Chong moves to cool takeover speculation in wake of Textor's Sky interview

His wealth would suggest that he knows what he is doing.

This statement was totally unnecessary as Textor made it abundantly clear he has no influence and it's just his opinions – albeit as the prime perspective potential purchaser.

Very odd that they would think it needed saying, especially in such a blundering and clumsy manner — "delaying the press conference for a club statement" — puts far too much on something of very little merit.

I'll be glad to see Dyche gone, but we don't need the players hearing a potential new owner, during his exclusivity period, saying anything about managers he likes.

We have a manager in his last season, with no word from current ownership on whether he'll be extended or not.

Textor should keep his trap shut. It's bad enough.

I'd take anyone right now who can stablize the club with the mess Moshiri has left us in. It needs sorting out and a new manager put in straight away or we will be a Championship club in another month under Dyche and we will go down.

Thanks, Moshiri. Embarrassing that the board have put this statement out – we're just a laughing stock of English football… what a mess.

100%

I’m sure they would

This is in stark contrast to the Everton of old and the current Everton which is truly welcomed. Please take note Mr Moshiri and Mr Chong.

We don't want a daily blow by blow account of how things are progressing, nor any confidential briefings or information but just to be considered as pieces of the jigsaw that should be kept in the loop as Mr Textor has done.

I look forward to this 'openness' continuing well into the future as the Club will benefit in the long run.

Personally I'd like to see Dyche stay and given a chance with money. We've given him a crap set of circumstances and criticised him for struggling with them?!?!? Go figure?!

I'm confused.

Now that the world and his dog is aware (thanks to Textor) the world (in particular the blue world in L4) encourages you to get on with it then so that we all can welcome closure to this long running saga and let Moshiri go back permanently to Monaco.

Chong has to work with these people on a daily basis and any lack of clarity could destabilise the manager and players. Having said that, perhaps a meeting with the manager and players in private, would have been simpler rather than a public statement.

Clarifying Textor's statement just draws more attention!

In their current positions, I would rather the club were as open as Textor seems to be and Textor was as closed as the club has been.

Shambles.

It is refreshing to hear anything considering the awful track record of our absentee owner.

I remember how he was speaking through the odious Jim White at TalkShite. That of couse did not last and I've noticed White being even more pithy towards us ever since.

I suppose Chong's words are to allay the worries of the manager. But surely it's simply just more "noise" to Sean.

Different decision by the club, different set of moaners.

Chong and the board appear to be more concerned about their own positions but, if I was Textor, I wouldn't be too happy with this announcement.

No need to bring up hypothetical scenarios/names of Brazilian players from his club and asking if Dyche would be comfortable working with those type of players.

It puts unnecessary pressure on Dyche and he will surely be asked about Textor's comments in his presser. Dyche and the players' sole focus should be on the game against Aston Villa.

Textor clearly gave the impression a deal was close to hand. The club has painted a different picture for good reason. While this saga drags on and on the club, the staff and the players need to have one focus; climbing the league table.

The more noise around a bid often means the less substance there is to the bid.

Increasingly this all feels like a sequel to the 2023-24 series called 777.

"His wealth would suggest that he knows what he is doing."

The current owner is very wealthy too. All these people think they know what they're doing right up until the point they don't.

I was handed piece of paper as drama unfolded at Everton press conference but it was the right move

Sad but that's how untrustworthy the people who have been running our club have been.

The quicker this is over the better, we have suffered enough. Tumbleweed silence, followed by spouted nonsense.

I understand that the club needed to respond, but it's like having your pants pulled down in public. No one needs to comment on Sean Dyche, he's the manager and is working for Moshiri, like it or not.

Full focus should be on the Villa game, if this impacts preparation for that (which it probably will), then thanks a bunch.

This club has failed for far too long now, every club on the planet owes the fans a voice and Christ knows we need some transparency at our club, as well as real leadership going forward.

I'd actually almost forgotten Chong is nominally in charge.

I imagine Dyche might already be discussing his next move with his agent and I'd be very surprised if Chong was also not looking, maybe to get back to the day job.

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I suspect he's quite good at the day job but it is alarming what 6 years at Everton can do to you...

Too often, 'the club' takes the hit for what is obviously Moshiri's and predecessors' mess.

He doesn't own a single share in the club, so he needs to zip it to avoid creating more turbulence in the club.

We are bottom of the Premier League table and need to concentrate on performance and results.

The crunch comes when they have to produce the funds to fund a takeover and actually pay. But there is always the potential for a slip between the lip and the cup, especially since the seller, Moshiri, has clearly mismanaged his investment and is in hoc to lenders who will have their say.

In this context, Textor is a bidder, by an investment vehicle, who needs to sell the investment in Crystal Palace which already provides security for his Italian investment.

He also needs to raise funds from a public offering on his investment vehicle, which needs the potential of an investment in Everton to increase the value of his public offering, so that he has the funds to buy a majority holding in Everton.

If I was a seller, I would hope I would never be in a position concerning such a bid.

This is an absolute bollocks of a situation. Moshiri and Chong are naive or do not have a clue to come out with such a statement. They have no narrative of their own, and are giving credence to Textor's narrative, which is nothing more than him shooting off his big mouth.

Moshiri is trying to sell Everton for two pigs and we all have to look on as this obvious bullshit unfolds. Sometimes all you end up with is a kick in the arse and Moshiri thoroughly deserves his.

On editing, I've just seen Chong's photo again. He looks a right prat and probably is one.

Also, not sure there was a reason for the club to make any comment. Nothing has actually happened and anyone can say anything. Reactionary response to a media story that needed no action.

Chong has clearly come out in defence of Dyche and with a "nothing is done yet" message.

The soap opera rumbles on.

Looks like he's taken over something.

I just hope that it manages to focus minds and leads (quietly) to a deal being struck which pleases both parties as Textor either said or inferred that he was happy to go with the deal he's agreed with Moshiri.

If true, then good, despite what Chong has said, but I am not going to say that he (Textor), as a buyer, is automatically 100% always right with what he thinks is the deal with Moshiri.

Unless he has it in writing, there may be small, but significant, details to iron out still. The fact that Moshiri is so unpredictable should serve as a warning to him.

Good luck everyone as we need a new owner asap.

Most top business people get the deal done before saying anything.

And EFC get a new owner with a bit of nouse instead of an Iranian clown etc?

I don't think he will in the end buy the club, I'd say its 30% he does and 70% he's not our next owner.

Moshiri gets a lot of flak, granted a lot of it warranted, but to be fair to him the debt the club is in is partly down to the brand new stadium he's had built.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have started that project if he knew his Russian friend would get blackballed.

He did also foot the bill for half a billion or whatever it was for the purchase of players.

The mistake he made was trusting the 'football experts' he employed and 'you know who' to buy the right players.

Precisely.

Everton's response suggests there's still work to be done.

Seems like a negotiating ploy by Textor to put pressure on Moshiri for whatever reason.

We know that group of players is better than nil points and he needs to start organising and inspiring them to achieve some results.

We've endured years of a mouthy chairman spouting bullshit in public to the embarrassment of the club, so it would be nice to have an alternative owner who quietly gets the job done behind the scenes.

They can then inform the media of their intentions once they've actually forked out the readies to purchase the majority of the club's shares.

None of the stuff that's gone seriously tits up and had grown men tearing their hair out, frothing at the mouth and furiously walking the dog… for fucking ages… at 5:30 pm every Saturday and whenever any further (inevitably) bad news about the club filters out?

Nah. Just this.

Just some bloke getting a bit over excited at the prospect of buying the club.

They spent years with a chairman who used to wax lyrical about stuff like the time Burt Reynolds walked off the set of ‘Smokey & The Bandit' to ring Bill and ask him if he wanted to go for lunch, only for Bill to put Bob Latchford on the phone and how Burt immediately shed so many tears of sheer joy his sopping tash was the wettest and slickest it had ever been when a safe distance removed from lady jizz.

They've got an absentee owner who not only tried to sell the club to criminals and conmen but also sought to convince supporters it was a masterstroke on his part: "The more time that I have spent with the 777 team, the more my confidence increases that we have found the right people to take the club forward in the modern era”.

When 777 partners were in the same position, they were willingly taking money off them pre-takeover and had Josh Wander attending games, doing Q&A sessions with fan groups, and meeting the fucking mayors of Liverpool and Greater Manchester.

Yet, one Yank still on the outside looking in and getting a bit carried away in his enthusiasm while trying to engage is what causes them to cringe with such embarrassment they feel the need to immediately issue a statement?

How strange and utterly redundant.

Dyche or the Brazilian title winner, Ferreira?

I know that neither Dyche or Ferreira are my dream coach.

Definitely, it makes you wonder whether he is prepping an excuse in advance.

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I think it's okay to give his opinion about the club he wants to buy. The only comment that I didn't like was the one where he said Branthwaite could have been sold for something like £51M...

He doesn't yet own the club so I don't get what the benefit of disclosing that is, other than it might give other clubs ideas they can snatch him in January for a low fee which won't be to the benefit of Everton.

I'm struggling with all his talk of how he loves Everton, and all the bullshit about owning Everton like becoming President and living in the White House. Pull the other one - it was only a few weeks ago he was harping on about how great Palace is, right up until he was told to do one when he wanted to buy the club outright.

He's blowing smoke up our collective arse and I'm not having it.

Not only that but he's previously stated he hates owning football clubs, and he's also planning to float the club on the stock market. He reminds me of Kenwright with his dewy eyed bullshit.

I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

You're not a 'lone voice' believe me.

I for one share your... 'scepticism'?

How does the old cliché go, something like this in this case

"Talk is cheap, buying a football approx. £600m+ in debt, alongside other issues, is not!"

In this case I strongly believe he should stay silent, until he has put up, and got the keys to the castle; then by all means crow as much as you like...

All Textor did yesterday in his statement, was

i) Disrespect the Crystal Palace fans, organisation and his fellow shareholders at CPFC.

ii) He also disrespected the Everton management team, and club. "A distressed club, that is a fantastic opportunity to buy"

iii) He also made overtures about how our last genuine game-changer (Branthwaite) should be valued. With a view to probably sell to fund.

iv) Additionally, he has obviously kicked the proverbial hornet's nest with his comments, with regards the current EFC 'rump' board, and probably (in my opinion) overstated where he stands regards the current positioning regarding his attempted takeover.

This shouldn't be taking place in the public domain until everything is signed, sealed and dusted...

It all comes across as very ungracious to those involved in the deal, and the very integrity of the deal. To me that is...

I do agree that John Textor probably went a bit overboard with his comments. Maybe the Everton board just felt it might be unsettling, particularly when some fans argue for him to sack the manager and coaching team. Maybe let's just "Lay off the talk about the manager/coach & team"!

Also, with Usmanov getting edgy and suing one of Moshiri's businesses, Moshiri and the Everton board might just want Textor to zip it for now.

I'm not sure they'd have done it in this way were it not for Textor's comments about Dyche and the insinuation in some media quarters that if Eagle Football Group come in, the Gaffer will be getting the "Spanish archer".

What they mean is that they like what he said.

None of us have any idea whether he is honest.

A degree of scepticism is warranted.

He doesn't think the sale of the club is as close as Textor does.

Yeah, those are usually the same people in my experience, who follow populists like Farage, Trump and tiny Tommy Robinson Yaxley-Lennon.

Honest, "say it like it is" types – or liars, frauds and grifters as I prefer to call them.

I like the fact he is actually talking to the fans even though he does not yet own the club. Communication up until Colin Chong's intervention has been non-existent from the current owner.

None of us know any of the protagonists well enough to make an informed decision on whether they're telling the truth or not.

So believing or not believing what's being said is just down to the individual's choice.

Neither choice carries any more weight than the other.

Pretty obvious, I know, but... meh!

He's quick to jump on the bandwagon now Textor has said a lot of positives.

How many words did he change to say the same thing about us?

The deal isn't done yet. It could easily be seen as an underhanded way of pressuring Moshiri to sell at a lower price. Imagine the raging mob if our American Knight in Shining Armour is told that another group have offered more money to buy the club?

Commenting at all on Dyche felt unprofessional to me. Can he manage random South Americans? Not relevant at this point, but he does need to perform for us right now.

“It is just a straight, equity purchase of the shares of Everton Football Club, if it happens. While I like to feel it’s greater than 90 per cent probability, I’m not the owner of Everton Football Club and (Moshiri) still has plenty of options.”

There are two important parts to this answer at the media conference.

The first is the bit about using equity to buy Everton — earlier in the answer, Textor stressed that the transaction would be “debt-free” — which will be music to the ears of the club’s supporters, as the nine-time English champions are already more than £1billion in debt.

However, what Textor means is he is using cash — his own, plus an unspecified amount from “a couple of friends with terrific resources” — to buy Moshiri’s 94 per cent stake. It does not mean he will be wiping away all of Everton’s debts, or not using new debt to recapitalise the business.”

Positive that he is looking at a debt free purchase and, interestingly, it will be separate from Eagle Football Group and the multi-club model. He will want to take advantage of close collaboration though.

He is definitely has a greater risk appetite than TFG. And he does need to stop talking to the media and concentrate on getting the deal done.

Bottom line is someone needs to buy us - and soon.