Can we please stop blaming Moshiri?

by   |   16/01/2022  77 Comments  [Jump to last]

Can we give it a rest with the bashing Moshiri stuff please? It's lazy, unrealistic and fundamentally makes no actual sense.

This guy didn't take a side that were challenging for the title every year and turn them into losers. Much as people on here may hate to deal with it, we've been pretty poor for the last 35 years (I know as I've been supporting for longer than that and still recall the '80s hey day).

He hasn't done a Glazer and loaded us with debt while paying himself a fortune and he's not done a Derby in destroying the club then trying to get out.

What he has done was continue to put a shit ton of his own money (and Usmanov's of course) where his mouth was and invest it into the club and try to build something better.

This club was an absolute financial basket-case before he came along, as this forum should know more than most considering the dogs abuse they've given Kenwright for the last 20-odd years. Moshiri invested a lot of money (Usmanov's too) to write off this debt, start a new stadium and try to improve the playing staff, management and structure.

Benitez was a punt, I agree, but we were left in a hole by Ancelotti at short notice. (Where's the criticism of Carlo? How is that Moshiri's fault that he has no sense of loyalty?), and it was at least an attempt to do something different rather than repeating the same thing that had failed.

If you step back from results, the management appointment ideology wasn't madness, he's simple tried different things and given people a shake:
i) Koeman – world famous manager with Premier League experience
ii) Allardyce – short-term specialist to 'keep us up'
iii) Silva – young, well regarded 'modern' manager
iv) Ancelotti - proven winner with great connections
v) Benitez – Forceful manager with strong history, but an 'outside the box' option
And of course we've also interviewed countless others.

Every one of these managers (aside Benitez maybe) has been given strong backing in the transfer market to build a side in their image. Despite some decent signings, I'd argue that all of them have pissed away money to some degree, over spending or buying too many of the wrong types of players. Is the argument he shouldn't have given them money? Or he should have vetoed signings?

Do you think he personally recommended Koeman not to buy a striker but to spend £40M on Sigurdsson (who to be fair had a great Premier League track record), £22.5M on Bolasie (less great but some positive signs) and £20M on Schneiderlein? Do you reckon he scouted Tosun and Walcott for £41M for Sam? What about the £28M spent on Gbamin by Silva, etc?

Presumably if so he wasn't involved in us signing Pickford, Richarlison, Digne, Gueye, Calvert-Lewin, etc?

Progressively, he also tried to put in place a wider football structure with key advisory figures around the manager – first Steve Walsh (who came very well regarded from Leicester) and then Marcel Brands (from Ajax).

Obviously we can all agree the 6. year adventure hasn't gone the way we'd hoped, but it's hardly been a total disaster. Since he took over in February 2016 and effectively ahead of 2016-17 season, these are the key bullet achievements:

i) Achieved financial security (Moshiri and Usmanov)
ii) Started work on new stadium (and a proper one not a Tesco carpark)
iii) Finished mid-table each year (but outside Europe) from 16-17: 7th (61), 8th (49), 8th (54), 12th (49), 10th (59)
iv) Net transfer spend of £233M (based on p/season net from 16-17 according to transfer market): - £23M, - £69M, - £64M, -£30M, -£53M, + £6M (so far)
v) Updated training facilities
vi) Established a relatively successful youth team and policy of buying youth (albeit not playing them enough)

Yes, there's been loads of terrible signings and yes the results have not yet approached what we achieved under Moyes and Martinez (and thus Kenwright) before. Moyes notably achieved 8 top 7 finishes under his tenure, got us into Europe several times and restored some respect to the side after the disastrous 8-9 years from 92-93 under the likes of Walker, Smith, Kendall (Mk 3) and Watson where we were flirting with relegation almost every year. Despite this Davey Moyes got pretty relentless abuse on this channel as not being ambitious enough, attacking enough, 'big enough' for Everton, etc, etc.

Is it possible just maybe the case that the people who are 'out of touch' and need need to take a look at their approach and expectations are NOT only the ones in the boardroom?

I know football fans are fickle and critical by nature, but I think few clubs have fans with such an unrealistic and detached level of expectation and are so willing to rapidly swing into negative doom and gloom than those voiced on this channel.

Even reading the posts about new manager options, it's mainly rubbishing people rather than anything constructive. We wanted Benitez out en masse it seems, so now that's done. What next? What will it take to have a more positive approach? Otherwise if it's just relentless doom and gloom, why are we bothering with the club at all?

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Reader Comments (77)

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Jerome Shields
1 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:08:11
I would not call it doom and gloom.

I would call it a merry-go-round.

Derek Moore
2 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:15:49
Anyone can buy something, Chris. If one buys a dog and then starves it to death, it may even befit to call that person a poor dog owner.

And so it is with Moshiri. He has proven to be quite demonstrably a poor owner thus far. The debate should really begin and end right there.

The real debate is what he needs to do to become a better owner, or if that's even a possibility perhaps? But surely even his most ardent supporter must acknowledge how utterly hopeless he has been in terms of his and our ambitions.

Colin Glassar
3 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:17:22
Bollocks!!
Oliver Molloy
4 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:21:59
No matter what way you look at it, Moshiri looks a right fucking stupid billionaire – if there is such a thing.

Yes, he has invested money but he has failed to address the real shit going on.

He's completely clueless in football matters and, if it is true that he brought the guy from Villa that Benitez didn't want, then What The Fuck!

I'm fed up with it all to, be honest.

Mike Gaynes
5 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:37:13
With qualifications, I'm going to offer some support to Chris's viewpoint here.

We've all seen really bad owners in English football. Egomaniacs, crooks, liars, scam artists who cared little for their clubs, starving them, looking only for a quick buck.

Moshiri is none of these. He has made a string of wrong decisions, no question. But of the seven major hires he has made (five managers and two DoFs), five had significant support from the Everton community, and one was seen as an emergency measure. Only Benitez was a truly predictable disaster.

It certainly appears that choosing Benitez over Brands a couple of months ago was a very bad call, but then Brands was far from universally admired by the fan base.

Moshiri has invested, and he's gotten a stadium started where others had failed for more than 20 years.

Yes, he's responsible for the failures, and he absolutely sucks at communicating with the fans. (That will never get any better, in my opinion, because he doesn't understand the importance.) But I believe he does genuinely want this club to succeed, and if he has the capacity to learn from his mistakes, he could still pull it off.

Kevin Prytherch
6 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:55:37
Sorry Mike, have to disagree on only one being a predictable disaster. I would argue that Silva, Allardyce and Benitez were all predictable disasters. That makes over 40% of Moshiri's appointments predictable disasters. I don't doubt his intentions, but he is a liability in football-related appointments.

So what do we do next? We've tried the Hollywood managers (Koeman and Ancelotti), we've tried the next Mourinho (Silva), the escape artist (Allardyce) and the reputation (Benitez). Is it time to promote from within or do we go for a sensible, pragmatic approach?

Oliver Molloy
7 Posted 16/01/2022 at 23:57:45
Mike,

Moshiri bought Everton to make a pile of money in my opinion and the only reason he cares is because he stands to lose a fortune if it keeps going pear-shaped.

Kenwright is there for PR purposes. If Moshiri was serious about making Everton great, or at least competitive then surely he would be clearing the board out and replacing with experienced and competent people.

They say that millionaires, billionaires are ruthless people, well our billionaire owner looks like a fucking pussycat and a real soft touch and that has to change.

Rob Halligan
8 Posted 16/01/2022 at 00:01:22
I agree with Chris. Moshiri appoints these managers with the belief they will succeed. He doesn't appoint them thinking they are going to fail. He may not know anything about football, but realistically, how many owners actually do? And because he knows nothing about football, he brings in people who do, DoF's.

It's these DoF's who have ultimately cost the club (Moshiri) Millions on wasted transfers. Moshiri is there to sign cheques, not scout and then sign players. I still don't buy into the theory it was Moshiri who "signed Iwobi". Happy to be proved wrong if anyone can provide concrete evidence on this.

It's also the managers who have been a big let-down with team selections, formations, tactics etc etc etc. Koeman was a world class player, winning numerous trophies, and appeared to be doing a decent job at Southampton, when we went calling for him. Likewise Silva at Watford.

Maybe we did go in for him a bit too early though, and once Watford said no, and threatened us with all kinds, we should have ended our interest in him there and then. As I said though, Moshiri, and us, had no idea how either Koeman or Silva would fare as managers, pretty shit as it happens, but hindsight is a wonderful word.

Then we had the next two, Ancelotti and Benitez. Both won numerous trophies at other clubs, both managed some of the biggest clubs in European football, and both big managerial names across Europe. It wasn't Moshiri's fault Carlo done a runner back to Madrid.

His latest appointment, was however doomed to fail from the off, and unfortunately he didn't listen to Kenwright who advised him not to appoint Benitez. However, Moshiri appointed Benitez with the belief he thought he was doing what's best for the club, but it was definitely the wrong choice. Looking at some Newcastle forums and they are delighted we've sacked Benitez, because they hope he can be enticed back there.

Plenty of names now being thrown out by people on here as to who we want next, but do we know how the next manager will fare? Definitely not, and neither does Moshiri!

Barry Hesketh
9 Posted 17/01/2022 at 00:13:05
Rob @8,

I hear that there's a post-dated cheque in the club safe for Martinez for a substantial amount of compensation for the Spaniard when he's relieved of his second stint as manager (joking!)

After 6 years of poor results, and following so much investment, surely even if Moshiri has been naive and hasn't meddled in football affairs, why hasn't he done something about the structures within the club?

I don't believe he hasn't meddled, I also think he believes that it's his money and his club and he'll do what he likes when he likes. A richer more dangerous influence than Bill could ever have been and we're stuck with both men for the foreseeable future – scary!

Rob Halligan
10 Posted 17/01/2022 at 00:24:55
Yes Barry, you're right concerning the overall structure of the club. That is down to Moshiri. He should grow some balls and get rid of Kenwright, and a few more of the hangers on. My post was just about the managers he appointed and then sacked.
Mike Gaynes
11 Posted 17/01/2022 at 00:24:56
Kev #6,

Allardyce was hired only to keep us up, and as much as he disgusted us, he did it.

Judging by the posts on TW and the rapturous welcome he received at Goodison, Marco Silva had significant initial support from the fan base (neither you nor I wanted him, but he was a credible hire), and he did win 40% of his games, same as Koeman and Moyes. Only Benitez was truly a doomed choice from the off.

As for what we do next... beats the fuck out of me, but I think promoting from within an organization this dysfunctional is a self-fulfilling doom in itself.

Greg Anderson
12 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:07:48
The narrative that Moshiri's reign has been an unalloyed catalogue of woe simply is not true or fair. For three of his five full seasons in charge, we have finished 7th or 8th, which is exactly where we realistically should be finishing, given that our resources are still dwarfed by those of the "Big Six". According to one recent account I read, Spurs, the lowliest of the Six, are actually worth four or five times what EFC are worth these days--the gap between us and them is absolutely vast. But for an exceptionally poor finishing run last season, we would and should have finished at least 7th or 8th then as well. How is this disastrous? As Steve Shave argues in another piece that was posted just now, we as a fan base seriously need to adjust our expectations of what is possible and realistic. NSNO in its original meaning is simply unattainable for us in current circumstances.

I think we also have to try to avoid simplistic single-cause explanations of why we are not doing better right now. Moshiri, Kenwright, the multiple managers, and the two DoFs all share some part of the blame, as do many of the players on the pitch. There has also been a lot of bad luck, especially since the end of Silva's first year, when we were very well placed to make a run at the European places. Gueye was determined to leave for PSG and Zouma was lured back by Chelsea, stripping us of a big part of spine. Gueye's replacement Gbamin was nobbled almost from the start. Kean failed to adjust to the league and perhaps to the culture. And then there are the more recent cases. Real surprisingly give Ancelotti and offer he can't refuse. SIgurdsson vanishes for reasons that have nothing to do with the club. Injuries to key players have hobbled us at key points last year and this. All of these are contributing factors.

Yes, of course there have also been some serious avoidable mistakes--the failure to replace Zouma, the signing of Iwobi, and the hiring of Benitez among them. But our current lot is not the fault of any single individual, far from it.

Paul Hewitt
13 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:12:38
Stop blaming Moshir?. The guys been a disaster since day one. Total and utter prick.
Iain Latchford
14 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:19:09
What happens with the new stadium if Moshiri is run out of town?
Seb Niemand
15 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:24:06
Paul #13 - I suppose you're going to stump up the money yourself once he's gone?
Steve Shave
16 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:33:55
Agree with many of the points raised here Chris - us the fans need to take a look at ourselves as well, we have a responsibility too. You wrote this at the same time as I wrote my article so clearly this weekend struck a chord with us. I hope too that others will reflect.

You are right too to point to the thread about our new manager on this site, it tells you all you need to know. We are never satisfied and Moshiri (who has tried) won't get it write because he CAN'T. We are a fickle, entitled bunch who seem to lambast any idea put forward. We've had the Don here (you know, the guy who is storming La Liga with Real Madrid right now) and people moaned. If we go for a true blue ala Big Dunc or Rooney there will be those who will moan about the appointment and lack of experience.

It seems completely lost on our fans that WE hold the key to the next managers success. For us to get behind the team, stay behind the team and cheer regardless is what will transform this side.

Paul Hewitt
17 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:35:48
Seb@15. I've got a spare £100 if that helps?
Andrew Ellams
18 Posted 17/01/2022 at 08:57:00
Seb @ 15, are you suggesting Moshiri has been good for the club purely based on his financial outlay?

Rob Halligan
19 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:10:25
Iain # 14. Moshiri is going nowhere.
Paul Hewitt
20 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:30:11
Rob@19. He's only going nowhere because no one else is stupid enough to buy this basket case of a club.
Rob Halligan
21 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:31:27
Paul # 20. He’s only going nowhere because he’s not interested in selling.
Mike Hayes
22 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:32:00
Of all the mistakes Moshiri has made, his biggest cock up was keeping Kenshite on board - he’s turning out to be a bigger idiot by keeping him on - wasting £500m and sanctioning the buying of Iwobi and appointing Benitez - now he’s looking at his first sacking coming back - basket case of a man basket case of a club totally fucked up in the last 6 years despite the new ground ffs 🙄
Nick Page
23 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:44:27
What would have happened if Moshiri hadn't come in? Doubtful we'd still be in the Premier League….
Paul Hewitt
24 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:46:45
Nick@23. We won't be next season either.
Dave Abrahams
25 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:51:02
I agree with Chris, Moshiri has supported Everton FC financially but has made a few mistakes along the way, the biggest one was trusting too many people with his money, very naive there.

I’m not having another bash at Kenwright because I would tell him to his face he should have better advised his friend not to squander his money so freely, I’d tell him he should have acted like a real friend and brought the whole management team together that woeful Summer when three or four people were each buying players without discussing it together.

The Benitez appointment was a good one, to me, if the results had gone differently he would still be here and going ahead trying to sort the whole club out from top to bottom which still needs doing.

The results were very poor and Mr.Benitez must hold his hands up for the many mistakes he made including his stubbornness and what’s done is done, no use crying over spilt milk, yet the ones who made the biggest mistakes, the players, are still here and the boardroom has nobody able to sort the big job of dealing with the transfer window and players still needed to save our premier league place, unless a permanent manager is appointed in the next few days to try and get those vital additions to the playing staff and trying to get some players out.

I think Duncan Ferguson will be made caretaker manager and also think that will be a huge mistake but I thought Benitez would be a success so what do I know, so I hope I’m wrong about Duncan if he is appointed and I’ll be there on Saturday cheering for an Everton win as usual, no matter who is the manager.

Brian Harrison
26 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:53:08
So the man that gave us Koeman who always gave the impression that he was doing us a favour being our manager. Then after Silva who just wasnt up to managing a club like Everton, he then goes and appoints Allardyce despite at least 80% of the fans against it. Then lastly he appoints Benitez who even surpassed the amount of fans who didn't want Allardyce. And someone posts can we stop blaming Moshiri, bit like saying to Newcastle fans stop blaming Mike Ashley, and incidentally Ashley didn't leave Newcastle in a financial mess.

Now we hear he might return and appoint the manager he sacked when he first arrived, complete and utter madness.

Moshiri has demonstrated that he knows nothing about football and is just here to get the stadium built with us still in the Premier league then he and Usmanov can cash in. This has always been the plan, they are not building something for the future as neither are remotely interested in the club only making money.

Nick Page
27 Posted 17/01/2022 at 09:57:38
Yes but blaming Moshiri is a naive argument. Sure he’s thrown money at it and got the ground move started - two thing The Fat Controller couldn’t have possibly hoped to do - but the machinery behind EFC is still the same, that’s why it has failed. It’s his fault only in that he wasn’t ruthless enough to clear out that machinery when he came but that was never an option. It’s likely Bill put a clause in the shareholders agreement to remain in place, in some capacity as he NEVER WANTED A TAKEOVER (how many times….jeezus!!) he wanted an “investor”. They are two completely different things. If Sheikh Mansour had bought the club do you think teary bollocks would still be sticking his nose in? So blame the man who provided the moon shot all you like and keep overlooking the real problem.
Rob Halligan
28 Posted 17/01/2022 at 10:00:35
Nick # 23. Highly likely another rich billionaire would have bought the club, we would still be in the premier league, and still be in the premier league next season.
Nick Page
29 Posted 17/01/2022 at 10:06:57
Rob, see reply #27 - I find that highly unlikely due to the respective clauses around the sale of Kenwrights holdings. It was never a root and branch sale process. It’s more likely he would still be doing the 24/7 search and/or we’d be playing in a Tesco’s car park somewhere off the M57
Rob Halligan
30 Posted 17/01/2022 at 10:09:58
Nick, you’re right. Kenwright is the cancer within the club, and should have been booted out when Moshiri took over. Moshiri has backed every manager he’s appointed, FFS he even sanctioned the purchases Allardyce wanted! I keep reading Moshiri knows nothing about football ( See my post # 8), hence the reason for hiring DOF’s. Moshiri can be blamed for the structure of the club, but he cannot be blamed for failed managers, or the dud players they’ve bought.

Nick, this is in reply to your post # 27, not # 29.

Clive Rogers
31 Posted 17/01/2022 at 10:10:13
Moshiri is to blame. He is running the club and disastrously at that. He made a massive mistake leaving Kenwright in charge of day to day affairs. He is making all the big decisions and getting them all wrong.
Nick Page
32 Posted 17/01/2022 at 10:15:09
I honestly don’t think he has much to do with the club at all other than sticking his oar in every season and getting the new manager he wants. The other 99% of running a football club simply passes him by. Look how Chelsea is run by a ruthless owner, and HIS staff.
Nicholas Ryan
33 Posted 17/01/2022 at 10:55:08
'All of it's Moshiri's fault' - well, not exactly. 'None of it is Moshiri's fault'. - well not exactly.

I accept much of what Rob Halligan says; i.e. he's clearly not a crook; he does have the best interests of this club at heart; he hasn't loaded the club with debt [quite the opposite]. He hasn't run the club into the ground [financially].

HIs choice of managers. Koeman, one of the great all-time players, who was doing well at Southampton. Marco Silva, a young 'up and coming' manager with some PL experience.
Sam Allardyce, a 'dogs of war' manager, brought in to do a very specific job, i.e. avoid relegation; a job he did [although I still hate him] with conspicuous success. Carlo Ancelotti, an absolute God of football management, who has won everything there is. Rafa Benitez [setting aside the Reds connection for a moment] a manager of vast PL experience, who has won the CL and the Europa, with different clubs. And the back end of Martinez, a man now entrusted with guiding the No.1 national team in the world. Even Duncan could muster a win against Chelsea and draws against Arsenal and Man Utd!

It can hardly be said that these are 'left-field' choices. Where have our ex-managers gone? To the Care Home of Managerial Infamy? Not exactly; Barcelona, Real Madrid and Belgium! Even Marco is now in charge of Fulham, virtual certainties for promotion to the PL this season.

We have signed some good players and some bad ones. We have paid too much [quite often] and too little [occasionally].

We have 'spades in the ground' on our new home, though questions about the detail of funding remain. We have next to no bank debt; we don't have a crippling overdraft.

And yet. we can't seem to win football matches with enough [or any] regularity. My impression is, that Moshiri naively thought he could take footballing decisions himself. He thought he could spot a player and simply tell the manager to sign him. He wanted to be loved by the fans, so again naively, kept on 'Blue Bill'. I think he had the right formula, when he brought in Marcel Brands; i.e. let the DOF scour the world for young players with sell-on value, while letting the manager coach the players. Unfortunately, he hired managers whose reputation allowed them to by-pass Brands and force expensive 'oldies' on the club.

Moshiri makes mistakes [don't we all!]. What is worrying, is that they seem to be the same mistakes again and again. Each time he gets worried about his investment, he makes a bold and probably bad decision. He needs to surround himself with the best quality professional staff; and then leave it to them.

Remember, when Alan Sugar was at Spurs, he said publicly, that although he was a hard-nosed businessman, he had never seen anything like the ruthlessness and skulduggery in football. If the heat was too much for Sugar, it must be a burning-hot kitchen!

Is this club better for having Moshiri than not having him? Undoubtedly. Could he run things better? Undoubtedly.

Will we come through this present crisis? Yes we will, but it will be; as the Duke of Wellington said after Waterloo: "A damned close-run thing"!

Andy Walker
34 Posted 17/01/2022 at 11:29:17
Moshiri isn’t devious or using our club for some nefarious reasons. I accept his intentions are good.

He is though clearly incompetent when it comes to establishing a clear long term club strategy and seeing it through. The fact he made a strategic decision to establish a DOF model, then proceeded to appoint multi managers who’d never worked under, or wanted to work under, a DOF was crass mismanagement. He then doubled down and got rid of the DOF on the advice of Benitez and then a few weeks later he sacked Benitez.

At the time Moshiri decided to put all his eggs in one basket and back Benitez, our results were already poor and pressure was mounting for the manager to be sacked. Did Moshiri really not ask himself, at that point in time, what happens if the team keeps losing and I’ve just fundamentally revised the club’s strategy on the back of Benitez? If he had, he surely would have concluded he couldn’t back Benitez to the hilt at that point, there should have been some doubt in Moshiri’s mind that he may have to sack Benitez. That would have been a rational thought process as opposed to a knee jerk, reactionary, admission he’d got it wrong yet again.

If Moshiri had been a CEO of a public listed company he’d have been ousted years ago for gross incompetence.

Jay Wood
[BRZ]

35 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:21:08
Chris, you make some very valid points about Farhad Moshiri's reign at Everton. The single biggest uptick for the man is BMD.

But six years on since he took ownership, on the pitch he hasn't enriched us, but has arguably impoverished us.

Firstly, whilst he didn't inherit a club that was challenging for the title, he did inherit a club that was qualifying for Europe some seasons and which, in his first few months, reached the semi-finals of both domestic cups under Martinez.

We have not gone further than the quarter finals since then and, thanks to Koeman, have had just one season in the Europa League under Moshiri.

It was very much his decision to go with the Director of Football model. First with Walsh, then with Brands.

It was very much his decision to retain Bill Kenwright as club chairman, appoint DB-B as CEO and be 'hands off' and not sit on the board himself.

Taking both of those together, he really hasn't given either of his DoF's true autonomy to be the ruling authority that shapes ALL aspects of football at the club, whilst there has clearly been interference and influence from senior management (including Moshiri himself) in what should be the DoF's exclusive domain.

The DoF should be charged with establishing a uniform style and philosophy throughout all the age groups, right up to the first team. He alone should be the one recruiting players and selecting the manager and auxiliary training staff at all levels that synchronize with that style and philosophy.

That has clearly not been the case.

Brands was hurried out of the door very quickly when the natives started growling following the home humiliation to t'other lot early December.

The only meaningful comments we heard from anyone on that came from Brands. That there was a 'clear difference in the vision and direction' for the club between himself and...who, exactly?

Moshiri and the club had been more than happy with Brands. Promoting him to the board. Renewing his contract early last year.

The major changing factor in 'the vision and direction' IMO was...Rafa Benitez.

Monaco-dwelling Moshiri evidently went 'all in' with Benitez at the roulette table, leaving him as the only senior football man at the club.

He backed him in seeing off Brands. He Backed him in dismissing the senior medical and scouting staff. He backed him in the Lucas Digne stand-off. He backed him in the transfer market this month when traditionally we don't do much business.

A defeat at Norwich and - POP! Benitez has gone. Any new appointment will find a club in even more disarray than was the case in August.

There is no DoF to offer counsel who to recruit as the new manager. It is down to two (possibly three) non-football men to make the appointment: Moshiri, Kenwright and Usmanov, who gave us Benitez.

It's perverse. It's shambolic. As have been other acts on Moshiri's watch.

OK. Sack Koeman who did a good job in his one full season, but followed up with a poor start in his second (still nowhere near as dire as Benitez's run of one win in 13 and 6 points from 39).

But there was no contingency plan in place. They took weeks to make an appointment. Stand-in David Unsworth was hung out to dry and Moshiri, having earlier ruled him out of the running, panicked into appointing Allardyce.

On appointing him Moshiri said: 'He's the most underrated British manager. He uses the players he has, is very effective and a great leader. I've followed him for many years and I've been a great fan of him.'

The final whistle had hardly blown on that season before Moshiri dumped both Allardyce and Walsh, replacing them with Brands and Silva.

Brands was showing his worth, in both moving players on and in recruitment. But he was also hindered by the long-term and lucrative contracts some players he wanted to shift were on.

As with Benitez this month, Moshiri backed Koeman heavily in the transfer window in the summer of 2017, only to then sack him a couple of months later.

That window was particularly damaging for Everton. Lukaku was sold, but not replaced. We've got value and good service from Pickford and Keane, but that was offset by signing Sigurdsson for £45 million (overpriced but he at least contributed goals and assists), Klassen £25 million and Rooney for free (but a bloated contract). No one was able to happily fit all three in the same starting XI.

The first two were Koeman signings. Rooney in all probability a Kenwright whim.

In Allardyce's sole transfer window of January 2018, we added Walcott and Tosun, each signed for around £25 million.

This is what Moshiri said about Tosun: 'I saw him first in Monaco because I live there and I watched him when Monaco played Besiktas. He single-handedly destroyed them, although it could be a flash! I followed him and the coaching staff liked him. There are not a lot of strikers around, so hopefully we’ve hit it right.”

You asked the question Chris if Moshiri shouldn't have given his managers money, or should he have vetoed signings.

The answer is probably a mixture of both. Add the Iwobi transfer to that of Tosun and it smacks of him playing Football Manager in the real world with his own club and his own money. Reports suggest both Silva and Brands were taken by surprise that Iwobi was recruited.

That's where a truly autonomous DoF would step in and say 'NO!' They are not what we need.'

As for your key bullet achievements, other than Usmanov sponsoring Finch Farm with USM, Moshiri's money has not updated the training facilities.

Purchased by the club in 2006, sold to Liverpool City Council in 2013, immediately leased back to the club. In 2016 LCC - NOT Moshiri - spent £4 million of public money on further developing Finch Farm, much to the chagrin of local constituents.

Wishing Moshiri was gone as some have expressed is, IMO, naive. BMD doesn't happen without him.

Questioning his competence in the governance of the club, the management structure, his cavalier recruitment (and dismissal) of managers and DoFs, his signing off on some of the player recruitment on inflated and long-term contracts, I believe can and should be questioned.

Rob Halligan
36 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:28:32
Nick # 33. Well said, written so much better than how I put it. Mind with the job you’re in I’m not surprised!
Nicholas Ryan
37 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:29:56
Thanks Rob... wait till you see my fee note!!
Rob Halligan
38 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:32:56
Dreading it. I know the type of fees your lot pay! 😬😬
Rob Halligan
39 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:33:48
Ask for, not pay!!
Michael Lynch
40 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:38:57
He's clearly a knob, but he's a knob with money, and he seems happy to spend that money on Everton. I'd like him to be a knob with a plan but, failing that, a knob with money will have to do. We just need to find someone with a plan to help the knob spend his money.
Dennis Stevens
41 Posted 17/01/2022 at 13:58:53
Moshiri is a poor club owner because he won't put in a proper, professional executive team to run the club on his behalf, allowing him to remain at his preferred arm's length.

He's allowed Kenwright & Co to retain too much control and he'd not averse to sticking his own oar in when it suits him to do so. So, he may be a great bloke with all the best intentions and a commitment to back it all up with a lot of money, but that clearly isn't working.

Moshiri really needs to get a grip – we all know where good intentions lead!

Barry Rathbone
42 Posted 17/01/2022 at 14:11:06
When it appeared Jim White was his chosen mouthpiece, the alarm bells rang. They rang louder when he bluffed "McCarthy is part of the family" as his transfer broke down. Quasi Modo must have been swinging on the bell ropes, such was the racket over his voodoo comments and Lukaku.

Moshiri is the boss – the buck stops with him. The odds of Benitez succeeding here was so remote as to be non-existent. He has no idea, the farrago we are now in is entirely down to him.

Pete Clarke
43 Posted 17/01/2022 at 14:53:19
Great post, Jay.

Moshiri obviously wanted indirect rule of the club and Kenwright may have been his chief advisor who he thought and still thinks he can trust.

There must be something written in the purchase of the club that Kenwright must remain because clearly there are decisions we can see that even bungling Bill would not have made and therefore he is overruling him.

He has been dragged into the running of a football club which he has no experience of, so why on earth has he not spent some money on somebody to advise him on football matters at boardroom level is beyond me. Does he not want to offend Bill or does he just spin the wheel?

He has an equally-sized project going on with the stadium and I assume he's paying for top-level professional people to deal with that for him because, if not, then the stadium may slip into the Mersey – just as we are now slipping into the Championship.

Moshiri clearly appointed Benitez. This would not have been tolerated by any other top club given the history of the man. He only last week gave the man a free rein to do what he wanted and yet now he is gone. I don't know what level of incompetence to call that but he is not showing signs of learning.

Danny O’Neill
44 Posted 17/01/2022 at 15:50:00
Good honest assessment, Chris. We all see things differently and it's good to share opinions however close or poles apart they are.

Individual managers have made mistakes but, as I've said many times, I don't believe the manager position to be the crux of the issue at Everton. Surely they can't all be wrong?

I don't think it is the players. Yes, we are paper thin, and yes, we've had injuries that possibly impacted us more than most because of that, but that isn't a relegation team.

Caveat: no-one is too good to go down as the famous saying goes. We need someone to get us out of the rut, that is obvious the atmosphere created by the previous manager seems to have created.

Tactics and people-motivation are down to the manager. Hard work and self-motivate is down to the players.

I will go half-way house on you with Moshiri.

I agree that isn't all to blame and has shown the type of commitment he promised when he came to Everton.

But then the failing has been to keep those who have been failing beneath him in place rather than install professional people who know how to run a football club and business on his behalf.

Second failing after not addressing that issue is being hoodwinked (assumption) into blaming manager after manager and then getting involved personally when he is not, as many say, a football man. The Elephant(s) are in the room as they say.

He's there to invest and protect that investment by having competent custodians to run it for him.

I don't have a problem with that model, by the way. I know football is a peculiar beast, but it's quite common practice in business for owners to be detached; that's why they have a CEO and C-Level boards to run their often multiple businesses for them.

Jay Harris
45 Posted 17/01/2022 at 16:05:06
Jay Wood has put it in a detailed way but I will just sum up and say Moshiri was Bill's dream person. A nice guy who didn't want to be involved in running the club and trusted the words of the most Machiavellian actor there is.

Until Kenwright and his cancerous ego and acolytes are run out of the club, we will not prosper.

Roger Helm
46 Posted 17/01/2022 at 17:37:46
Everyone thought at the time that the managerial appointments were reasonably good, other than Benitez, who was hated for his days at Mordor.

Allardyce was unpopular, but he was a success in terms of his brief; he took us from relegation candidates to the top half. I had no problem with that. I love champagne football as much as anyone, but I like winning more.

The problem is that Moshiri isn't a football man, but he seems to think he is. What he needs to do is what the sheiks did at Man City. Get a professional sports management outfit to go through the club like a dose of salts, purging all the dead wood coaches and backroom staff.

(It can't be just bad luck that our players are forever injured.) Ditch the niceness suffocating the club and get in some hard-nosed professionals.

Also we need better sourcing of players. Even Moshiri can't afford Champions League players, so we need a more Moneyball policy, signing good young players at 19-23 and selling them at a profit.

Darren Hind
47 Posted 17/01/2022 at 19:07:54
Clueless ? Seems so... but by stumping up the money for several managers, he's the only one who has stuck to his part of the bargain.
Don Alexander
48 Posted 17/01/2022 at 23:13:07
To me there's too many similarities between Moshiri and the incompetent bull-shitter still infesting 10 Downing Street for anyone to be confident of a prosperous future.

They both demand yes-men to carry the can for their own spectacular lapses of judgement but provide such yes-men with riches beyond their competence in the interim. Loyalty is a one-way street, as is accountability.

The way Moshiri and his, ahem, boardroom are behaving I get the horrible feeling that we'll end up with the White Elephant Stadium unless drastic change is very quickly effected way beyond a mere manager by Mr-5%-involvement in Monaco....... or whoever pulls his strings.

Ian Pilkington
49 Posted 17/01/2022 at 00:01:19
Moshiri clearly thought all he had to do after buying the club was to finance a new stadium and a new team and sit back. Unfortunately he made the catastrophic mistake of allowing Kenwright to continue as Chairman.

He has now got the unenviable task of finding a sixth new manager, a third new director of football and, if he finally comes to his senses, a new board.

Kenwright and his lackey D B-B are totally unfit for purpose as Chairman and CEO.


Dave Ganley
50 Posted 18/01/2022 at 06:01:34
This post has really made me chuckle
Colin Glassar
51 Posted 18/01/2022 at 08:37:43
The s*n are starting rumours that Moshiri wants out and has been approached by a group of investors wanting to buy the club on the cheap (probably Kenwright and his missus).

I want Moshiri gone as soon as possible. He took over a patient with stage one cancer and has allowed the disease to mestastasise all over with his bungling.

The future looks grim for Everton while these two incompetent shitheads are running the show. We could become the plaything of hedge funds and asset strippers in the very near future if we are not careful.

Changing managers every season won’t change a thing. Only competent ownership will save us from oblivion. Moshiri (and Kenwright) out!!

Jerome Shields
52 Posted 18/01/2022 at 09:28:01
Jay#35

That's Moshiri's reign in a nutshell. With Benitez he appeared to have a determined, though flawed plan, and then Pop as you say. Moshiri effectively caved in. Really Benitez was a attempt at continuation. after Ancelotti, probably taking on board Ancelotti assessement of what needed done. The problem is that Ancelotti left because he has doubts that it was achieveable.

Benitez told Moshiri everything he wanted to hear, and Benitez even accepted a limited transfer budget, and was not prepared to pull with Brands. Brands didn't want Benitez. On the pitch Benitez proved to be not technically or tactically adapt as Ancelotti. There was no evidence of individual player coaching, standards or improvement, set piece proficiency evaporated and tactically he only had a Plan A. Maybe a proviso was that Benitez should not follow Ancelotti's Catenaccio system which was unpopular with some fans.

It going be a torcherist time until the Stadium is built as Moshiri appears to whim his way along.

Eddie Dunn
53 Posted 18/01/2022 at 09:40:05
Remember how Arsenal went from dining at the top table and fighting for the title every year to being cash-strapped and slowly sliding down to Europa league contestants? This was all down to the money they had to spend on the new stadium.

We will not be spending much on players in the next few years. Survival is paramount until the stadium is done and then Moshiri may cash in.

Jerome Shields
54 Posted 18/01/2022 at 09:47:08
Ref#52 Torturist Times - apologies.
Michael Lynch
56 Posted 18/01/2022 at 09:56:55
I'm happy to bash Moshiri and Kenwright til the cows come home, but I'm actually getting a bit pissed off at the media and MotD/Sky pundits banging on and on about how much money we've spent.

Sure, we've spent badly, but the actual amount we've spent is about right for a club of our size and ambition. Over the last five years, I don't think our net spend is a huge amount more than even the likes of Brighton, Wolves and West Ham, let alone the so-called Top 6.

You can't really blame Moshiri for the shit that our managers/DOFs have bought – blame Kenwright perhaps – but I really don't think Moshiri is picking the targets.

He's still a knob though.

Colin Glassar
57 Posted 18/01/2022 at 10:05:24
He did pick Iwobi and, by some accounts, El Ghazi, Michael. It sounds to me like he's easily influenced not only by Moriarty but by Koorabchian, Usmanov, Jim White and a few more. He sanctioned the James move and agreed to ridiculous contracts for average players and managers.

The man is a rich fool who needs to leave and take his cronies with him.

Rob Hooton
58 Posted 18/01/2022 at 10:13:26
I think it's quite harsh to blame Moshiri as he has put his money where his mouth is and I imagine he genuinely wants the club to succeed (even if it is only to protect his investment). Unfortunately, things haven't worked out thus far and his cash has been squandered by many.

Survival is the name of the game this season. Fingers crossed, the next appointment is finally one that can stabilise the club and we can start creeping back up the table.

I also think Moshiri has reacted to the fans' anger and impatience with each of the sackings... Perhaps we are to blame as much as he is?

Barry Hesketh
59 Posted 18/01/2022 at 10:26:57
Big Sam has his say on Talksport via the Echo, he also says he would be willing to help out in any way he can, but that he believes that Duncan's time has come and should be given the job.

“Farhad is no problem. Farhad has been learning and learning as time has gone on,” the former Blues boss told talkSPORT on Tuesday morning.

“When you are new into the game, as an owner, you have to trust people at the club and running the club at that moment in time.

“He’s got to look at the whole situation from top to bottom as it’s his responsibility. He’s done nothing but support the club. He’s supported the club financially more than any other owner in Everton history has done.

“He is responsible because he’s the top man, but those alongside him have to accept responsibility as well and try and all pull in the same direction.

“Everton need somebody from top to bottom to pull in the same direction. Personally, I don’t feel that’s the case and needs to be sorted out as well.”

Jerome Shields
60 Posted 18/01/2022 at 17:41:08
Rob#58

I agree Moshiri reacts to matchday fans in his decisions, but I don't think that the Fans are to blame for the appointments.

Geoff Williams
61 Posted 18/01/2022 at 18:51:53
Moshiri will not sell Everton if there is any possibility that he would lose money. I believe his plan was to get Everton into the Champions League, build a state of the art stadium then sell on to some middle eastern billionaire at a huge profit. Unfortunately he's made some disastrous decisions regarding manager appointments due to outside influences and this has put a spanner in the works.
Clive Rogers
62 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:00:13
Geoff, I’ve just read that he is prepared to drop £100M on what he payed. With what he’s invested and wasted, it must be eating into his wealth. As billionaires go, he wasn’t that rich at £2.2B. He may have realised he is out of his depth and wants out. Whether he can find a buyer is another matter.
Kunal Desai
63 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:03:24
Generally in the world of corporate takeovers/acquisitions you will end up with new members on the BoD or the existing board will slowly be phased out.
I'm just baffled that for a wealthy businessmen Moshiri has still kept those hangers on.

Surely the one thing you want when it comes to preserving your investment is to ensure your have the best equipped on board to maintain it.
Right now his investment is very much in the balance and BMD won't happen if we are relegated.

Dale Self
64 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:14:56
Attributing responsibility? Is that better? Okay, you can have that but you cannot expect to be immune from criticism when you step in it and make an appointment like Benitez to set things straight. That was a big boy risk and with that you get big boy feedback.

Additionally, when the club is in dire straits from the repercussions of bad decision making the fans deserve better than to have to dredge through every shitty rumour to get an idea of what their club is doing to turn it around. Again, you make some big moves to clear some people out and then before it is clear what the new direction is the instigator of that move is also off'd. At that point most responsible owners would at least make a statement if not appear for a message to the fans.

He has simply exhausted the privilege you are implying he deserves. The dysfunction has remained for too long to believe he is not culpable and fact is we don't need evidence of that claim. It is now common belief, read the papers.

Darren Hind
65 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:20:20
Interesting quotes from Allardyce.

We can say what we like about him, but he has been on the inside and had a very good look.

"He is responsible because he is the top man, but those alongside him have to accept responsibility as well and try to pull in the same direction."

Can't think who he means...

Dave Abrahams
66 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:28:07
Barry (59),

I think that a few Everton fans on here have been saying what Allardyce has just been reported saying for quite some time. Those who could have helped Mr Moshiri have not done so but looked after their own interests instead.

Tony Abrahams
67 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:30:49
Started reading the article because of the headline Chris, and although you make some valid points, it also made me think that if someone told me they were going to give me millions, but I had to spend it all on smack, I’d have told them to fuck off, obviously.

Moshiri, might have good intentions, but if he’s not prepared to spend much of his time on Everton, why hasn’t he just gone and found a proper CEO, and ripped apart the cosy club, especially considering it was a financial basket case before he came along, and yet the man who sold him his shares, has incredibly been allowed to stay involved?

Mike Gaynes
68 Posted 18/01/2022 at 19:42:17
Clive #62, Forbes estimates Moshiri's current worth at $2.7 billion, well up from $2.2b a couple of years ago. Equally important, Usmanov's worth is up to $16.8 billion from $14.4b. The worldwide logistics crisis connected to the pandemic has significantly inflated resource values and made them both richer.

Dale #64... "At that point most responsible owners would at least make a statement if not appear for a message to the fans." Yes, but Moshiri is not most owners, because after a professional life spent in highly private companies, he has no background in valuing public outreach. Like Usmanov, Kroenke and Crown Prince bin Salman, he will probably not be making any illuminating public statements.

Tony Abrahams
69 Posted 18/01/2022 at 20:09:14
Darren, I heard that when Allardyce left, he supposedly told Moshiri, that he should get rid of a few people at Everton, because he didn’t think they had “the clubs” best interests at heart.

I don’t know if that’s true, but what I’m going to write next is true because I was told this from the horses mouth (the agent) on Friday morning.

A few weeks before Christmas, an agent I know, actually told Rafa Benitez, that the club had to be careful because Chelsea were sniffing around one of our under sixteen players, and a couple of German clubs, were looking to take Lewis Dobbin, from Everton, because he only had seven months left on his contract.

No way was Benitez reply, how can Dobbin only have a few months left on his contract? surely Marcel Brands or one of the youth team coaches would have told me if this was true, so I’m sure you’ve got this wrong.

Do your homework, Rafa was told, because what I’m telling you is true, and it was, which is why I don’t think everyone at Everton, has genuinely got the clubs best interests at heart.

Sorry for being one of those Mary Ellen’s, Darren, but I don’t make things up, and I never got that story out the wash-house, unfortunately, because it most definitely comes across as far-fetched.

Clive@62, he will only want out if Usmanov gets fed up, which does seem to be the case right now

Will Mabon
70 Posted 18/01/2022 at 20:16:08
Tony, I'm not sure what to make of that.

One take could be, incompetence.

Another would be less savoury, but hard to see how the implications of that could play out without being seen or detected.

Tony Abrahams
71 Posted 18/01/2022 at 20:23:53
Maybe/definitely it was because he wasn’t wanted by many/any people Will, but this stinks imo, because surely this is more about having the clubs best interests at heart.

Its gross negligence to let his contract run down, (any talented youngster, who can go abroad for next to nothing) and maybe it hasn’t been helped by a greedy agent, but this is how totally unprofessionally, our club has been getting run.

Will Mabon
72 Posted 18/01/2022 at 20:35:36
Well, Tony, whatever the truth, we don't have the best recent record for properly managing/retaining some of the younger talent.
Phil Wood
73 Posted 19/01/2022 at 07:52:43
Mike Ashley is sniffing around for another club. Now that would put the cat amongst the pigeons.

At least we wouldn't have to worry about cash being thrown away on underperforming managers or players.

Jerome Shields
74 Posted 19/01/2022 at 09:13:26
Tony#69

Would not surprise me. In a organisation where rules and procedures are slack and supported, there is normally someone with their hands in the till. I don't think that Kenwright &Co are particularly worried by Everton's situation, they see it as a opportunity. Big Sam in the Media is now basically communicating that there is a deeper problem than the Manager.

Clive Rogers
75 Posted 19/01/2022 at 09:57:07
There is a growing chorus of people all saying there is something wrong behind the scenes. Moshiri must react to this and correct it, or he may end up kissing his fortune goodbye, or a large chunk of it.
Jimmy Hogan
76 Posted 19/01/2022 at 22:03:00
Kenwright needs to go. We can't have this ridiculous situation where him and Moshiri want different things. I'm afraid Barrett-Baxendale has been promoted beyond her capability. She also needs to go and return to EITC.
Seb Niemand
77 Posted 21/01/2022 at 18:25:07
Andrew @18 - not entirely, although I am sure the shiny new stadium will go some way towards rehabilitating his reputation.

Mr Mosh's problem is this. He's like Al Pacino in The Godfather. He's got a lot of buffers. He's got people who are hired simply to hire other people to invest his largesse prudently, and players who are expected to deliver on that investment. The players don't deliver because we overpaid for a bad bill of goods, which is the fault of the next level up, who themselves are a bad bill of goods. And they get hired by a executive level who themselves are a bad Bill of goods (one Bill in particular). Mr Mosh's money is green whatever way. It's the executive level who need to be made accountable for their failures and sacked, or shot and buried in the foundations of the new stadium, or whatever guys with a lot of buffers do. Mr Mosh's failing is he hasn't or can't do that. He'd have been better off bettering Madrid's offer for Ancelotti as an investment in stability and a statement of faith in the masterplan (if there is, indeed, one)

Howard Sykes
78 Posted 28/01/2022 at 20:04:12
~#12 Very sorry but "would have or should have" doesn't really count. The only thing that counts is did, and we didn't.

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