Jack Grealish pats the chest of David Moyes at Everton
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Everton v Newcastle United - Carabao Cup Fourth Round
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Everton v Newcastle United - Carabao Cup Fourth Round
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Everton v Newcastle United - Carabao Cup Fourth Round
Photo by Mark Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Jack Grealish playing for Everton.
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Tyler Dibling playing for Everton.
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Fleetwood in sight: Everton must turn Carabao Cup hopes into Newcastle momentum
David Moyes looks on.
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But Everton now have an absolutely massive opportunity. The prospect of playing against a League Two side in a domestic cup quarter-final doesn’t come around that often, and the Toffees need to be using that prospect as fuel tonight.
The #CarabaoCup Quarter-Final draw has now been confirmed. 🏆 #EFL https://t.co/9WByuvbNbI
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) October 28, 2026
No doubt Newcastle will be doing the same, as they eye the trophy they won in 2025.
But for Everton this game tonight just took on completely new importance. And they should also take encouragement from looking at the rest of the field.
Liverpool and Manchester City are the only two ‘elite’ sides remaining, and then there are the likes of Bradford (who will try to shock City at the Etihad), Bournemouth (who will try to shock Liverpool at Anfield) Crystal Palace and Sunderland (who play one another).
The last time Everton made the semi-final of a domestic cup was in the FA Cup in 2016. Of course there is a lot to be done to get there, but the motivation should well and truly be there now.
Michael Dell laughs off Everton takeover talk, here is why he was never buying the club
Michael Dell speaks on stage
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All it took was six words and an emoji from US tech billionaire Michael Dell to douse dreams of the world’s fourth-richest man buying Everton.
Over the past few days, it had emerged that Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell was looking at an Everton takeover to seize control of the club. The US tech leader has a £100bn+ empire, making him a fantasy owner for Everton fans, considering the impact he may have had.
But as rumours circulated on X, Dell cut through all the noise and dismantled the tepid links, writing, “Who comes up with these stories?”, followed by a laughing face. A brutal end to this particular saga, which was short-lived.
@EFCdaily_ @LewisSteele_ Who comes up with these stories? 😂
— Michael Dell 🇺🇸 (@MichaelDell) October 28, 2026
Dell has links to football, even if these are weak connections, through the investment firm MSD Partners, which he set up. But despite the links, he was never really going to complete a buyout for the club.
Here is why.
Michael Dell’s football involvement doesn’t delve into ownership
Put simply, the primary reason Dell was never going to buy the club after The Friedkin Group put Everton up for sale is because of the core investment philosophy that his firm, BDT & MSD Partners, has. They are lenders opposed to custodians in the footballing world.
MSD – which stands for Michael S. Dell – is a major player in English football and in the past has provided loans to clubs including Burnley, Southampton, Sunderland, and Nottingham Forest, with a model built around private credit.
They provide high-interest loans to clubs in need, to fund transfer windows, infrastructure, and more. So in effect, MSD buying a club outright would be like Barclays buying houses, instead of underwriting mortgages.
What is your message to The Friedkin Group as they put the club up for sale? 😳
And crucially, to someone who is going to give this club the time, effort and investment it deserves!
Sell it to the most money 💰
Please don't sell to more Yanks. Would like buyers who are steeped in football culture. No idea who the 'Dell family ' are, but prefer them not to buy. Just more yanks trying to make a quick buck???
Everton could be better off without Dell, despite his wealth
Putting aside how out of character this would be, if Dell did want a shot at running a club, he would end up trapped by regulatory walls preventing him from doing so smoothly.
This is due to the fact that MSD holds debt positions across multiple clubs up and down the footballing pyramid, and efforts to take over Everton would trigger conflict-of-interest reviews under Premier League and EFL rules.
Another point to make is that the days of clubs being allowed to get taken over and then spend their way to the top are over, meaning Dell’s arrival wouldn’t actually be all that special, considering the hoops the club would need to jump through with PSR.
Everton’s pathway to stability over the past few years has repeatedly been hijacked, but this season on the pitch is showing that they aren’t far off challenging at the top. Everton needs stable, professional, and invested owners who care, not US-based billionaires who react to news on X with emojis.
Dell was never going to buy Everton; his model has always been built on lucrative private credit as opposed to club stewardship, and the existing MSD involvement in English football would make any attempt a minefield of legal trouble. With this fantasy takeover put to bed, focus can return to what Everton really needs, fully committed ownership who are capable of delivering stability over the long term.