Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium after The Friedkin Group put Everton up for sale
Dan Friedkin has put Everton up for sale less than 22 months after completing his takeover from Farhad Moshiri
Dan Friedkin has put Everton up for sale less than 22 months after completing his takeover from Farhad Moshiri
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All was pretty quiet on the Everton front until the big news broke on Friday that our owners, The Friedkin Group, unfortunately want to sell up and move on. While it’s really disappointing, I think it sort of makes sense for many supporters given how they’ve conducted themselves since they’ve been involved.
Yes, they’ve done a lot of positives. They have balanced the books for us, and they’ve made it more streamlined and more stable on the football side and you’ve got to thank them for that of course.
However, I think there’s been a few red flags that have been cropping up since their arrival. Like many former Everton players, I was involved at the last game at Goodison Park, yet they never turned up.
Yes, they say they’ve had people involved in the group at most matches at Hill Dickinson Stadium but you want to see the main guy. We want to see the owner, and he hasn’t turned up for any games even when he’s been in the country, he hasn’t decided to pop in and witness what Everton is all about.
I’ve got a theory about this. The reason is because the Americans do not want to get passionate about business and they don’t like their heart to rule their head, because they know when they do, it can cost them a lot of money.
I feel that if Dan Friedkin turned up at Goodison Park on that last day and witnessed what we all experienced on that hugely emotional day, I think he would have known it was going to cost him a few more million quid as he would have fallen in love with our football club.
He’s done it as a business transaction and I’m not happy with the news. But at least we know where we stand now.
Now it all makes sense why David Moyes didn’t get backed in the January transfer window, the Harrison Armstrong incident and the lack of player investment in the summer. It feels like they tried to back them but then also a couple of weeks before the transfer window closed, a lot of things changed inside the football club.
I think Dan Friedkin knew he didn’t want to get fully invested. We’ve seen him at Roma, he’s got a big bill to start paying for a new stadium coming up.
He probably feels that he can’t really back Everton to the level he wants to get us challenging at and hopefully he’s just going to find a suitable interested party. While we’re frustrated with his decision, he actually stepped up to the plate and stopped certain other potential owners coming to the football club like 777 Partners and John Textor, so you’ve got to be thankful for that.
But then hopefully now we can find a buyer who is able to push us on to the levels that we’ve all been striving to be at.
Another of my former teams, Manchester City, obviously remain top of the news agenda because of what’s going on with them and their appeal.
I look at Newcastle United, who have got probably the richest owners in world sport, yet they can’t spend the money. The rules don’t seem right to me, although City, of course, signed up to them.
As well as the team there have been investments in the stadium and investments in the local area, spending huge sums of money. But the rules that have been put in place and everyone in the Premier League, for some reason, decided that was a good idea.
However, I think a lot of football people are now starting to realise when the teams like Aston Villa and Newcastle try and challenge the established elite, they end up having to sell their best players. The days of having a Jack Walker at Blackburn Rovers, where an outsider could dare to dream, are gone, it’s basically impossible to do that now.
It just makes it much more difficult to close the gap on the guys at the top. So, it’s a weird situation and it’s not just ourselves, Crystal Palace are also for sale.
Is a potential buyer going to sit back and wait for the Manchester City appeal to see where the land lies, with how the Premier League is going to be looked upon, you know, because a decision one way or the other could totally change the outcome for an owner.
I’m hearing about random talks flying around now about a Super League 2 kicking off, so why do you want to buy football clubs? Is this going to be a breakaway league again?
It’s frustrating for Everton because we want the here and now. We wanted the investment back in January. We wanted it in the summer for David Moyes.
Obviously, this season so far, the team are unbeaten, it’s positive but we know we need more players to start challenging. Hopefully, whether they’re a local person or an international person, there is someone out there who are going to be there for the long run.
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