Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has launched a scathing attack on Farhad Moshiri and believes he is at fault for Everton’s current problems.
Moshiri, less than 24 hours after responding to an open letter from the club’s Fans' Forum, joined Jim White on talkSPORT on Thursday morning to answer questions about planned protests, Frank Lampard and the club’s board.
The Everton chief, and the club’s hierarchy, have come under major scrutiny since the Blues’ 4-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion at Goodison Park last week. Chants of 'sack the board' could be heard during the second-half and at full-time.
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Moshiri, who joined the Everton board back in 2016, has invested over £500m in the club’s playing squad and is also helping to fund the club’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. And although Jordan believes the money Moshiri has invested can’t be knocked, he feels the 67-year-old has degraded the club in his time involved.
“The argument being advanced is that the best owners are the ones that put their hands in their pocket and no one can doubt he hasn’t put his money where his mouth is,” he told talkSPORT.
“That is great, but you have spent half a billion quid to waste everyone’s time and yours and degrade the football club you are in.
“Now we can all turn around and say I put my best foot forward and I put up a good fight, but a good fight isn’t one you turn up to, it is one you win. Everton are third or fourth from the bottom of the league and they have got a substandard playing squad.
“I don't think they have got the most forward, progressive-thinking board and I don’t think they have a coach capable anywhere near in the mind's eye of the Everton fans would like to be.”
Jordan then added: “I have to say I have got friends who are Everton fans, influential and significant people who aren’t just rabble-rousers who get the cross at the slightest touch of adversity, and these guys are looking at it going, 'What the hell is going on at this football club?'
“But come on now. This isn’t good enough. This isn’t good enough for Everton Football Club and Moshiri writing open letters to fans is not my version of leadership.
“Leadership means you are at the front of the queue and you give people clear visions. More of the same, 'I want Everton to be a better football club', well you hardly want it to be an even worse one, do we?”
The 'All Together Now' campaign, set up following the defeat to Brighton, has been calling for Moshiri to make big changes at the top of the club, with chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale the focus of ire from fans.
However, Jordan believes the focus of fans’ anger should be directed at Moshiri, who he claims is trying to 'quell the rumblings' with a hands off communications approach.
“Well he is communicating in a way that is hands off communication,” he said. “It is basically responding to the fact he has been put into a position where he can’t potentially ignore the background noise.
“He needs to try and quell the rumblings by saying more of the same, but also it isn't an idea to be reactive to what other people think you should do.
“I believe if anyone wants to focus their anger at anybody, and it is not constructive, I guess, but they can’t be shouting sacking the board.
“I have owned football clubs, I was the money and I know who made the decisions: me. I listened to people who worked for me and made the decisions.
“So does he. So when you say 'sack the board' what is that going to achieve? The same fella is at the top and he will make the same decisions as before and just replace like for like.
“The anger, unfortunately for Farhad, needs to be directed at him. Sacking the board, getting rid of Denise and calling Bill whatever you want to call him, Moshiri is the culprit in this.”
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