.

Gone are the early days of high spending in Moshiri’s reign, but with the will and determination shown over this season it can be done.

Everton and its fans have shown they are not for moving.