There was a point late in the summer transfer window, some time between CEO Angus Kinnear’s sit-down interviews with fan and local media and the Blues’ game against Bournemouth on the 29th of August where Everton’s approach — or, more specifically, that of the ownership — perceptibly changed.
Had it not been for David Ornstein of _The Athletic_ going public with information he had received regarding Everton’s acceptance of an offer from Nottingham Forest for the midfielder _before_ kick-off that day in Bournemouth, that change would have involved the loss to a rival club of the club’s best academy graduate of the past few years.
Thankfully, however, the emphatic Evertonian voice was heard from the stands of Vitality Stadium (and on social media and, perhaps, through those same fan media representatives with Kinnear’s ear) and The Friedkin Group changed tack, banking instead on Iliman Ndiaye’s sale to Manchester City going through before the deadline to help them fund a very late move for a striker.
No one of a Blue persuasion needs reminding how that went in the minutes either side of the 11pm cut-off and the collapse of Folarin Balogun’s proposed move to Hill Dickinson Stadium from Monaco, but the circumstances behind the attempted Armstrong sale and the increasingly chaotic nature of Everton’s transfer dealings as the summer wore on prompted a significant shift in the fanbase’s opinion of — and faith in — TFG.
There was already a steady drumbeat on social media over the summer of people arguing that the Friedkins’ passions lay in Italy with AS Roma and that the Americans were only interested in “flipping” Everton for profit at some point not too far down the road.
Kinnear’s insistence of the owners’ ambitions for the club suggested otherwise but their decision to rein in spending at the end of the transfer window was a tacit admission of that notion; reports soon afterwards that TFG were entertaining minority investors provided further evidence; and Friday’s brief club statement was confirmation.
All of which has plunged Everton back into uncertainty over the future less than two years after it seemed as though the sky was the limit for the club under well-heeled ownership who had earned their scars and stripes through five years of owning Roma.
Granted, we’re not weighed down by the existential fears that accompanied the last takeover saga, when the Toffees were caught between the devil, three sevens and a baseball cap on one side and the blag artistry of John Textor on the other, but we have been swiftly and collectively stripped of the dream that TFG might bring about the same renaissance at Everton as Fenway Sports Group have effected up the hill at Anfield over the past decade and a half.
In the context of just how far Everton were hovering on the edge of the abyss in the last days of Farhad Moshiri and the extent to which TFG returning to the negotiating table to complete a deal for the Anglo-Iranian’s stake rescued our club, it’s hard to feel too aggrieved by their decision to offload their acquisition so quickly.
The Houston-based firm have not only put the Blues on a stable financial footing, completed the new stadium and significantly improved the club’s commercial performance but they have also put some of the building blocks in place at Finch Farm to revive the academy and retooled the recruitment setup (even if the latter’s results over the summer were decidedly mixed and needs further work to divest Kinnear of his input on the playing side).
It’s become clear, though, that the realisation of just how much investment and savvy is required to achieve the same level of success in the Premier League as they have enjoyed to date with Roma has hit TFG like a truck. And with planning permission finally granted on a new stadium in Rome and an NHL expansion team in the works in Texas, the Friedkins clearly felt they don’t have the bandwidth or capital that would be required to push Everton into the Champions League picture. Their loss, one they might not ever fully appreciate if the Toffees ever return to the "top table", will be someone else's gain.
The first feeling was one of annoyance at TFG for not following through on their initial promises, but the overriding emotion now is colossal disappointment. Disappointment at Dan Friedkin’s refusal to even dip a toe into Everton as a club, culture and community by so much as attending even one game at either Goodison Park or Bramley-Moore Dock so that he and his family might be “touched” by Everton in the manner expressed so eloquently by Alan Ball; disappointment that they couldn’t see the enormous potential in what is genuinely a sleeping giant of English football; and disappointment that our prospects to return to the top (or close to it) under a hugely successful multinational firm with the resources and capability to drive Everton forward like FSG did at Liverpool has, temporarily at least gone, to be replaced by yet more uncertainty.
If there’s room for optimism, though, it comes from the fact that the Everton that is for sale this time is not a distressed asset with real worries over its short- to medium-term viability as a going concern as was the case in the darkest days in the spring of 2024.
While the club’s debts are north of £400m and servicing that loan secured against the stadium, when combined with the costs of running Hill Dickinson Stadium, largely offsets the increase in revenue from Goodison Park, the terms are long-term and based on favourable rates.
TFG have rid Everton of the far more debilitating “payday” loans from the likes of Rights & Media Funding that Moshiri and Bill Kenwright before him felt compelled to take on and the stadium itself, when combined with new sponsorship deals, has opened up new sources of revenue.
The hope now is that a similarly well-run and well-resourced outfit to TFG, free of the baggage of sports-washing accusations and sovereign wealth but with serious ambition and a laser focus on making Everton successful on and off the pitch, are waiting in the wings to take us into the bright future for which we’re all desperate.
After three decades of obscurity and frustration, Evertonians are due their moment back in the sun.
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