With The Friedkin Group on the cusp of arriving at Everton, thoughts will likely, at some point, turn to the departing owner and his legacy at the club.
Farhad Moshiri, the long sought-after billionaire, arrived with grand aims of transforming Everton, to deliver a club fit to compete in the age of Modern Football. Amongst the raft of lofty promises, how many were actually fulfilled?
At the time of writing, it does look as though Moshiri got one thing right. After numerous false dawns under previous regimes, our outgoing owner finally got the stadium built. And he just about did it without completely destroying the club in the process.
This will likely form the basis of ‘Moshiri-Revisionism’, a trend that will undoubtedly emerge once the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock opens for business. Believers will point out, with some justification, that the Herculean process of enabling a club of Everton’s limited resources to build and move to a new stadium should not be underestimated.
Successive owners, going all the way back to Peter Johnson in the 1990s, have rightly pointed out that – despite its emotional appeal to Evertonians – Goodison Park has held the club back. It remains, in its current state, a handbrake on the club’s ability to compete with former peers. Moshiri was the man who not only agreed with this analysis but who was also, tellingly, willing to do something about it.
What’s more, this is no London Stadium, no Destination Kirkby, a cut-price semi-solution that sacrifices the fans' sense of place and emotion on the altar of bargain basement capitalism. This is a proper football ground, constructed to recreate what makes Goodison so special, to translocate our home at its intimidating best (in theory at least).
Once ensconced within the new stadium, Everton’s capacity to compete financially with the rest of the Premier League clubs will be transformed. We may, as fans, decry the increased commercialisation of the English football experience, bristle at tourists flocking to our clubs, chafe at the swelling numbers of ‘prawn sandwich’ supporters, but that is the reality of competing at the top.
While it’s hoped that Everton will not bow to these trends as much as our neighbours have, the ability to better exploit the money that is awash around the Premier League will significantly improve the financial position of the club.
It’s seductive when considering the above to see Moshiri in a more positive light. Doubtless this favourable glow will turn even more flattering over time as the horror of recent seasons fades from memory and the solidity of the new stadium and its impact become more tangible.
And to supplement this, ‘Moshiri Revisionism’ will also likely point to the spending of his early reign. It is unquestionable that, when the Iranian first arrived, following years of Kenwright-induced penury, Everton did splash around the cash.
During his tenure, according to Transfermarkt, the Blues have roughly spent £670M on players (while bringing in around £490M). Considering much of this spending was front-loaded, it’s undeniable that the first half of his tenure was characterised by an expansive transfer policy.
And those numbers only provide the headline transfer sums. When wages are taken into account (with Everton being particularly generous in those early years), the outlay is even greater. Say what you want about Moshiri but, to begin with at least, this was an owner who put his money where his mouth was.
But as every, Evertonian knows only too painfully, the above is far from the full picture. While the new stadium and that early splurge count in his favour, entries into the ‘cons’ column have amassed with considerable ferocity.
If you want one moment from the Moshiri era to illustrate why our outgoing owner might not be the best person to be involved in a football club, it’s this quote from 2018:
‘Now we are comfortable with Cenk Tosun as a focal point, we have Bolasie back, Sigurdsson, Rooney – we have our own Fab Four!’
The referencing of a 'Fab Four' was used to draw favourable comparisons with Liverpool's own, frustratingly impressive quadrumvirate of Salah, Firmino, Mane and Coutinho. For that alone, Moshiri should probably receive a lifetime ban from every football ground in Europe.
That ‘Fab Four’ quote gives a handy illustration of how disappointing Everton’s recruitment has been under Moshiri. While there have been occasional gems – Richarlison, Pickford, Branthwaite – too much of the spend has been incoherent, profligate, and (in wages and resale terms), hugely damaging.
Just because you spend money does not mean success follows, and Everton under Moshiri have been a masterclass in that. Few could argue that the team that currently labours under Sean Dyche could hold a candle to the one that existed under Roberto Martinez when the owner first arrived.
A big reason for this is the palpable sense of chaos that Moshiri introduced into a club that had previously been characterised by stability. More trigger-happy than a military vet with severe PTSD and a heavy Breitbart habit, Moshiri has churned through managers, going through as many permanent bosses since 2016 as the club managed in the three decades before he arrived.
He’s done the same with Directors of Football, applying brutal short-termism to a position that only works if you take a long-term perspective. Frequently, despite putting people in charge to run the football side of things, he’s also intervened in transfers. There are stories of players coming to the club because of the owner, and other tales of potentially catastrophic near-misses.
Added to this destructive culture of turmoil, Moshiri also allowed Bill Kenwright to keep his hand on the tiller of the club. It’s ironic that the sole example of the owner applying a sense of consistency to a key position turned out to be the one where he should have been more brutal.
Prior to the billionaire’s arrival, Kenwright had spent years overseeing a growing sense of commercial torpor at Everton, as year-by-year the club fell behind its former peers. The ‘FC Cosy’ mentality was allowed to swell and suppurate, with Everton becoming, in many ways, a Football League outfit operating in the Premier League age.
The club required an overhaul, a long overdue professionalisation. By allowing ‘Mr Everton’ to remain at the top, that process never began. As a result, the club have been unable to create the kind of revenues required to begin bridging the considerable gap that has opened up between Everton and its former peers. It’s the kind of gap that, within the world of Profitability and Sustainability Rules, cannot be bridged through owner investment alone.
A combination of managerial churn, commercial sluggishness and profligate directionless spending is always a dangerous one, at any football club. This is especially the case when it also delivers a deterioration on the pitch, which has clearly been the case at Everton.
Moshiri arrived at a club with a recent history of playing in Europe and finishing in the Top 8, with the financial benefits that delivers. Under his watch, Everton have transformed into a club nowhere near the European conversation, and rather than Top 8, that has morphed into regular recent battlers of relegation.
The arrival of the new owner was supposed to usher in a fresh dawn, the shifting of Everton's footballing parameters. The club's conversation was meant to be about the Champions League and upward progression. Instead, talk has turned to the Championship and downward momentum.
This was most keenly felt during the 2023-24 season when Everton’s ongoing financial problems led to two breaches of PSR, resulting in an eight-point deduction from the Premier League. Regardless of the political dimension of the punishment, the judgements, in many ways, represented totemic illustrations of how mismanaged Everton had been.
As a result of what was handed down, the Blues spent most of the campaign mired in the Bottom 6, only achieving escape velocity via some miraculous end-of-season form (and the fact that the ‘Best League in the World’ was blessed with some truly awful football teams).
If things weren’t tough enough on the pitch that season, Evertonians also had to contend with the material future of the club coming under threat. Moshiri’s mismanagement had only been tenable while he underwrote the club’s losses. This began to change a few years ago when it became evident that the Iranian was no longer willing to sink money into the club.
It was a decision that seemed influenced by the UK Government’s sanctioning of Alisher Usmanov (Moshiri’s long-term financial partner and rumoured backer). Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Uzbeki oligarch was forbidden from investing in the country. As a result of this, and possibly a growing disinterest in a project that was going so awry, Moshiri began to pull back. It meant Everton became increasingly reliant on loans to function, amassing considerable debt in the process.
Moshiri’s growing disenchantment with the club, and its rapidly expanding financial problems, inevitably led him to put Everton up for sale. For those indulging in some favourable ‘Moshiri-Revisionism’, what occurred next stands as a great counter to the argument that he was someone interested in the long-term financial health of the club.
How else to explain the decision to sell the club to 777 Partners? Currently facing a winding-up order and under investigation for money laundering by the US Department of Justice, 777 Partners already possessed a questionable reputation within the game when Moshiri announced his decision to sell to them. It was one characterised by footballing failure and rumoured financial malfeasance.
From the very beginning, it appeared that 777 Partners were unfit, an early red flag being the propensity for head honchos, Steve Pasko and Josh Wander to rarely be seen without wearing baseball caps. Despite Evertonians’ manifold grievances against the Premier League, the football authority did the club a great service by taking so long examining the takeover, in the process providing 777 Partners with enough rope to hang themselves, effectively unspooling as a corporate entity before the takeover was complete.
Aside from enabling Everton to dodge a potentially fatal bullet, the Premier League’s lengthy process of due diligence also allowed, what appears to be, a more suitable bidder, The Friedkin Group, to enter the conversation. By accident rather than design, the club is now on the cusp of ending the Moshiri era the right way.
Rather than handing over the reins to owners potentially more catastrophic than him, the transition should hopefully see an improvement in how Everton are run. Although, this being Everton, there are always caveats. No club is better at striking out on a new path only to find that they have turned into a cul-de-sac. After all, did we not as fans greet Moshiri as the great saviour? He was the longed-for billionaire who was meant to restore Everton to the pinnacle of the game. And look how that turned out.
When it comes to our departing owner, as all of the above illustrates, the picture isn’t great. It is undeniable that, with the exception of the stadium, Moshiri did not get a single thing right at Everton. In every other aspect – commercial performance, the structure of the club, transfer policy, and what has happened on the pitch – his reign has been one of palpable failure.
It’s telling that when he arrived at the club, Everton were trying to hang on to the coattails of the Big 6. We have fallen so far since, that now the challenge for the new owners, to begin with at least, is to keep up with the likes of Aston Villa, Brighton and West Ham.
Few owners depart football clubs affectionately. It is a difficult game to succeed in and the pyramid is littered with failure. Here at Everton, it’s been some time since we loved our owners, Moshiri joining the less-than-esteemed company of Kenwright and Johnson.
While you can probably say that his intentions were good, it’s the execution that matters. And here, Moshiri has largely been a disaster. It is hoped that The Friedkin Group can learn from the mistakes of those who have come since Sir John Moores and finally turn Everton into the kind of club we think it should be.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum, has to mean something, on and off the pitch. For too long, it hasn’t.
Reader Comments (87)
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2 Posted 10/12/2024 at 16:52:25
(I often wonder if Usmanov was the hidden hand behind the nebulous 777 Partners funding that mysteriously evaporated into thin air when put under scrutiny.)
It was the Usmanov era I think because Moshiri's Everton funding dried up at almost exactly the moment that the Russians rolled into Ukraine. A little strange that.
3 Posted 10/12/2024 at 17:31:22
I agree with your post. I mentioned in a similar post last season that, after a few years in the future, when the Club have stabilised, our outlook will probably be different than today.
Not that we will ever forget what Kenwright and Moshiri have put the club and supporters through since The World's Greatest Evertonian and then his mate got involved.
However, I hope that once the new owners get to grips with the club and slowly get us back to where we belong, Moshiris's time, and the legacy he left us at Bramley-Moore Dock will soften our feelings against him.
Not so sure of his thespian mate…
4 Posted 10/12/2024 at 17:57:59
I think quite a few people were suggesting that Moshiri was Usmanov's messenger well before Kenwright sold the club.
I know I used to quote that fact to people but unfortunately I also used to advise them that we would be in a far better position when it happened, I didn't know that Moshiri & Usmanov would let Kenwright keep hold of the reins.
5 Posted 10/12/2024 at 18:47:06
If we survive, maybe prosper, it will be of Lazarus proportions and down to the new owners but the task is monumental. Precedent shows most clubs financing a new build hit the skids and it's a struggle to think of a single decent-sized club immediately transformed by the investment.
Calamity Moshiri barely made a sensible decision here and was still at it with 777 Partners and the new stadium could yet prove to be another of his Jonah touches. If it works out, history may not be so harsh but, to date, he has been a disaster of unimaginable proportions.
6 Posted 10/12/2024 at 19:02:59
In contrast, the legacy of William Kenwright will likely harden as any good intentions he may have had become lost in his personal pursuits of fame and fortune. He may well have been the only person (along with his friends inside that cabal of money men, maestros and Motzarts of money) who made fortunes along the way.
Moshiri alone is not responsible for the years of failure, and conjecture will continue, but the man's biggest mistake was the failure to rid himself of Kenwright and replace him with a competent and professional team.
This, compounded with his lack of any expertise in football as a business, ensured his cost of failure would be eye-watering. That is what cost him so much money. How much he was bankrolled by his mate? We will never know, but the money certainly stopped with the Russian sanctions.
A football incompetent he may be, but his legacy has an incredible footnote with the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. It's his latter-day folly, but a magnificent legacy he will be remembered for.
7 Posted 10/12/2024 at 19:29:55
Regardless, excellent article.
8 Posted 10/12/2024 at 19:31:22
I just don't get how an individual who rose to become a prominent billionaire, could act in such a totally frivolous manner over a period of the last 7 years.
By my estimations, he's going to walk away from Everton at least £500M lighter; even accounting for his billionaire status, that's a big 'haircut'.
His legacy certainly will be the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, truly a magnificent structure, and will no doubt be 'the only show in town', when it comes to staging major events that Anfield is currently enjoying.
Despite the new and enlarged extensions to the ground, the area surrounding Anfield is so depressing and run down it's untrue, and it's through no fault of the local residents who live there.
My initial reaction to the original stadium project some 6 years ago was that, as a football club, we couldn't possibly afford it, in fact, the club and it's current standing in football circles, is certainly 'punching above its weight', with that construction on the docks.
The sympathy shown to the area's Victorian heritage is simply an architectural masterpiece, and will wow fans (home and away) for decades to come.
Why on earth did Moshiri not sweep away the old regime at Goodison, including the greatest Evertonian, the way the Mansour family did at Manchester City? No more jobs for the boys, ex-players as coaches, club ambassadors, or even promoting the head of the club's local charity, to be CEO of a business with a turnover of £190M. Absolute madness.
We are once again on the cusp of a massive opportunity; let's not blow it again.
9 Posted 10/12/2024 at 19:38:44
Successfully operating one of the world's most prominent football clubs and being answerable to millions of supporters and an overarching Premier League and its regulations was a level of complexity totally beyond Moshiri's capabilities. I believe his buddy Bill was a security blanket, at least for a while.
But while you're right about his failure being massively expensive, it apparently hasn't damaged him one bit. The Forbes real-time billionaires list has Moshiri's current net worth at $2.7 billion, markedly higher than when he bought the club.
And... to paraphrase Field of Dreams...
He built it.
We will come.
10 Posted 10/12/2024 at 19:52:12
11 Posted 10/12/2024 at 21:07:31
As it stands, we are still a Premier League club and do have a brand new stadium, but it has come at an enormous cost to the reputation of the club, the mental health of the fans, and of course the actual price of the stadium.
I don't believe that Moshiri was ever interested in whether Everton were successful or not, the new build was the attraction for him and his silent partner and it's probably the silent partner that made so many rash decisions and who started to chase his losses when things got away from the pair of them.
I'll be glad to see the back of anything concerning Moshiri and his pal, and we can only hope that the new people have more of a handle on what a football club is supposed to be and how it's supposed to be run.
12 Posted 10/12/2024 at 21:20:40
He definitely came with good intentions but, like those people in Central Asia in the 14th century who thought it would be nice to give old blankets found on the dead to sea fairers needing to keep warm on the way to Venice, Italy, it didn't end well.
13 Posted 10/12/2024 at 22:51:19
I still can't believe he built that stadium, and then walked away taking the whole hit. In terms of likely workable scenarios, that surely was the least likely. In the end, we got very very lucky.
14 Posted 10/12/2024 at 23:00:54
But Jenny's digging in her heels about releasing her shares til a statue gets built of you know who.
15 Posted 10/12/2024 at 23:07:46
"Once ensconced within the new stadium, Everton’s capacity to compete financially with the rest of the Premier League clubs will be transformed."
This may (will?) be true, but not right away and only if;
a) Ticket prices rise even more than presently indicated and, more importantly;
b) we get successful, consistantly successful On the field.
This will allow for money to flow in. It remains to be seen how much money TFG will allow to flow out...bearing in mind Moshiri's mistakes in that area...to improve the team.
Given The Law of Unintended Consequences and this 'I'm from the Government and I'm here to help' approach, I also think we have to keep an eye on this 'Football Governance Bill / Independent Regulator' thing.
All we can do as fans is hope that TFG appoint people who actually know wtf they're doing and take it one game at a time.
It's often said at the start of the season - see how we're going after 10 games.
With TFG and BMD we have to say - see how we're going after 10 years.
(I could say the same about myself too)
16 Posted 10/12/2024 at 23:10:49
Yes, but on the appropriate thread. 😉
17 Posted 10/12/2024 at 23:19:41
18 Posted 11/12/2024 at 02:12:23
It's Moshiri that has agreed to sell shares to TFG and they don't need anyone else's shares to take control of the club.
So file that under "Kenwright Bashing" by proxy.
19 Posted 11/12/2024 at 03:58:57
Ed #10, Gordon West used to wear a baseball cap at Goodison – to keep the sun out of his eyes while defending the Gwladys Street goal. 😎
20 Posted 11/12/2024 at 05:08:36
I think we can say with 100% certainty that Moshiri is the only reason that Everton will move into their fantastic new stadium next season.
21 Posted 11/12/2024 at 05:10:06
Moshiri owns 94.1% of the club. Nobody else's shares have the slightest impact.
22 Posted 11/12/2024 at 06:39:26
23 Posted 11/12/2024 at 06:40:21
I heard last week they had Premier League approval, but were only going to announce it once some behind-the-scenes stuff was sorted.
24 Posted 11/12/2024 at 08:30:17
Every recent owner has done some good... if you look hard enough. It hasn't saved their reputation.
He got a stadium built. He 'invested' in the team. He did the things that most of us wanted. He just did them terribly.
25 Posted 11/12/2024 at 08:44:51
Of course, running a football club is nothing like running a regular business, as Richard Branson once said "If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.".
We'll never fully know the whole craziness of what's been going on these last few years, clearly the Russian sanctions shattered any business plan (what business plan?) he may have had. But I suppose he can look out of his office and see the new stadium shining in the distance and think, "I built that". Let's face it, rewind 3 years, who on here thought it would ever get built?
So, as legacies go, there have been better, but there have also been significantly worse.
26 Posted 11/12/2024 at 09:06:03
It might be who is remembering Mr Moshiri in how he is remembered. I think quite a few will be remembered for the shambles the club was left in and quite a lot of us will remember the shambles the club was in when he bought it.
27 Posted 11/12/2024 at 09:10:01
Trouble is, in hindsight, there was a Catch-22 to begin with. Bill would not allow an ‘owner' to come in unless he kept a certain amount of control. An owner could not get Everton without giving Kenwright a lot of the reins.
Moshiri coming in was like a kid being let loose in a sweet shop. Kenwright's dream had come together. Had he been booted out in 2016, I imagine the club would be in a much different state today.
We did bring in the likes of Koeman and Ancelotti and spent a shit load of money. Unfortunately, Kenwright had too much influence, including in player transfers (he brought Rooney back, not Koeman, for example). Ultimately Moshiri (Usmanov) was not a football man and was never going to be a hands-on owner. Kenwright was still effectively left to run the club.
As you say, however, as the dust settles, the club has a brand new state-of-the-art stadium and, given its location, I'd say arguably the most striking in the country. That is something all Everton fans can enjoy for decades to come – and we're still in the top flight, despite the likes of Allardyce, Tosun and Lampard.
The last few years have been quite an emotional ride. Hopefully the next few will involve less nail biting.
28 Posted 11/12/2024 at 09:24:02
What I have noticed more than anything is that most mistakes come from an initial bad pass, usually through lack of concentration that isn't rectified, and then one, two or sometimes three sloppy passes later, everything breaks down.
Keeping Kenwright was incredibly sloppy, and after this initial incredibly inept appointment, things were always only going to go downhill imo.
29 Posted 11/12/2024 at 09:29:28
Having spent around £800M to achieve that lot, he finally deserted his post.
I thought Johnson couldn't be worse than Marsh or the Thatcher lacky Carter. I thought Kenwright couldn't be any worse than Johnson. I thought Moshiri couldn't be any worse than Kenwright.
I`ll keeping me gob shut next time.
30 Posted 11/12/2024 at 09:39:34
Who shortened your post and added the final line?
31 Posted 11/12/2024 at 09:44:40
It was too long-winded. I got bored typing it and realised it would be even more boring to read it.
32 Posted 11/12/2024 at 10:29:49
“What interests me so much is not the con man but the need of the mark to be conned," Guare says. "Whether it's a psychic in Chelsea or Germany after the First World War, the quality of need is so great that the con man doesn't even need to be that good!"
Throughout his time at Everton, Moshiri has been the ultimate ‘easy mark', a mad Fraggle Rock eyed mooncalf, flip flopping all over the place and being led by anyone who could lay it on thick.
Kenwright
Koeman
Walsh
Numerous player agents
Jim “well, giz us a bell after you've been to the 24-hour garage” White
Silva
Allardyce
Benitez
The list of in-it-for-themselves imposters who were never the right fit from the off and must have known as much intrinsically is a lengthy one, but as long as they could regale the owner with big claims interspersed with a bit of back slapping he was ever ready… in fact, fucking eager… to buy in.
Marcel Brands (who many will say deserves adding to ‘the imposter' list himself) recounts a tale where he and Moshiri were sat around the table with Mino Raiola to thrash out the Moise Kean deal:
“‘Why not bring Mario Balotelli too, guys?' said Mino,” according to Brands.
“That seemed to Raiola to be a great striker duo for the Premier League. Both fast, skilled, strong and also complementary. After a while he had substantiated his story so beautifully that Moshiri also completely liked it.”
Brands claims that he was against the idea immediately and informed Raiola as much, giving his reason as being concern over integrating two ‘tricky characters' into the squad at the same time.
“After the game, I went to eat something with Mino. ‘You're beautiful you, Brands', Mino said,” he added.
“Moshiri wanted to pull out his wallet. But I was responsible for the technical policy, for the composition of the selection. “The great thing was: if you told Mino the truth to his face, he could handle it very well in the end. But he was super smart. If you let go of the steering wheel for a moment, he would sail in the other direction.
With Moshiri, the sailor didn't need to be ‘super smart', he was ready to slap on the life jacket, grab his bait box and clamber onboard with any clown claiming to have a cunning plan and a couple of makeshift oars even when all around him were shouting “There's a storm coming in!”
33 Posted 11/12/2024 at 10:35:29
You left Ancelotti off your list of conmen, did you like him or did you forget about him?
34 Posted 11/12/2024 at 10:46:23
I did have Carlo on the list but deleted him! Never the right fit once more but he was a slightly different kettle of fish.
Ultimately, yes, he was also an imposter but rather due to the fact that he was never truly invested (in my opinion) and merely biding his time until something better came along, not because he lacked the ability, nous or know-how to ever back up his words.
I just think he wasn't particularly arsed and a bit bemused about where he found himself and what he had to work with, but was happy to plod along in the low-risk, high-reward lane temporarily.
35 Posted 11/12/2024 at 10:50:27
36 Posted 11/12/2024 at 11:13:53
What a wonderful world!
37 Posted 11/12/2024 at 11:27:16
He wasted a fortune and, under his ownership, the club was run like a joke shop, but he wasn't the cancer at the heart of the club. That was the narcissist Bill Kenwright.
38 Posted 11/12/2024 at 12:07:35
Your comment about Carlo being bemused at Everton makes me think about a game we had at Wolves. We lost 3-0 I think and played terrible.
I remember Tom Davies having the simplest pass out wide to a teammate, it went straight out for a Wolves throw.
The TV camera panned to Carlo for a good 10 seconds. The look of shear horror, bemusement and what the hell am I doing here all over his face still makes me laugh now.
39 Posted 11/12/2024 at 13:11:03
Moshiri isn't a businessman. He's an oligarch's mate who got lucky, who thought he was invincible because of his big rich friend. Have a look at Catherine Belton's book 'Putin's People' to find out how these 'businessmen' got their money.
His legacy is to provide a tale of how not to buy and run a football club. The ultimate anti-template.
I can't wait to see him gone.
40 Posted 11/12/2024 at 15:56:41
41 Posted 11/12/2024 at 17:19:20
I don't believe Walsh and Brands were fraudsters, just hires that didn't work out. Both came in with good reputations from lesser jobs but were incapable -- in Walsh's case profoundly so -- of stepping up to the higher level Everton required.
And again, for all his catastrophic personnel blunders, I do believe Moshiri deserves credit for four good hires:
Dyche, who before his current miseries kept us up twice and whose performance last season in raw defiance of the points deductions was magnificent.
Thelwell, who has cleared out almost all of the expensive detritus left behind by his predecessors and performed wizardry in bringing in just enough decent low-cost players to keep us afloat.
Carlo.
And Meis.
42 Posted 11/12/2024 at 17:34:10
Koeman
Walsh
Brands
They were just not good at carrying out their respective responsibilities on behalf of the club and made it impossible for some of the more recent managers to succeed.
Nothing more to see.
43 Posted 11/12/2024 at 17:57:38
In his only full season, we finished 7th and got into Europe – hardly a failure. In fact, that's our highest league finish since 2014. Compared to the last few seasons, an absolute success!
44 Posted 11/12/2024 at 19:19:12
Farhad Moshiri, responding directly to being asked if he thought Everton fans have faith in his decisions and appointments? – "Well, I hope so. I put my money where my mouth is. That is all an owner can do.
"Some of the decisions we have taken is together with the fans, right? All the managers who have left have been driven out by the fans"...
Fuck me. Maybe Carlo (that great appointment you speak about) burned such a hole in his pocket, he chose to forget him.
In the same interview, Moshiri told Jim White that you have to stick with your appointments: "I have a lot of faith in Frank that he will get it right" — Nine days before he sacked him.
Hasn't lied to or about fans? Do your research, Mike. There are plenty of examples.
The bastard makes Donald Trump look like George Washington.
45 Posted 11/12/2024 at 19:32:44
Maybe I'm wrong and he was simply a workaholic who just wanted the best for our club?
Highly doubtful this, IMO, though, when I look back at the time he let his guard down and ended up leaving by mutual consent without uttering another word.
46 Posted 11/12/2024 at 20:11:30
I'm by no means a Moshiri fan but the quotes you've provided seem to me to simply be the sort of comments that very many owners and/or chairman come out with on a regular basis.
What I find interesting about the first quote, however, is that several years into his disastrous tenure Moshiri was still of the view that his role as owner was simply to throw money at the problem.
47 Posted 11/12/2024 at 20:15:02
Brands got sucked into the board, rather than focussing on the job he was employed for. He seemed to have higher aspirations than what was going on on the pitch.
Well, hopefully, come Friday, we will have change.
And right now, more importantly, we should sort out a suitable pub near The Emirates to meet up on Saturday!!
48 Posted 11/12/2024 at 20:25:40
So the Blackstock or the 12 Pins?
Anywhere but a 'Spoons! UTFT
50 Posted 11/12/2024 at 20:46:51
Even we can't mess that up!!
51 Posted 11/12/2024 at 21:47:07
Moshiri's comments were unique to Everton. Our situation was unique. No other club had ever spent so much money and kept sinking. No other club has ever paid as much compensation to clubs for stealing their managers and then again to the managers themselves after sacking them.
I may be wrong but I don't recall any other owner trying to place half the responsibility on the fans for sackings and poor appointments. Were you involved in the appointment of Rafa?. Did you drive Carlo out? Did you or any other blue you know have any part in the shameless pursuit of the Watford and Southampton managers? Would you have hired Frank Lampard?
My toes curled when he went on a national radio station to try to justify his own fuck-witted decisions by portraying Evertonians as a mob of ignorant ingrates who somehow forced his hand.
"Some of these decisions we have taken together with the fans."
52 Posted 11/12/2024 at 22:01:41
I don't massively disagree with your view but I don't recall Moshiri sacking a manager that the fans, at least here on, ToffeeWeb didn't want rid of.
He obviously talks shite, is superficial and in denial as to his accountability. Perhaps he reads ToffeeWeb and believes some of the people on here making excuses for him?
But I just haven't seen/read that Boris Johnston (sorry MG... Donald Trump) moment yet.
53 Posted 11/12/2024 at 23:15:38
As for "No other club had ever spent so much money and kept sinking", nobody's disputing his incompetence, but that doesn't make him a liar. (And I think Man Utd, Leeds Utd and Spurs supporters would debate your sweeping conclusion.)
54 Posted 11/12/2024 at 23:57:23
“You have given us incredible support that helped us over the line when we most needed it, and we must repay that support and show that lessons have been learnt.
“More than any other club in England, Everton is the club of its people, its community and its fans, and always will be.”
I think we can all agree with post @ 31, as it summarised this argument best.
Moshiri was a naive fool and commercial chump, who will lose £128 million for the club purchase and £450 million in loans. His legacy is situated at Bramley-Moore Dock.
55 Posted 11/12/2024 at 00:01:00
Kieran always felt that the now vanished Dave Cashen emerged when Darren Hind and his alter-ego Dave Cashen disappeared. Mr Cashen has suddenly vanished and….
56 Posted 12/12/2024 at 00:21:29
And what?
57 Posted 12/12/2024 at 00:33:13
His mentor got sanctioned, but he didn't, and the company he was gifted by Usmanov is more valuable today.
He's got to be the luckiest clown on the planet.
58 Posted 12/12/2024 at 01:07:10
Should we get relegated – unlikely perhaps, but we have played with fire for a few years now – it will be an enormous white elephant.
Put it this way. If it was a risky project to embark upon, it is by no means de-risked as things stand...
59 Posted 12/12/2024 at 07:42:16
Perhaps it was the money of the yacht-dwelling fella that interviewed Lampard? Just a thought.
60 Posted 12/12/2024 at 07:45:13
"I think its a great time to meet with the fans in person, to have a face to face with them. The fans are the most important part of the Everton institution. We need to go through this together. Everton has depended on Goodison. The 12th man. I know we are much weaker without the full-hearted support of the fans. I will do what it takes to get them on board. I will meet them. You can talk to me. I am on it 24 hours a day".
Has he been seen or heard from since?
61 Posted 12/12/2024 at 08:45:45
Duncan #59, good point, seems likely at least in part. We know his mentor was involved in player transfers. But certainly every dime Mosh has spent in the past 20 months was his own, because Usmanov went into the deep freeze in April 2023.
Colin #60, if that's an example of him lying "to and about the fans", I don't think you're making your case. Not following through on meeting personally with the fans is hardly fraud.
62 Posted 12/12/2024 at 10:43:04
Like any football Club at any level, it needs proper management both on and off the pitch. This can only done by proper managers who are professional, performance-driven, with objectives and accountability. Everton has not had that for years. The results are there for all to see.
Jim's article is a true summary of progression under Moshiri, as many voices have warned at the time. They have been vindicated.
The main problem now is the need for financial reconstruction of the enormous debt mountain, or rather the deconstruction of the debt web weaved since Kenwright had influence. It is that whole connection and its legacy that The Friedkin Group are trying to get to grips with, which will enable their takeover, which is not completed yet.
Moshiri for me was always a Certified Accountant and frontman for an oligarch's investments. The money involved cost nothing, hence the gulf in value between us who took it at face value and the attitude of Moshiri and his associates.
From the start, Everton was one of many investments. Allowed to continue to run, with Moshiri as hands-off as he would have been with other investment projects. They believed (as we all did) Kenwright saying that Everton was a well-run club that only needed a cash injection. Some maybe hoped, but vented their gut objections having correctly accessed Kenwright from the start. At this stage, I will remind all of "The People's Club" sop as we all deserve it.
The main reason for the stadium development was the potential of a development on a docklands site. An investment opportunity and one to wash the money that was got for nothing. In some ways, it was inevitable that Moshiri & Co would seek the help of other like-minded individuals like 777 Partners, whose connections to money got for nothing will, I expect, come out in the wash.
War, sanctions and Everton have not dented the wealth of Moshiri & Co; other investments that Moshiri or his like are involved in have come good. Those involved in the Everton financial web are still doing good business. Hopefully, The Friedkin Group can convince them not to be doing so well and look beyond their noses, with the shadow of Moshiri & Co somewhere in the background.
It is the lot of Evertonians to suffer. Never did hope spring so eternal.
"The City has fallen and I am still alive'" — Constantine XI
(His last words.)
63 Posted 12/12/2024 at 11:05:55
The last words of Constantine XI — like Rod Steiger who played a Jewish pawnbroker in the film of the same name — who said “All my family perished but I'm still here.”
Kenwright was the opposite: he's gone but left his money well protected!
64 Posted 12/12/2024 at 11:29:54
A few conspiracies on here. I have spoke with Dave Cashen, both verbally and via text. Top Evertonian and person.
Colin, you were on a roll until you used the phrase "the twelfth man".
It might be a personal thing, but I don't like it. It is a Villa thing, which for years, they have had displayed at the Holte End.
We've got our own and have 36,000, 3,000 on away days, men and women.
65 Posted 12/12/2024 at 12:59:34
How about, when the sale goes through, we never mention Kenwright's name again?
I'm sure it'd do us all the world of good.
66 Posted 12/12/2024 at 13:13:35
It will take a lot of supporters a long time to get it out of their system, when you consider the decline of the club, standstill at best, since his involvement since 1989, it will be hard to forget.
But, we have something to look forward to now, and can look to the future. However, for many, they won't forget.
On a smaller scale, I still hear older Evertonians mourning the sale of Alan Ball and the break up of the 1970 Championship team that resulted in us being the nearly men that I grew up with initially.
67 Posted 12/12/2024 at 13:21:46
Let's go into 2025 with renewed hope and as we all know, it's the hope that kills you.
68 Posted 12/12/2024 at 13:39:03
I'm still fuming at John Houlding — never mind Boys Pen Bill.
69 Posted 12/12/2024 at 13:53:04
Yes, I was hurt more by the sale of Dave Hickson to Aston Villa in the mid-fifties than I was by the sale of Alan Ball or even Bobby Collins… mind you, I was 13 at the time.
So that's the end of 'Thingy' on here for me as well, Brian (65), mind you there are the winder-uppers who come on to praise him that you have to look out for… only a winder-upper could praise him!
70 Posted 12/12/2024 at 13:57:58
The sale of Alan Ball, whose name I gave to one of my sons, was bad but I also thought that the sale of wee Bobby Collins to Leeds was another bad move.
I am 84 years old now and sometimes can't remember what I had for breakfast, so I wonder if some of our more knowledgeable supporters can remember what the circumstances of that move were?
71 Posted 12/12/2024 at 13:58:12
For fuck's sake, no use making vows is there!
72 Posted 12/12/2024 at 14:11:24
Love it, Dave. 👍💙
73 Posted 12/12/2024 at 14:13:21
Way before my time, as was Alan Ball.
I can't remember anyone from the '70s, but I wasn't even a teenager then.
I was disappointed when we lost Steven and Stevens in the '80s, but there were obvious circumstances, which also saw us lose Kendall.
Later, not so much me, but my then young son was gutted when Barmby moved across the park. To the degree that we had to build a dummy and slap a photo on, so he could throw it on the bonfire on 5 November!!
74 Posted 12/12/2024 at 14:30:47
The Alan Ball that went to Arsenal wasn't the mercurial genius of the '60s version. One of the best players that I have ever seen in world football.
The sale of Collins was an obscenity.
75 Posted 12/12/2024 at 14:31:19
My hope is, when the new owners take over, they bring what I wrote an article about, and that is stability into a sea of molasses.
The one thing that some supporters will not like is that it will take time. We can't expect instant success but hope for the signs that Everton is finally back on track to become a future force in the Premier League, and knock the smug faces of another unnamed club's supposed supporters.
76 Posted 12/12/2024 at 16:23:04
He's part of our history but, since he created the timeline, with himself as centre-fucking-stage, there has been nothing but woe associated with our great club, and you only have to walk around the ground and look at our incredible beautiful history, to realize this.
Kenwright's picture should have been left sleeping with the fish, near Bramley-Moore Dock. So hurry up the Friedkins, because I've got a feeling that Everton are ready to become Everton once again.
77 Posted 12/12/2024 at 18:40:17
The Jewish Pawn Broker's quote seems to be a parody of Constantine's quote.
Whilst you are right about Kenwright, I suspect he would quote back:
"Do you know what I consider the greatest sin in the world, my dear? Ingratitude. That's what you're guilty of, Ingratitude." —Fegan.
78 Posted 12/12/2024 at 19:33:43
Alas, it was not to be and, as some have alluded to already in comments, millions were wasted on transfer flops that eventually led to the demise and breakdown of the club that could only hang on to staying in the Premier League by the skin of its teeth.
New stadium aside, Moshiris's legacy has been to initially raise hope of better times ahead, only for that to falter with failed players and managers that brought about toxicity throughout the club.
Thanks and bye bye.
79 Posted 13/12/2024 at 11:14:03
Many of the England team that went to the World Cup in 1970 were “out of form” when they returned because a lot of the games were played at high altitude.
Alan Ball was one of them, and as one of his greatest attributes was his non-stop running, he was only a shadow of his former self. Even that version would have walked into our current team. Catterick forgot that loss of form is only temporary, class is everlasting and Alan Ball was class.
I'm just happy I had a season ticket for everyone of the years he graced our team and saw the brilliance of Kendall, Harvey and Ball, something that has long been missing and only briefly recaptured in the mid-eighties.
80 Posted 14/12/2024 at 18:42:48
Why Moshiri never saw through him is beyond me. I think Moshiri was a dilettante who couldn't be bothered to put in the hours; however, the new stadium is an achievement – especially when one compares the fiascos of Kenwright's attempted stadium builds in the King's Dock and Kirkby.
If Mrs Kenwright wants a statue, give her one and let it go the way of an Assad statue in Aleppo or Damascus when we play our first game in the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. Just get the deal done.
81 Posted 18/12/2024 at 18:06:17
Everton takeover by Friedkin Group set for completion, expected to be announced Thursday
83 Posted 18/12/2024 at 18:23:31
Kenwright wanted Destination Kirkby.
Moshiri got Bramley-Moore Dock done.
I know which one I'll remember fondly…
84 Posted 18/12/2024 at 18:33:22
I can't argue with one word you wrote. His name and memory should be expunged for all eternity.
85 Posted 18/12/2024 at 22:10:04
The rest though has been an unmitigated disaster and he will long be remembered as presiding over some of the darkest moments for the football club. I won't miss him at all but if I ever came across him I would still thank him for the new stadium.
86 Posted 18/12/2024 at 23:05:37
As would I.
But I would ask him why in his opinion it all went wrong and I don't think "Blue Bill" would merit a mention in his answer.
87 Posted 20/12/2024 at 15:32:28
Walsh had a deal done for Jonny Evans too before he came to Leicester, but again they wouldn't take him. Erling Haaland, the striker with Salzburg, Walsh had him and his dad at the club with a deal done for €4million (£3.3m). The club wouldn't back me, in particular, Moshiri."
88 Posted 20/12/2024 at 15:34:56
90 Posted 17/01/2025 at 09:05:05
I keep reading he had bad advice. I think he had good advice as well. but refused it. No, it was his way or the highway.
Give us all a wave at the new stadium, thanks, and off you go. The football was rancid.
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1 Posted 10/12/2024 at 16:34:09
But second, I do believe that, over the years to come, the one thing he got right will dwarf everything else he got wrong. Long after his personnel and financial blunders have faded into the mist, generations of Blues will be reveling in the glories of the new stadium. He did make a really good hire in Dan Meis.
And third, I don't believe the Friedkins will pay one iota of attention to what previous owners did, let alone "learn from their mistakes." I believe TFG will ignore all that has come before and chart its own course in returning the club to financial stability and, eventually, the team to football prominence. And I expect they will earn our respect, if not our love.