Major block on any Everton investment emerges after MSP Sports Capital deal collapse amid ‘genuinely fear the worst’ verdict
Rights and Media Funding Ltd. will be entitled to “high tens of millions” before Everton receive a penny from any new investment amid a dire prediction for the club from a former executive, according to The Telegraph.
The newspaper reported on their website Friday (25 August) that the current lender can demand a huge amount of cash before any new money comes into the club after MSP Sports Capital walked away from their proposed £150million minority stake deal.
Matt Slater reported in The Athletic on 23 August that the American company would now only provide a straight loan towards stadium costs and no cash would go to the club, in what he called a “huge blow”, due to Rights and Media Funding Ltd’s opposition to the arrangement.
And a former Toffees executive has shared a miserable outlook on relegation, telling The Telegraph: “I love the club, like Bill [Kenwright] does, and it’s painful to watch. If they get relegated, I genuinely fear the worst… losses will be colossal. It’s not just the Sky money, it’s everything else that goes with it.
“Everybody knows, if they get relegated the whole thing could collapse in on itself. If [Farhad] Moshiri decides he wants out completely, what are they going to do? Nobody is going to pay £400 million or £500 million for a club that’s massively in debt and in the Championship. They’re just not going to do it.
“That’s why there’s been such an outpouring of joy and relief when the club has stayed up in the last two seasons. The fans understand, and the staff understand: if they go down, they could be completely [expletive].”
Fear
It is hard to know where to start with the situation at Everton and fans will equally be in disbelief at the latest turn of events as well as grimly unsurprised.
Months passed through this year with the MSP Sports Capital deal widely reported as close and then, just as the tail end of a difficult transfer window overlaps with a demoralising start to the season, it is dead.
Nobody who follows the club have been under any illusions that a relegation would be the chance for a positive reset, as is sometimes suggested for other struggling sides, and that appears to have been thrown into stark reality here.
Somehow, Everton are still attempting to spend money in the transfer market to provide Sean Dyche with vital reinforcements for the new season, with bids creeping up to £25m for Willy Gnonto from Leeds United [Athletic, 18 August].
That money has now been, thankfully, redirected towards the much-needed striker addition with a bid for Udinese’s Beto [Fabrizio Romano, 25 August].
It really needs to be successful, and the injury crisis that has already engulfed the squad needs to ease, to start getting points on the board, because despite all the hopeful words after the previous narrow escape it is already starting to look like another one is going to be needed.
Farhad Moshiri will be working to find new investment but given the latest developments, and the potential for the same to happen again, it looks a lot like the only rescue will come through results on the pitch and places in the league table.
In other Everton news, Dyche now faces “seismic” transfer decisions in a “huge” week.