Everton board update emerges after resignations as Farhad Moshiri opportunity ‘lost and gone’ – Sky Sports’ Alan Myers
Alan Myers has provided a gloomy update on the situation at Everton amid board resignations and uncertainty around the future of Bill Kenwright.
The long-time Toffees chairman is “expected” to follow Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Graeme Sharp and Grant Ingles out of the club after the trio resigned on Monday [Guardian, 12 June], with MSP Sports Capital’s investment and new presence on the board set to be coupled with local representation from George Downing and Andy Bell.
But While Sky Sports reporter Myers considers owner Farhad Moshiri to have responded to ongoing fan protests and be “acting on their concerns”, he is under no illusions that the immediate future will suddenly be easy, and has urged supporters to prepare for more difficulties.
Myers writes in his Sky Sports Reporter Notebook on what comes next: “Following a brief period with an interim board of directors, it’s expected a new permanent hierarchy will emerge, featuring a mixture of new investors and a local injection who are, from what I understand, serious businesspeople first and Evertonians second. They will need all their knowledge given the challenges ahead.
“Nobody – especially the fans – should be in any doubt that the next couple of years will be just as tough for the club. There is no magic wand when it comes to the financial situation and there certainly isn’t when it comes to the football side.
“Sean Dyche will have his work cut out trying to navigate a period of rebuilding in an austerity-driven environment.
“The fans, too, will have to re-evaluate their expectations. The hope and excitement accompanying the arrival of Moshiri and his wealth is not on the table any longer – that opportunity is lost and gone.”
Start somewhere
The length of time it has taken to steer the club into the mess it has been travelling through ensures it will likely take just as long to right things again.
And that will only happen if the new board provide a major improvement on the old one, because if they make similar mistakes, as Myers notes, nothing will change.
However, there has to be room for at least a sliver of optimism for Everton fans as it is at least the beginning of a process they have been waiting so long to see kick off.
Nothing is a sure thing at Goodison Park these days, but in theory much-needed change on the board and new investment coming into the club is better than the status quo continuing in perpetuity.
The outgoing regime does appear to have stored up plenty of challenges for the incoming one to tackle, which is a hospital pass of a legacy, in the form of a squad that is severely lacking and an expected lack of funds to fix it.
The referral from the Premier League over the alleged (and disputed) profit and sustainability breach will also land at some point once the independent commission sees fit.
But if the board members who were such a source of fury for many fans are now removed from the firing line and new names come in, there is at least an opportunity to improve that atmosphere around the club.
And with the MSP money expected to secure the new stadium development that should be one less thing to worry about quite so much.
There’s a long way to go yet but change was widely called for and change has now started to arrive.