Everton are facing another period of uncertainty after The Friedkin Group (TFG) confirmed it is open to a full sale of the club as it seeks external investment. The announcement, made on Friday morning, has cast a cloud over the club, which is unbeaten in the Premier League in the second season at its new waterfront home and preparing for a fourth-round League Cup tie against Newcastle United.
Supporters have been here before. Two years ago, TFG initially walked away from purchasing the club from Farhad Moshiri, following the collapse of a deal that would have seen 777 Partners gain control. TFG was the third party to reach an exclusivity agreement with Moshiri, but all three deals fell through, leaving the club on unstable ground as it navigated Premier League survival, spending regulations, and the move to its new stadium.
Stalled transformation and absentee ownership
The picture is now very different, as TFG have transformed Everton's balance sheet, stabilised the club, and overseen the move from Goodison Park to Hill Dickinson Stadium. However, the initial signs of transformation have long seemed to stall, with TFG becoming the epitome of an absentee owner.
Manager David Moyes exposed an astonishing disconnect last month, confirming he has had no contact with Dan Friedkin, founder and chief executive of TFG, since replacing Sean Dyche in January 2025. That revelation confirmed what many supporters already suspected, raising the biggest red flag of them all: how can the manager of Everton Football Club never have had a conversation, let alone a meeting, with the highest-ranked person in the club's ownership group?
Supporter revolt and transfer window chaos
TFG's ambition had long been under scrutiny, but that scrutiny became anger in the final days of the transfer window when they agreed to sell Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest. A revolt from supporters, before, during, and after the draw with Bournemouth, prevented the deal from happening, but the relationship between fans and owners was over from that day.
That was before a shambolic transfer deadline day, in which Moyes, who continues to work wonders, was left with just 18 outfield players. Moyes recently said that any successful club 'needs to be aligned' at the top, a truer word never spoken.
Southall's warning for the next owners
Once any sale is agreed and the club changes hands, TFG will ultimately be remembered as just another Everton owner unable or unwilling to realise the club's potential. Whoever takes control next should read and take in what Blues great Neville Southall said back in 2023, just hours after TFG agreed to buy his old club.
"It's the best club in the world, we just need people to come in who match that ambition and improve the team," he told the ECHO. "Since we made that decision that finishing 10th was ok, the club has gone downhill from there. The ambition went and it has never come back. We need to make sure that the ambition comes back and we actually live up to our mantra. Once the ambition went, this is where we are now. Whoever takes over must have the ambition to deliver and make us the best club in the world - and if it's not, then it's the wrong person to come in."
