Speaking to the Liverpool Echo on September 26, the Toffees icon claimed that Everton could compete in the Champions League with the right ownership and investment due to the club’s extensive history and brand potential.
Southall claimed that 777 Partners is a “odds and end” while Farhad Moshiri and 777 Partners reached an agreement for his 94.1% ownership of the club.
Southall said: I don’t understand with the club, its history, with the successes it’s had in the past, the fanbase that we’ve got, why there’s not a queue of people lining up to buy Everton. Why are there only odds and ends coming out?
Everyone agrees that the team needs financial support, but if you consider Everton as a whole, with its new stadium, you could go, “Wow,” as an investor. If we can get things right on the field, that club is going to soar and might even compete in the Champions League.
All that’s left to do is convince a team to move since, once they do, they’ll always make money. Who is coming in as an investor? isn’t what matters to me. It explains why fewer of them are waiting in line to seize a potentially excellent opportunity.
I can only come to two assumptions from all of that. Either I’m seeing something that nobody else can or we’re really bad at marketing the club.”
Risky
Although Southall correctly predicts Everton’s potential, the club’s ongoing financial problems and the condition of its assets make it a dangerous investment.
The Toffees have all they need to reestablish themselves as a major force in Europe. The new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, which is scheduled to open the following year, appears to be a location where Champions League football would not be out of place, and Everton’s enormous fan base would have no trouble filling its more than 52,000 capacity.
Given the club’s recent participation in the Europa League during the 2017–18 season, qualifying for Europe is not entirely out of the question.
Potential can only go so far in enticing purchasers, and the ongoing problems at Goodison Park are plain to see. The Toffees’ £20 million loan from 777, according to The Daily Mail (23 September), won’t be enough to cover their losses through the end of the year because they are already saddled with £ 400 million in debt.
The team has very few high-value assets, and many of the players are not seen as being suitable for Everton’s general objectives. Few players have any real resale value, and many of their top players, like James Tarkowski and Abdoulaye Doucoure, are aging assets.
What Southall believes the club can do would require a big investment, and while what he is seeing is undoubtedly present, it would take a courageous investor to bring it to pass.
