Everton and Tottenham linked to MSP Sports Capital investment as talks continue
Farhad Moshiri is “still in talks” with MSP Sports Capital over Everton investment and reports of a switch of interest to Tottenham are “wide of the mark”, according to Paul Brown.
The Toffees owner has given mixed signals over the past year regarding his intentions to sell the club, but since the presence of Jahm Najafi and representatives of the American investment group at Goodison Park for the 14 January defeat to Southampton discussions have been ongoing.
A Financial Times report on 15 February then took the club by surprise when it suggested a Najafi-fronted consortium was planning to buy Spurs for over £3billion, but former Daily Star journalist Brown believes that will not be the case.
Brown told Give Me Sport (9 March): “I do understand that the American group of investors who’ve been in talks with Moshiri are still in talks with Moshiri and are still interested in buying into the club.
“I think talk of them switching attention to Spurs was wide of the mark, and there is still a deal to be done there.”
On track
Since Moshiri is apparently still going anywhere, now because the government have their eye on the club due to the hastily-severed links to Alisher Usmanov last season [Daily Mail, 7 March], minority investment appears to be the best Toffees fans can hope for currently.
It is no small matter so it is bound to take time, but the longer the situation rumbles on in the background the longer there is for Moshiri to change his mind again and bring an end to things as he did with the consortium fronted by Peter Kenyon in the summer.
A multi-billion pound buy-out of Tottenham is bound to be a tougher assignment than acquiring a stake in Everton, but with investment in the Merseyside club needed much more urgently than in North London it is a positive that the flashier prospect hasn’t taken precedence.
But with Premier League survival still hanging in the balance it is perhaps difficult to see where an agreement can be reached until the long-term prospects of the club become clearer.
Relegation at this stage of proceedings could collapse the whole thing, and would be a nightmare scenario for the club all round.
Some outside view points are badly needed on an Everton board whose popularity among the fanbase could hardly be lower, so if the MSP Sports Capital investment can finally get pushed over the line that should be included [i News, 22 February].
There is no guarantee that new perspectives prove more beneficial than the current ones, but given the success rate of the the decisions made by the incumbents a different direction is overdue.