John Textor causes confusion on Everton takeover as Crystal Palace exit deal suffers
John Textor’s public admission that he wants to buy Everton is a “real mystery” and looks impossible to actually happen, says The Esk.
The club analyst told The Toffee Blues – Everton Fan Channel on YouTube (31 May) that the American has been unable to sell his 45% share of Crystal Palace for an extended period and has seemingly only made that deal more difficult for himself by speaking out about his designs on buying from Farhad Moshiri after giving an interview to The Athletic on 26 May.
While conversations have been had about a move for Everton The Esk insists that unless or until Textor resolves his situation at Selhurst Park “this is going nowhere”, adding that figures involved in football acquisitions in the City of London, including those who know Textor personally, are baffled.
He said (13m 40s): “It’s been known in football for quite some time, probably more than a year, that he was a willing seller of his Crystal Palace stake, but he’s not had any real interest from other investors in buying it, for the simple reason that you’re buying nearly half the club but you’re not buying any control…
“The big issue is why does Textor feel the need to come out publicly now and said, first of all he’s trying to sell his Palace shares, but then secondly to say, ‘the reason why I want to share my Palace shares is I want to buy Everton Football Club’? That significantly reduces his bargaining power with the sale of the Palace shares… Any would-be buyer recognises that in order to buy Everton he has to sell his Crystal Palace holdings, so the price that he’s likely to get for that holding drops straight away because in a sense he’s a forced seller…
“It’s difficult to see why he said what he said if he had any real intent of doing it, and if he does, and I know he’s had conversations, whether that alleged meeting in Spain with Moshiri, Andy Bell and George Downing actually happened or not I’m not exactly sure, it just seems to me an impossible situation… It’s a really odd one.”
777 Partners miss Everton deadline with Farhad Moshiri
Textor may indeed want to come in at Everton and, in comparison to the season-long debacle involving 777 Partners, fans may be in favour of the idea.
But unless he can suddenly rid himself of his Crystal Palace shares it appears his input is destined to be very similar to compatriot Josh Wander in being little more than empty talk.
Textor is no doubt frustrated by being tied to the South London side if he has been unable to sell his shares for over a year, and in theory his decision to go public on interest in the Toffees could function as an advert to potential buyers of his holding if he was willing to let it go cheaply.
However, on the surface it currently seems more likely that an as-yet unnamed investor steps in where 777 have failed to get their deal over the line.
Moshiri gave the Miami-group months to get the required funding together after the initial deal was announced in September, twice affording them more time when the likelihood of the move getting done looked to only be getting smaller.
Paul Joyce reported in The Times on 30 May that failure to meet the 31 May deadline would see him finally move on to advance talks with other parties, but absent a sale at Crystal Palace it doesn’t look like that will be with Textor.
In other Everton news, the Toffees are already looking to sign a replacement with a big-name now expected to leave the club.
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