Over the preceding 6 or 8 weeks, seemingly people have been sounding the clarion calls for The Friedkin Group (TFG) takeover, with their purported ‘modus operandi’ of stabilising their football club acquisitions financially before moving on to making said clubs more professional.
Well, in the mere 25 days since TFG acquired control of the club, things don’t seem to have run smoothly for the new owners…
Other than appointing Marc Watts as Executive Chairman, and appointing a current board member from AS Roma to our board; it seemed that TFG were happy enough with the progress that Sean Dyche had made in the Premier League, and were looking to the long-game.
As stated previously elsewhere, it appears that when TFG takes over an asset, they conduct a 100-day operational analysis in order to see where changes within that asset need to be made. Which I believe is what they were willing to ‘risk’ by retaining Sean Dyche, ie, stick with him for the foreseeable, and only make a managerial change if absolutely necessary.
However, the events of last Thursday, 9 January, and the FA Cup tie with Peterborough seem to have been a culmination of brinkmanship by Dyche. I personally believe this was orchestrated by him in order to be relieved of his duties, so as to: i) Not have a possible relegation on his CV (whilst being able to boast what a great job he did for us); and ii) Not be the manager that got Everton relegated from the Premier League.
However, I don’t think it was cowardice: I think he genuinely had run out of ideas. Though if his idea was to play the 3-4-3, or more like a 3-4-2-1 against Peterborough, he showed that at least he could be was more adaptable and open to change.
Andy Hunter in The Guardian wrote an article on Saturday 11 January titled:
Friedkin Group believes Moyes can stabilise Everton, and restore lost values
The most interesting point to me is the detail provided by And in this excerpt re Dyche’s ‘manoeuvrings’ for dismissal:
The stable platform that TFG seeks to build upon is in no small part thanks to the manager it has just sacked. But that is not to say it was wrong to do so, or that all of the above praise puts Dyche beyond reproach. In many ways he gave the new owners no alternative.
A considerable amount of nonsense has been said and written about the decision to sack Dyche hours before Thursday’s FA Cup tie against Peterborough. The former Everton winger Andros Townsend’s claim that it represents “major, major red flags long-term for this new ownership group” is among that. The manager of a team one point above the relegation zone with half a season played, when asked what support he needed in January to improve the situation, intimated to his new employers that he had taken the team as far as he could. Results and performances back that up. But results and performances did not cost Dyche his job, as bad as they were.
TFG felt his attitude had changed after losses to Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth extended Everton’s dismal run to one win in 11 league games. It was, it felt, a resigned attitude tantamount to resigning, an argument Dyche rejected.
[The article itself is very balanced and is well worth a read, plus it isn’t behind a paywall.]
One of several things I enjoyed about the Peterborough game was how Beto was utilised; he was provided with I think two decent crosses, one of which he managed to get on target, and for his goal, he had the ball played to his feet and just in front of him, and he took the goal with aplomb. Although technically different, it reminded me of his goal against Newscatle Utd last season.
Moving on, a lot of posters have been saying no more ‘jobs for the boys’ or the ‘Everton Network’. Yet, people were calling for Baines and Coleman to take over as an interim management team prior to Dyche being relieved of his duties – and they got their wish.
While I don’t think it would be healthy bringing back many ex-players as coaches or as technical staff (as I still believe that we need to start head-hunting best in class of everything from the top down!), in our current situation, if they can add to the club, then fine (for now) going forward – although we must get out of this parochial mindset of we need a Blue to do… whatever.
Okay, so we are going to be managed by David Moyes. Initially, this didn’t thrill me in the slightest; however, after some soul-searching, I believe it will be seen as an important appointment moving forward. Look at the attributes he brings, which are essential (currently) for us to attempt to maintain our Premier League status (which is still not a given at this point), I am hopeful he can and will keep us up. To my mind, all we need to do is ‘survive’ (that ugly word again!) this season, and we should have a much better platform to build on going forward.
Here is a link to FootballMania discussing Moyes’s tactics with West Ham Utd which might give us an insight into how Moyes might want to set us up going forward:
Why West Ham don’t follow modern tactics
Why, I hear some of you say? Well, because right now the club is still up to its neck in doo-doo on the playing side, and on the footballing infrastructure side.
I believe that Moyes will bring discipline, the right culture, and adaptability to the squad, and at the same time make them more likely to be competitive in games than Dyche did.
[I have to personally thank Dyche for keeping us up for two seasons, though whether he deserves all the credit or not is debateable, but bygones and thank you. He certainly does not deserve the amount of vitriol that has been aimed at him.]
If we can survive this season without any more significant expenditure, we should not be hit with any more PSR penalties. (Other than maybe the stadium interest issue, though I would have thought that issue would have been resolved by now between the Premier League Board and TFG.)
Here is an Echo article which includes a financial report by the Swiss Ramble on Everton’s PSR situation:
Everton and TFG face a defining few months if PSR is to become problem of the past
I wasn’t sure where we were regards PSR, but it seems that we had a £15M ‘window’ with which to juggle. Therefore, I believe that this is why Thelwell said, if we are going to bring anyone in, we need to sell first.
Unfortunately, it would seem that, now we have paid compensation to Dyche and his backroom staff, and appointed Moyes and his backroom staff, that we do not have any leeway in the transfer window at all. Therefore, I’m not expecting any incomings, and Moyes will have to utilise what he has got already (just as Dyche had to).
Additionally, with new rules brought in by the Premier League for 2024-25, a club can only register a maximum of four loan players – two domestic and two overseas. Once a club has registered four players, even if you send a loanee back to their parent club, you cannot make another loan. Which limits our ability to strengthen the club even further via loans!
Going back to jobs for the boys (re the David Weir rumours). It has been stated by Moyes this last month that he has a peculiar stance with DoFs. In-so-much-as this quote from the Echo:
Speaking exclusively to the Echo back in September though for his episode in our ‘Goodison Park: My Home’ series, Moyes outlined he is happy to operate with a director of football but insisted that individual should also take ownership for any recruits they bring in.
He said: “It’s certainly changed. There are certainly a lot more things required now.
“Ultimately, I think the manager, maybe called ‘the head coach’ now, are the ones who are getting fired for it so if I’m going to get fired, I’m going to get fired because it’s players I sign or I choose to sign.
“It’s how I play and not how I get told to play. You need to be able to do that.
“If it’s changed differently, then I can do that. If somebody turns around and says: ‘By the way, I’m signing the players for you,’ I can do that.
“But don’t be putting my name to everything then, everyone you bring in, and not taking responsibility. There are very few people now who really want to take the responsibility for what’s going on.”
Read the full article here:
David Moyes has already shared his Director of Football stance before Everton return
Which then brings us to the question of whether or not Kevin Thelwell will be retained till the summer, let go immediately if a new DoF is appointed (several names have been mentioned with David Weir being the latest – and ‘allegedly’ unofficially confirmed by ITKs at the club), or whether Thelwell will be retained beyond his current contract?
Personally, I think that Kevin Thelwell has done a decent job, nowhere near optimal, but in the circumstances he found himself, and having to deal in his first year with the old board, he has surprised me with his astuteness in the transfer market as well as off-loading ‘deadwood’ and fringe players. All this despite being hamstrung by PSR and a lack of money. Without Thelwell, I believe the club would be in a much worse financial and PSR position than we find ourselves in now.
The other thing which is more important than anything else is: How do we freshen up the squad in the summer?
Again, according to Swiss Ramble, we will be approximately £48M in the clear after the 2023-24 accounts have been submitted, which isn’t an awful lot to play with, and with a much-diminished squad, due to contacts expiring or loanees leaving the club we will be left with the following senior players;
Goalkeeper: Pickford
Defenders: Branthwaite, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Patterson
Midfielders: Garner, Iroegbunam, Armstrong, McNeil
Forwards: Ndiaye, Chermiti, Beto
The players leaving or retiring etc are:
Goalkeepers: Begovic, Virginia (I could see both being offered contract extensions)
Defenders: Keane, Young, Coleman (Seamus, I would have thought he will take his coaching badges)
Midfielders: Doucoure, Gueye (Retiring)
Forwards: Calvert-Lewin (I presume him going is whether Moyes wants him or not?)
Loanees leaving: Lindstrom, Broja, Harrison and Mangala (Maybe we could make a cheeky bid for Mangala as Lyon need cash!)
This plainly demonstrates the lack of players for Season 2025-26, and having a war-chest of approximately £50M (if Swiss Ramble is correct) wouldn’t seem to cut it? So, it would appear we’ll still be having to look in the loan market and bargain basement for player acquisitions. Unless of curse, we take the Forest route and blatantly disregard PSR, take a small points hit, but bring in a few better players (unless we could do the same with some creative accountancy, if possible?)
This is probably another reason why Moyes has been asked to return: along with his pragmatism, he has his ability to spot a bargain in the transfer market. Therefore, rather than looking for a ‘name’ manager for the new season, unless Moyes starts to fail, I would think he’ll be managing us till 2026-27.
This should be when the PSR issues really diminish with a stadium sponsor, increased revenue through commercial and sponsorship activities, and non-footballing activities at the stadium. Moyes should also get us further up the Premier League table, and we should implement a much more sensible approach to recruitment and hopefully a first-team pay-structure.
If Moyes can implement the changes that TFG require of him, getting the club stable, and the infrastructure rebuilt (especially the scouting and recruitment side of things), a complete rethink of what goes on at Finch Farm, plus TFG holding up their end of the bargain, ie, improving (greatly) the business side of affairs, I’d take two seasons of treading water (mid-table) to be better placed to thank Moyes, and bring in a manager to try and get us to where we want to be. Strangely enough, it would probably mean European Football first to help build the war-chest, before hunting down the Premier League title.
The one thing that has been missing from all the pre-takeover dialogue is the involvement with Retexo, the football consultancy company that TFG used to acquire their current footballing club stable. It was mooted that Charles Gould (Retexo’s founder), a personal friend of Ryan Friedkin, would be joining the Everton board in some capacity.
I say ‘missing’; it might well be that Retexo either haven’t been used for the takeover, or are still engaged by TFG and as such are keeping their heads down.
I know this is mostly hypothetical, but hopefully the appointment of Moyes is the ‘rock bottom’ for the club, or in military parlance, a post-Dunkirk Britain, or akin to a ‘Valley Forge’ moment for our American contributors.
Keep the faith, believe, and onwards and upwards!