Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has responded to growing concerns among the fanbase over how the club is run by conducting an eye-opening interview on talkSPORT today in which he backed both his manager and board. Moshiri’s conversation with long-time contact Jim White followed up his reply the previous evening to an open letter sent to him by the Everton Fans’ Forum.
Examining the Everton majority shareholder’s words, here’s a look at some of the key points he makes and how they could be interpreted.
I’ve gotta have faith
Arguably the manager should be the most-important individual employee at any football club and despite Everton’s precarious position, Moshiri insists he believes in current boss Frank Lampard. As well as being knocked out of both domestic cup competitions, a run of just one win in their last 10 Premier League games has seen the Blues drop into the bottom three and they’re currently on course for what would be the lowest equivalent points total in the club’s history and a first relegation in 72 years.
However, Moshiri declared both in his radio interview and written response that he retains “faith” in Lampard, stating in the former that the manager “will get it right” and in the latter “we are all agreed that our current league position must and will improve.” So on face value it would seem that Lampard, Moshiri’s sixth managerial appointment in as many years, can get on with the job without fear of the axe.
Perhaps the mood of supporters could shape opinion given that Moshiri told White: “All the managers that have left have been driven by the fans, not by me initially.” While that claim seems somewhat unquantifiable, Lampard might actually be helped by the understanding that he was – unlike his predecessor Rafael Benitez who the owner went alone on – the unanimous choice of both Moshiri and the board with both Goodison Park’s power brokers and the fanbase as a whole recognising that the toxic cycle of hiring and firing that has corresponded with a sharp decline in on-field fortunes, cannot continue indefinitely.
Board games
Moshiri also reiterated his faith in Kevin Thelwell – Everton’s third director of football during his tenure who chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale revealed last month when claiming that 2022 had been “a year of resilience and progression” at the club, is implementing a 120-point action plan for their footballing operations strategy – and the current members of the board who have come under fire from an increasing number of supporters. Just getting to 40 points by May must be Evertonians’ biggest concern but in his written response, Moshiri acknowledged the “turnover in managers, directors of football and several board members” and when asked by White about the current board, Monaco-based Moshiri, who hasn’t been present at a game himself since the 5-2 capitulation at home to Watford 14 months ago, spoke of the importance of their Liverpool roots, love for the club and the factor that “they’ve been attending games in every condition” but some will undoubtedly question whether that alone is enough.
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On the banks of the royal blue Mersey
For all the on-the-field decline that has dogged Moshiri’s tenure, the progress of Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock represents as sharp contrast and the owner understandably mentioned the Blues’ 52,888 capacity future home that could well prove to be his longest-lasting legacy at the club. In his statement, he remarked: “Our new stadium has become reality” and it’s true that construction progress has dramatically transformed the waterfront site over the past 12 months.
What might have proven to be rather more startling to supporters, particularly from someone whose professional background is accountancy, will be Moshiri proclamation to White of the enormous challenge in building what he described as “a £760million stadium.” Given that the bill for the project has been long been suggested as being around the £500million mark by club officials, who have been understandably proud of the deal struck last year with contractors Laing O’Rourke to lock-in costs, a figure of around 50% more could be forgiven for causing alarm bells to ring.
However, at a time when the UK is struggling with a cost of living crisis as prices regularly skyrocket, an article by the ECHO’s Business of Football Writer Dave Powell states that club sources claim that the figure Moshiri quoted is inclusive of every facet of the stadium, from design and planning to construction and even including the potential for further ancillary developments. Having avoided the pitfall suffered by Tottenham Hotspur, who saw their new stadium bill jump by around two-and-a-half times from their early estimate of £400million to an eye-watering £1billion mark, so long as funding is secured, the biggest new stadium concern for beleaguered Blues could well be ensuring that they still have a Premier League team to fill it when they’re scheduled to move in the 2024/25 season.
Whiter than White
While respectful in tone and diplomatic in nature, Moshiri’s written response to the Everton Fans’ Forum left some supporters still anxious for more substance but even just three minutes on the airwaves with the owner speaking candidly in his own words to Jim White, provided plenty more flavour. Back on January 24, 2022, Moshiri came out and told us that he was knocking the chats with his old pal on the head, telling him: “We are trying to establish a good strong communication link with the supporters. So for the time being Jim I won’t be speaking to you.”
Less than a year on, it seems as though the Scottish journalist’s hotline to the Everton owner has been re-established. Speaking on the dynamics of their relationship at the club’s AGM in 2018, Moshiri told shareholders: “As it happens, Jim White is a friend of mine. Sometimes late at night he calls me, sometimes there’s no caller ID and I think it’s Bill.
“And then if we’ve had a bad game and I’m upset he gets to me and he gets something out of me. All the conversations are between two friends, they shouldn’t appear on Sky but that’s the world we live in.”
This latest interview – which the ECHO understands came as a shock to the club's staff, none of whom had any prior knowledge that it would be taking place –brought back memories of Vitor Pereira’s live phone call to Sky Sports in January last year when touting himself for Everton’s managerial vacancy during the recruitment process for Benitez’s replacement. An added layer of intrigue came from thoughts as to just where Moshiri might have been while conducting the conversation which was juxtapositioned against the Queen song Another One Bites the Dust which could be heard in the background as the Blues owner spoke.
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