"DISCONNECT!" talkSPORT & Everton fans REACT to The Friedkin Group putting the Club up for SALE!

talkSPORT

Friedkin Group puts Everton up for sale as talkSPORT and fans debate a quick flip versus a fresh start

The show discusses the Friedkin Group listing Everton for sale, with guests and fans arguing over whether it was a planned money-making flip and whether the club is now a more attractive investment. The consensus is that the sale could be positive if the price and new owner are right, though views on David Moyes remain split.

Alex Crook, Sam Matterface and Scott Minto discuss Everton being put up for sale by The Friedkin Group. Subscribe: https://youtube.com/c/talkSPORT?subconfirmation=1 🏆 Ready to win? Check out the latest prizes at talkSPORTwin.com Enjoyed this YouTube video? 😍 🖥️ talkSPORT's Website: https://talksport.com/ 📲 talkSPORT's X/Twitter: https://x.com/talkSPORT 📷 talkSPORT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talksport/?hl=en 👤 talkSPORT's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkSPORT/ 📱 talkSPORT's Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talksport ? 🔴 Download the talkSPORT app HERE! - https://talksport.com/apps/ 🔎 Want to see if you feature on our YouTube channel? Check out our Best talkSPORT callers playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFVMnSsi04LGLa9pS9xDvme-Gjmlu2 everton talkSPORT PremierLeague

Transcript

Everton football club has officially been put up for sale by its owners, the Freedkin Group. The American investment group led by the billionaire Dan Friedkin released a statement confirming that they're exploring new investment opportunities, including the potential s of a controlling interest. The decision comes less than 2 years after TFG completed their takeover of the club in December 2024. They took over a club emerging from uncertainty. crook, desperate for investment, stabilized it in the Premier League, stripped the squad to the bare bones, and now they're looking to cash in. The cynic in me thinks that they were always out to make a quick buck. Tell me I'm wrong. >> No, that's [clears throat] certainly how you would look at it from the outside in. Obviously, they're trying to fund a new stadium for Roma as well, which Everton fans have been saying for a while appears to be their priority. We were on air on transfer deadline night and saying what a disastrous window it was for Everton. um obviously missing out on Flo Balagan in the final hours of the window but still allowing the likes of uh Ilman and Jai and Betto to move on. They've made a really good start to the season despite that. All I would say is a caveat and I'm not an Everton fan. They did at least enable them to move to Hill Dickinson debtree um by paying off the debts that Masheri had racked up. But obviously it looks like this was part of the plan all along. Cleared the uh or restructured the highinterest loan, successfully moved the club into a brand new Hill Dickinson stadium. reportedly offloaded around £100 million worth in player assets um to balance the book by wiping out the financial instability and delivering a state-of-the-art stadium. Have they drastically increased the club's corporate valuation in a very short window? >> Yeah, but it does make me feel that exactly what your question was about flipping it and making money. It's all very well sort of getting rid of the debt, but then how much you going to try and sell it for? So, it's all about the price, isn't it? Again, clearly there's been a disconnect between them and the club. uh David Moyes saying at the end of last season that the owners were disappointed not to finish in a European place with the squad that he had with respect. >> Yeah. >> And and I did a I did a Q&A with him um last September and he was saying look for last summer he was trying to get players in that were worthy of like European football and he couldn't do it because the club was kind of linked on the European level to relegation battles. So what he did last season I thought was excellent. The summer then should have proven that they were going to go out and get those Europa League players and they haven't. >> Uh 03717234. It's not what Everton fans needed when the ownership changed. They wanted a bit more stability. But I bet they'll be delighted if someone does come in and take it into new hands. They almost sold their best youngster. Got rid of 100 million pounds worth of player talent. Zero engagement. I don't even think the Giz has been to watch Everton since he said he's never met him, didn't he? >> First of all, John, what's your reaction to this news? I think it's fantastic news. I think it's uh it's made my weekend if I'm being honest with you, gents. Um I want to make a couple of points. I've been on a couple of times over the last year or two. I was on probably about two months ago when I raised the point that the owners aren't interested and the owner's never been to a game in 18 months and he's purely just looking at as a at a business decision to try and turn 100 million200 million pound profit over couple of years. I didn't think it was going to come this soon if I'm being honest with you. But I think it is it's fantastic news for Evan and um I know that on the on the transfer deadline day when there was a bit of a shambles I know I could feel the toxicity and the the the anger building up with the fans and there was the the club the officials were getting it in the neck and I know through talking to several high up officials at the club that they were as frustrated as the fans and they were working with the hands tied behind the acts and um obviously they were getting it in the necks when it was the owners making the decisions as they've always have done. But I think to spin it now onto a positive slant and I heard Alan Stubs talking before. Yeah, it's great now we're we're mid-table. We've got a good manager to stabilize the the club. Um we've got an unbelievable stadium which you pinch yourself every time you go in it from from from a fans point of view. But I think from a a a purchases point of view, you talk about the the squad, we've only got a very small squad and I think that has played in our favor and it's it's we've got solidarity within the the squad and we're obviously unbeaten where we are now. But you talk about the premium that clubs pay for young English talent or English talent at the end of the day. And when you go through the club squad and you think about you've got Pikford, you've got Branweight, you've got James Garner, you've got Jby Hall, you've got Tyreek George, you've then got Hayden Hackne, Tyler Diblin, Madison Armstrong, these are all great players and some of them are going to be top players and they're all English and that's eight players. What other English team what other Premier League team can can can can say that. So I think from anyone potentially looking at buying the club, yeah, it's stabilized, great stadium, great squad, all it needs investing now is to go and buy half a dozen. >> It was interesting, John, actually because the reason we were talking just then about Club Wembley and about rookies experienced with the Champers was because um at the time, and he probably wouldn't have realized this is that there was at one point three Everton players on the pitch at the same time, which was, you know, quite remarkable really, isn't it? It sort of lends itself to what to what you're saying and a former Everton player in in dominant Calvert Leuen as well. Appreciate it call. Thank you very much. Jack is an Everton fan. You through to Scott Mento, Alex Brook Crook and Sam Mad face. What do you want to say? >> I want to ladies. >> Yeah, we're good mate. You >> Yeah. No, it's a positive thing for an Everton fan to be seeing what's going on at the moment. And you've got to look at it from a like a lot of fans are like look looking at the TFG situation going, well, he never invested this, never invested that. But they they inherited a lot of a lot of negativity coming into the club and that seems to have gone away. So you can't you can't really have a go at them for coming in settling what they've done and then trying to flip the club to make some money because that's how business works. You know, you look at any club any club in in the country if they can come in and do that and get and get some quick money. But they're going to put all their money into Roma as they've already alluded to in reports that they're looking to buy a new stadium for Roma. so that they're getting as much money as they can. From an investor's point of view, Everton are in a very very fortunate position because they're going to come in, they're going to be hardly any debt on the club and they're going to walk into a brand new stadium, a big fan base within Britain. >> Yeah. >> A big fan base, you know, if you look at it globally around the world through different countries and it's going to be it's going to be a good thing for Everton. Everton are in a very very good position at the moment and, you know, I can't I can't mark these owners for what they've done. I just think, you know, thanks for what you've done. See you later and move on to the next the next investor. And I think it's going to be someone local with American backing. That's who I think it's going to be. >> And Jack was the best decision the free kings made putting their faith in in David Moyes when you look at the dire straits you were in on the pitch when he took over obviously last season flirting with Europe right until the final day and made a really good start this season as well. >> We've done we've done all right. Well, unbeaten obviously, but from my point of view, from a fans point of view, and this is just my opinion, I don't think he's the right man for the job. Uh, I'd want someone better to to accommodate the stadium, accommodate the fan base, look looking forward and things like that. He is doing he he is doing a good job. He's done an all right job. >> He's done better than all right, isn't he? When you look at the lack of investment you've already talked about. >> Yeah, I I understand I understand that side of it, but it's it we're on about getting points on the board. And if you look at it, when we played Chelsea last March, we beat Chelsea 3 to the nil at all and we played he had another eight games to play and he and he and he only got four points out of them eight games. So if you look at it from a from a a manager point of view, from making decisions within games, I don't think he's got that game changed out if they'd actually given him any players in January. >> Exactly. If it had a deeper squad, that's the sign of a better team that they are given that squad. So when you get towards the end of the season when there's injuries, suspensions, and tiredness, he's able to rotate and that that that thrashing of Chelsea, it was an absolute 3-0 chass thrashing as well. >> Jack, thank you very much. Appreciate your call. Um I just wonder whether or not we're comfortable with football clubs being run from afar, flipped for 200 million profit in a couple of years. It's not I mean I think when we because we've got such an emotional attachment to football clubs, we feel a little bit sort of seedy about that. But actually, if it's an investment that works for everybody, that's how business works. And if it's an investment that works for everybody, it works for the Frein Group, works for Roma, works for Everton, and the fans are happy about it, then so be it. What I hope is is that whoever comes in next has the expressed intention to be able to kick them on to the next level. >> Just two things. One, it depends on the price, and two, how much are they going to look into and really care for the future of Everton Football Club if they're just coming in to when they came in in the first place was to flip. And three, be careful what you wish for because West Ham wanted a sexier manager than David Moyes. And look where they are now.