As someone else mentioned on this thread before, I think TFG saw what happened with Manchester City, and realised that the PL is a closed clique of the Sly 6 clubs, and upstarts won’t be tolerated. This probably goes against every grain of American free-market philosophy. And so, TFG thought it best to exit at this time. As MK eloquently put it in his article last week, unless the sham SCR rules are abolished and more fair competition regulations are put in place, why would someone be willing to spend money year-on-year without any realistic chance to getting into the rarefied zone of the high revenue clubs? Only someone who is interested in acquiring a trophy-asset will buy this club.

I think there is a limit on words now = sorry! It got personally rather hairy out there for them. Threats ++ That was when they came back to EFC as we had a distressed asset about us and the stadium already in build. So its not just a recent change of circumstances. Yes they always probably thought a safety net as a distressed asset but no flip plan at the start. They had bid for a number of American sports franchises and lost those. Then they struck lucky with the Houston NHL and last week the New Roma Stadium planning came through. This both will cost a capital bill minimum of $5billion – and increased risk and management team focus. This means that EFC became bottom of their list, plus SCR etc, UEFA Roma/EFC clash – means they are looking to exit. I personally dont think they went in with a flip plan and they are no conspiracy chess players.

Has anyone seen reports that suggest an overall value for the club, or at least for the controlling stake? Presumably, with our fabulous HD stadium included, we’d be well over £1bn? The idea of a ‘fan takeover’ has always interested me. If someone like Andy Bell or Sir Terry Leahy led a consortium that invited Evertonians to purchase 51% of the club then, in theory, it could be a game changer. Our fanbase globally must be in the millions and could be leveraged to buy the lion’s share of the club on a minimum/maximum purchase basis e.g. minimum investment of £2k and maximum of £100k (figures picked at random). It would prevent situations like the one we’re currently in, and if there was a significant profit to be made by selling the club, actual Evertonians would get a say and make some money themselves. Just a thought. I’ve bought businesses in the past but never anything to the scale of a PL football club!

It’s a shame that we could not have a longer mor stable period. TFG have generally made investmetns in busienss and stay for the longer term. However best laid plans and dare I say intentions are often side swiped by a change of circumstances. For a bit of background colour, they have been on a learning curve in the football space. I think this change of circumstance has been there before they even engaged with Everton. They had a really rough ride at Roma and somewhat out of their depth. When they went into Rome they had good intentions and their overarching strategy was to create a new stadium. That was where their changing of circumstances started. There have been so many stop starts on the Roma Stadium front. I am not sure if anyone has done business in Italy, but the folklore is not far from the surface. I have it from a very credible source that they had serious issues with selection of site, who you had to have on side with regard to the forces of power in the city.

Yep, spot on, Dave. Another hat-trick for Jason Nsangou!!! Are you perhaps watching, David Moyes??? Errrr…. No. Pretty incredible that AFC Bournemouth provide the stream — from Finch Farm. Nowt from Everton.

I’ve got slightly more flexible morals when it comes to Everton but I think, if Musk bought us, it would stretch me to my limits. The guy is one step away from living in a hollowed-out volcano and pointing space-lasers at planet Earth.

Now 4-1 not sure if it was another Nsangou goal but they should have made it 5 just before half time That Nsangou should have been on the bench at Hull— not just a goalscorer but a lovely footballer. This game is on U Tube and a very good picture especially when Nsangou has got the ball.

Rumour doing the rounds at the moment say that Elon Musk has had talks yesterday about buying Everton. That would be very interesting since he’s nearly a trillionaire. Come on TW get the mill cranked up!

Nsangou scored after 30 seconds then added another one along with Brookes- it now 3-1 – that bleedin’ defence FFS!

Patric that 3-2 cup game was Mykolenko’s first game for Everton I think, couldn’t believe how poor he was, he’s improved, he just had to since, but still should have been well replaced along with the right back position- five bleedin’ years nearly!

I do agree with Scott. The likes of Burham Carney and Sir Terry Leahy would know people to approach. However dealing with the Freidkins I’m sure will be a challenge. Everton Football Club is an asset that they want top dollar for. Therefore the new buyer could well be a case of “ from the frying pan into the fire”. We all remember the sound bites TFG made when they first arrived

An attack full of goals — 4 goals at least and that’s just in the first half, Come on you brilliant future Blues!

The more I reflect on this, the better I feel about it. I was contemplating them holding onto us for the next twenty years, treading water between 10-12th whilst these gobshites just collected every year from just being in the Prem. It’s really good news that they’ve misjudged, or got distracted by hockey or whatever, let’s put them in the rear view mirror, and try and forget they’ll be extracting tens and possibly hundreds of millions out of the club. Look how long the glazers have stuck around in Manchester, this crew was well capable of doing the same. I suspect there’ll be a lot of envious glances being cast at us from Rome in the next few months. cos they aren’t letting go of them in a hurry. But they don’t like spending. Not a good combination.

“Evertonians, understandably, want to feel their club is a priority.” Evertonians, understandably, want to feel that the owners show any interest at all.

We have a fabulous new stadium thanks to Moshiri. His football knowledge was minimal and the sale to TFG saw us become a marketable asset. Thanks! Now we just need to move on. Hopefully, we will be sold to someone with a modicum of football knowledge, maybe a syndicate with A J Bell at its head. The temptation will be to look around the Middle East but look what that has done to City and Newcastle. We need only look 30 miles east to Old Trafford to see what Sir Jim is doing with United. John K is right, let’s do what we have always been able to do and move on. Personally, TFG have been a stop gap, there is better out there.

Clearly something changed. Id doubt that they came in for a quick buck, but the optics do lend itself to it. What has changed? The ice hockey bid? The planning permission for the new roma stadium? The realisation that Everton need far more money and commitment thsn theyre preoared to offer? Who knows. What is clear to me, is that the ownership model & European qualification hasnt been properly answered. We were told there wasn’t a problem, but the dragging of feet last January when everton were in a good position, suggests to me there was a problem with it. Uefa seemingly confirming that no solution was in place.

Totally different. They are attending matches, invested in the team, talking to supporters, building a new stadium. Roma are the priority, we were a side project. The investment needed to get a PL club to the CL is probably double that of a serial A team, so why bother ?

Poor Mike G, Getting bashed from,pillar to post. At least your posts have made these threads worth reading. Fickle at best.

Mike mate, you are getting a lot of heat and it’s hard to read. Over the years I have enjoyed reading your opinions, whether I agree with them or not, however with TFG something is different and I don’t get it. Your opinions become facts not “I don’t think theyll sell” but “they won’t sell” for example. You are right that you critise some decisions, but when others do you attack them. And I don’t think it’s blind support for a fellow American, that’s clear. I am sorry you are getting so much flack though.

I struggle to see how any ‘fit and proper’ rules would fail the TFG purchase. Yes we are seeing them use us to make a quick buck but they have done nothing wrong in an ownership sense. In fact they have stabilised us and left us in a much better place than when they came in. Frustrating as it is I doubt any rules could avoid approaches such as this.

Well Michael, the new comment system has finally got some decent interaction.

Darren, your shaky integrity is showing again. Sure, I happily clapped what I saw in our future when the Friedkins took over and to have them do all they did. Proud to clap. But you KNOW with absolute certainty, because you read my posts, that I was never blind about it, that I criticized them for hiring Moyes, and for sacking Thelwell, and for hiring a CEO with only commercial development quals and none in football, and for not talking to us (even though I warned that they wouldn’t), and for not sacking Angus for the Beto blunder, and for not explaining the last day of the window. And I repeatedly used the word “stupid” to describe their not showing up to games, even though I didn’t give a damn myself. And you also know perfectly well that just about everything about my side of the pond currently turns my stomach. So take your deliberate misrepresentations and slip ’em into a bottle for Australia.

Bob, “There seems little sense in what they are doing.” They picked up a distressed asset on the brink, for an initial outlay of £25M to £40M… if that. They have since invested more than £400M directly into the coffers of the club. They are now looking to sell for upwards of £800M. Where’s the sense in that???

I wonder what will come out in to the open some way along the track. There seems little sense in what they are doing. Surely, they can’t be regarded as stupid. They are a considerably successful company. Something stinks IMO. Always begin with the end in mind is a saying I have used in my business life. So what was their target? And are they tied up with others, who wanted to take over Everton but didn’t appear to have the “clout” to be backed to get Everton back to be a desirable target? Who knows what goes around in the billionaires’ club? I’ve been a Blue since I was 5 y.o. in 1953. A bit flabbergasted TBH. Planning a trip back to UK to include a game or 2 at Hill Dickinson. I hope they find a top grade owner that truly wants to bring us back to the way we were in the mid-eighties.

It doesnt rankle with me Mike. Although It clearly rankles with you. It wasnt a joke on your part, it was a deliberate attempt to isolate me (like that was going to work) for railing against Koeman`s crazed spending spree rather than Joining your merry band of whooper`s and hollerer`s cheering our transfer window madness. It was a tactic you tried again when I told you (as a matter of fact) that Carlo was not going to sign a string of superstars. There are many other instances. You may claim that you “took the brave unpopular path” but you are a natural born happy clapper. You have a long history, going all the way back to the days of uncle bill, of confusing support for the club with supporting everything the owners do. Nothing wrong with that of course, but there will always be others who are prepared to give these matters a little more thought

Usmanov can move freely around all of the EU and deal the uk and america have not yet released him but i think these will be addressed soon . We need Andy on the case but its only a suggestion who knows.

Personally I don’t give a shit about the Friedkins other than thank them for more or less saving my Club Going to games and all the rest of that is nonsense These guys came in and stabilised a sinking vessel. Got rid of a crap Captain and put us on an even keel – note I’m ex Merchant Navy So they’re gonna make a bomb out of selling us so good on them Yes they could have been a lot more interested, yes they could have shown a more visual impression etc etc etc Thing is as long as we are now a more attractive proposition to any prospective buyer who will hopefully show more interest is enough for me. TFG dug us out of a hole, thank them and their massive profit and let’s, like we’ve always done, move on

MG mate you definitely said that Friedkin was falling in love – or something similar – with us but I don’t recall you saying that he ‘gets’ us

Mike. Stop digging. You`ve reached Austrailia. You were not just guessing. You were insisting. You were often mocking the opinions of people who saw the writing on the wall when you couldnt even see the wall. There is a very real difference between boldly nailing your colours to an unpopular mast and blindly Happy clapping everything that originates that side of the pond.

Thanks, Larry, for the support… but no worries. I enjoy making predictions and I’m never afraid to nail my colours to the unpopular side of an opinion divide, and so I’m perfectly comfortable taking the inevitable hits that result when I guess wrong.

As for restructuring our debt, a trained chimp could have done that with a £1 billion brand new stadium as securitisation.

TFG published a “long-term football strategy” in December 2024 because they needed one when they bought the club; as I recall it had 4 bullet points and they contradicted it immediately by hiring David Moyes. This was a commercial exercise from TFG from the start, and the decision to extract a dividend payment of £45 million from the club would have confirmed it for any person who cared to look. I got a lot of stick for pointing this out. TFG saw a distressed asset with a brand new stadium, and took the chance to buy it and flip it for a huge profit. They did nothing wrong, but it was entirely cynical. It appears to me that the people who praised them as stable leaders with a long-term, prudent plan to grow Everton are now the same ones who are now claiming that they did us a lot of good, and were reluctant to sell us at all if they could secure a minority investor. Next they’ll start claiming they will only sell us to the right owners.

I was genuinely optimistic that Friedkin, remote or not (and I predicted he would be) would ultimately turn out to be an excellent long-term owner for this club, a major step up after three decades of disappointment from Johnson, Kenwright and Moshiri. I am profoundly saddened that it’s not going to happen. And I am deeply concerned about who we will get next. I’m skeptical of the widely-held idea here that there are lots of potential owners out there like Patric describes who combine wealth, “grand vision” and strategic ability — not to mention Evertonian leanings. I greatly fear we will instead wind up the property of a Boehly-style publicity hound for whom we are an expression of ego and self-promotion. Somebody here even brought up that Satan incarnate, Musk.

MG did say that Dan the Man was falling in love with us Philip and was getting us.

LOL, January will improve us. There will be no January. These twats will be selling not buying.

Larry, if the site does not hold a comment box at the top of comments with a ‘welcome Larry O’Hara above it, let Michael and Harry know what you are using to visit the site. That sounds like a bug.

What is the point of having ‘fit and proper’ rules about ownership if they don’t prevent rich people from using clubs as opportunities to simply enrich themselves further. It’s an absolute disgrace that the hopes and dreams of thousands of ordinary people can be played with by self-interested billionaires.

I personally don’t think Roma fans are unhappy with the Friedkin Group after all Roma is top of the league and the project for the new Stadium has been fully approved and the building should start soon

I was watching. But find it very tedious I seem to have to log in for each and every comment. My patience is not infinite…..

Todd Boehly? The weirdest owner in the league? Sacked a Champions League-winning manager after 7 games? Spent insanely? Gave Raheem Sterling a 5-year contract at 250K per? Antagonized fans, fellow owners and players with strange acts and comments? That’s who you’d rather have?

Mike Gaynes has loyally supported the Friedkins: fair enough. But he was not privy to their plans and has been hoodwinked. It happens. Time to move on and stop getting on his case,

I express lots of opinions, Philip. No recollection of that particular one, but I have a number of obsessive fans who seem to have limitless memories. I made a joke probably a decade ago about Tinkerbell from Peter Pan that still rankles with one such fan who still brings it up.

If I had a mustache I would be twisting the end of it, thinking about your incisive remark there, John.

GO FUND US anybody? 🤔

Welcome back Larry O’Hara!

Do you know when he put the application in Mike?

They stabilised a sinking ship, then went AWOL. Thank you and good night. Amanda Staveley are you ITA?

I’m not sure I want to support a team call ‘X’

mike can you please confirm , did you once state that dan friedkin ‘gets’ everton ? if you did say that why – what proof did you have…… yes i know they spent money on everton and put us on a safer financial footing..thanks for that dan.

Could it be that they saw, in Goodison Park, an opportunity to make a huge financial gain – but have been thwarted by the ‘planning regulations? Never underestimate the pull of wealth for the wealthiest, or their disdain for the rest of us.