"MASSIVE SLEEPING GIANT!" Rory Jennings & Everton Fan REACT as Everton are up for SALE!

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Everton up for sale: Friedkin Group, Moyes and the “sleeping giant” debate

The show discusses the Friedkin Group exploring a sale of Everton, covering the quiet transfer window, improved commercial work and the new stadium, plus David Moyes stabilising the team and the risk of losing young players. The overall view is that short-term turbulence is likely, but with the right football-savvy and ambitious buyer Everton could still fulfil its “sleeping giant” potential, and the sale news need not derail the season.

Ade Oladipo and Rory Jennings are joined by Ollie Hayes to discuss Everton's future after The Friedkin Group have put the club up for sale! 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 talkSPORT premierleague everton

Transcript

Tony Bellow is going to message in right now. This is what a great anthem. >> It is. It is, isn't it? Really? >> It's a grand old team. >> He used to come out to this. You know, he talked about earlier off. This is what he used to walk out to all the time and then you just knew he was going to be in a scrap. >> It's the type of song where he just feels like you have a fight, don't you? You have a fight. Let's talk Everton. Everton taken the whole city. Uh, big game. Ever an unbeaten unbeaten start to the Premier League. Quietly Everton have gone uh started the season quite well under David Moyes who always gets flak but always uh gets the job done especially when you consider Everton didn't really do much in the transfer window in the summer. Quiet window for Everton. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They've done they've done really well. But this is this is the thing. David Moyes is a good manager. >> He's a he's [clears throat] a good manager. I feel like some people find it quite underwhelming and I I I understand why, but he is he deserves so much respect for what he's done in the game and he can get his team to play in an efficient way and that's why that's why Everton are having a decent start to the season. >> They are, but he has spoken up about the ownership of the group. Obviously, there's a lot of talk at the moment right now. It's doing the rounds on social media. We're going to have a conversation about it well as well about the freaking group potentially looking to sell the club. What's the point in buying it if they just >> only bought it a couple of years ago, didn't they? David Moyes had his uh say on this. Uh this is what David Moyes had to say in the leadup to the game against Whole City. >> Well, probably maybe it was the case, but I truly believed it. We we knew ownership who were in for the infinite completely with us all. uh know my ambition coming back was try and get everything back to the levels he'd been at maybe in the past in some ways and that could have been challenging for Europe more often and been around it and know and probably you can tell by how I've been a lot in the summer time you probably an idea of that that's that's the way it's been it's been it's been a difficult summer for us and now >> maybe maybe me last month myself everybody else that uh Uh maybe maybe I'm a I'm a little bit surprised but maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. >> Yeah, I mean you look at the business that event have done the last couple of seasons. You can clearly sell you can clearly see sorry that this is a club uh that is going to be looking for new ownership. Uh before we speak to Ollie Hayes who's the host of the Toffee Blues podcast. I just want to quickly read out a bit of the statement um from the club. It goes on to say this. The freaking group is exploring new investment options for Everton Football Club, including the potential sale of a controlling interest. Uh when TFG became custodians of Everton, the club face significant financial uncertainty and challenges both on and off the pitch, the immediate priority was to provide the stability, investment, and support needed to secure the club's future, including helping to bring the long promised stadium to completion for its deserving supporters. Let's welcome him in Ollie Hayes, as I said, host of the Toffy Blues podcast. Uh Ollie, it's been a good start to the season. This is a bit of a blow, isn't it? Because um there was a period when a lot of money was being spent at Everton on wrong players, obviously under Machi. It wasn't quite the right players, but a lot of money was being spent nonetheless. The reigns have completely been pulled back and this isn't what you need being in a new good stadium. >> Evening fellas. Yeah. Um as you said there, it's it's yeah, kind of poor timing really. And as you said, the reigns have been completely pulled back. You only need to look at our transfer business this summer to see how much money we did actually spend. You know, the the the make the Nile deal on deadline day was something that we expected to just be a formality and then we try and sign Balagan.4 million pounds was all we spent on deadline day. Um obviously losing losing Ilman and Jai as well for that certain amount of money. Um so as you said yeah the reigns have have been pulled back and realistically we wanted to go into a period where we were showing ambition um European football in that new stadium playing you know Europa League Champions League Champions League nights under the lights there at that new stadium and it just it just feels like another bitter blow to a project which we finally thought was going on the right direction and you know the last three months have just not been good enough unfortunately. Yeah, that transfer window was embarrassing. Really, really poor from the ownership. And I thought, you know, when this Texas Texas group got involved, the free king group, I really thought that it was going to be different. I really thought that it was going to be a new ambition. Is that what you thought? Has this taken you by surprise? >> Well, I mean, we all thought it. I think the the days of Masheri and Bill Kright, God rest his soul, we all thought that, you know, the end of those days and and big investors coming in that were willing to spend money. We've seen what they did with Roma. They won the Europa Conference League early on in their stint at Roma. We all thought that this was going to be a new chapter for Everton football club. We always had that stadium as the light at the end of the tunnel. That was something oldians always clung on to throughout the entire relegation seasons, the relegation battles, the points deductions, that new stadium was always that beacon of light. So to get to that and we're still in sort of turmoil, no stability. We don't really know what's coming for the future. I think that's kind of the biggest disappointment for me for me. But as you said there, we all thought it was going to be a period of massive transition where we'd be fighting the likes of Newcastle, Villa, Brighton, you know, Brenford on the peripheries as well to challenge for that top six and can we see us doing that this season? I I can't really see us materializing that that challenge. >> It's mental that actually cuz even the names of the clubs you just read out there, you're bigger than all of them by some distance. You know what I mean? You didn't mention big clubs. You didn't say Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United. You mentioned Brenford, Brighton, Newcastle, uh Forester in Europe. Crystal Palace have got some silverware recently. This should be Everton. There'd be Everton fans of a certain age that just would have expected Everton to have filled their boots by now and be in Europe regularly. So, so maybe new ownership coming in and spending a couple of quid could be the right thing. It might be damaging in the short term, but long term, maybe it's the right thing to happen. I >> I do agree with you. think short-term pain and long-term game is is is something that we're just going to have to abide by for the next three, six, nine months. I think that's just something that we're going to have to live with. Um, as you said that, you know, the reigns have been pulled. They're probably not going to spend in January. We've only got 18 outfield players in the squad at the moment. So, if you're looking at that, um, you know, it's challenging for this season. I think you can probably kiss goodbye to European football this season, but next season, you know, I do agree with you that if there is the right person to come in there or the right ownership group or consortium or whatever, if the right person buys us, I do think Everton are a massive sleeping giant. We're an absolutely colossal football club. The fan base we've got is, you know, second to none in Muryside. I'm sorry to say. Um, but you know, Everton Football Club is an absolutely massive football club. I'm a massive sleeping giant in the Premier League. And I think it we deserve just the right investors, the right owners to take us to that next level. And I think that the amount of turmoil we've seen in the last few years just hasn't done us justice as a football club. >> Yeah. And we saw it last year, didn't we, in that transfer in that transfer window, you know, when you needed a striker and at one point it was going to be Balagan. At one point it was going to be Joshua Xerxy. At one point it was going to be Leah Dilap, another point it was going to be Tammy Abraham. Couldn't get anyone over the line. Whoever comes in next, it has to be the right person, doesn't it? Because like you mentioned there, you've had the Machiri situation. You've you've now had this free king group, which I thought was going to be the one. I thought that was going to be the one to take you to the next level. Whatever happens next, whoever they sell to, it just has to be somebody that that cares, somebody that gets it right, somebody that has a level of ambition. >> I think off the field, I think the Freen have got it spot on, but on the field, as you said, we need someone that cares, knows what they're doing in a footballing sense. I think off the field commercially we've gone up absolute tenfold like we've we've gone up massively commercially obviously the new stadium's helped the naming rights for that all the sponsorships that are coming off the back of that CMC markets going on the front of the uh the front of shirt sponsor so we've gone up tfold in terms of commercial value off the pitch so that's one thing I can say that the freak kins have got right but as you said there um we need someone that knows what they're doing on the pitch someone that knows football in a sense that they can take us to the next level and try and bring silverware success to Everton football club and and break that ceiling. I think there is a ceiling in the Premier League where top six clubs have it a little bit easier. You're seeing now with Newcastle, Aston Villa that they are at that ceiling, but can Everton get the right person to come through the door and break that ceiling? And that's what I would really want to see as an Evertonian. >> You know, last season Moyes came in and sort of stabilized it, didn't he? It was a ship that you felt could have gone down to the championship. Let's not forget that for the last couple of seasons it's been very rocky. Um but he came in and stabilized it. My question is when you got young good players like Jared Bram sticks out like a Storm, right? I think he should have been already an England starter. I think he was that good a couple of seasons ago and then it kind of stalled a little bit. Are you worried players like that might want to seek pastures new just to play in European football just to get it again rock solid England plays? Are you worried if you don't get it right, some of your young players, and you've got a few good young players might say, "Okay, we're out of here." >> There's always that worry, but I think even in a in a age where you you get European football, you're still going to lose your top young players. That's just the world we live in. You look at Aston Villa with Morgan Rogers. There's so many so many players that you would think, you know, they've got Champions League football, they've got European football. Why wouldn't they stay? But >> unfortunately, when the big boys come calling, you can't you can't compete with that, unfortunately. And we've seen it with Illan and Jay leaving this summer. He was one of our top young players. He was that perfect sort of age, that sort perfect profile where once Manchester City come in, obviously we know everything that's gone on with Manchester City in the last couple of weeks and he might be regretting his decision a little bit. But that being that being said, you know, when these big boys can call in, you can't compete with that. And I think with Jared Branway, even if Everton do get Europe this season, I think he's now at the point of his career where he's at that crossroads if he wants to take his career to the next level and maybe consistently play Champions League football and fight at the top end of the Premier League table and get that consistent England call up. Maybe his future is away from Everton. And it pains me to say it as an Evertonian that we could be losing our top players once again. But I think any model that's sustainable in the Premier League these days is a sell to buy model unfortunately especially for clubs on the peripheries of that top six, it's a sell to buy model that's going to work for you and we've seen it with Brighton. It's worked so well for them. I think Everton fit into that category. Unfortunately at the moment maybe 101 15 years ago we were a bit above that above that category. You know challenging with Tottenham for that top six place. Now unfortunately it's not like that. So we need to do whatever we can and have a sustainable model where potentially we would have to sell our top players to then rejuvenate it, re regroup, go again and bring in top players again. And unfortunately that's just a model that we have to go and as pain as much as it pains me to say that that's unfortunately what it might have to be. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. What what impact do you think if any this will have on your season now? Like your ambitions this season whatever David Moyes is hoping this news the freaking group are ready to sell. Everton football club are up for sale. What impact do you think that's going to have on his preparations, his players, the atmosphere in the stadium? >> One thing I'd say about is whenever we're faced with adversity or we feel like we're getting backed into a corner, we're backed against the wall, we we regroup, we go go again. Um, and it galvanizes us and I think it will galvanize us this summer. Uh, this season, sorry. Um, David Moyes is always a manager where with his back against the wall, he comes out swinging, he comes out fighting. He's got a small squad. He's probably got three or four shy of the squad number that he likes. So, it means that he's going to have to galvanize the squad, make sure that the squad, you know, has the morale to keep going. I personally think if we keep everyone fit and we keep everyone um in a good headsp space, we keep the morale around the squad, you know, decent, I think there's no reason why it should derail our season. And I think we've shown as Everton Football Club, whether it be supporters, players, that adversity off the pitch where we saw with points deductions, it it doesn't make much difference. It only makes us stronger. So I think that's probably one thing that I would see is Everton going to it'll galvanize Everton. I think we'll get stronger. Um and I don't think it's going to have much impact off the pitch. >> Ollie been perfect. Apart from that small blip you made there about second to none best fan base. [laughter] Apart from that work, I think it's 100% for you. says absolutely thank you very much. [laughter] Top man Ollie Ollie Hayes their host of the toffee uh blues podcast.