Everton: Phil McNulty makes 777 Partners takeover admission, shares verdict on points deduction appeal
Everton will need some clarity on the potential takeover by 777 Partners soon as the situation is now “dragging on”, according to Phil McNulty.
Writing in his Q&A on the BBC Sport website on Monday (29 January, 12:39pm), the journalist said the US investment firm is acting like the takeover will be waved through, but he admitted that there are still “questions to answer” as its track record is “hardly stellar”.
Discussing the appeal on the 10-point deduction the Toffees were handed in November for breaching the Premier League’s spending rules, he believes some of those points will be given back, but he added that the club has been “horrendously mismanaged” to get to this point in the first place.
“The 777 takeover is certainly dragging on, isn’t it?” said McNulty. “It’s hard to know what will happen. They are acting as if it will be waved through but it still seems there are questions to answer and their track record in football is hardly stellar. Everton will certainly need some clarity soon.
“When there were rumours of Everton getting a 12-point deduction, I stated here in this Q&A that I still thought Everton would survive even if that was the penalty. I stand by that but there has been a slight change with that second charge, which they will also defend robustly.
“I still have a feeling they will get some of the 10 points back on appeal (purely guesswork) but then the second charge comes along, so who knows? Fans can make their complaints about the severity of the punishment but many feel the club has been horrendously mismanaged to put Everton in this position.”
Let down
It’s quite clear that the Everton fans have been massively let down by the decisions taken off the field over the past few years.
The board and, primarily, owner Farhad Moshiri have landed the club in huge trouble as they could be staring down the barrel of a second points deduction.
That is why a takeover is absolutely needed as soon as possible to start taking steps in the right direction, but there are question marks over whether 777 Partners is the answer.
There have been all kinds of rumours coming out about the American company since the takeover deal was agreed, prompting questions about its suitability to improve matters.
But the Toffees fans undoubtedly deserve answers as they have been put through an awful lot in recent times and the club’s future still remains on the line.
In other Everton news, red tape has emerged on one player’s potential Goodison exit this month.
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