'Selling of players will continue' - The Esk: Everton now can't stop any transfer exits despite club claims

Everton will have no choice but to sell players this summer after the collapse of Dan Friedkin’s takeover, according to The Esk.

Speaking on the Talking the Blues podcast on 20 July the Toffees blogger disputed the reported position from the club that the transfer window is unaffected by the ownership situation and insisted hopes of keeping hold of any players the club doesn’t want to lose is now gone.

Friedkin abandoned his deal with Farhad Moshiri over uncertainty in relation to debts built up to 777 Partners and The Esk claims this makes the club “unsellable” until that issue is resolved, which has the potential to be years down the line.

Cost-cutting measures have improved the finances and there is money to cover the next few months but the club is still loss-making and is said to be facing interest payments of up to £1.2million per month on their debts.

The Esk therefore deems more transfer exits inevitable as there is no obvious source of future funding once the current reserves run out as extra borrowing looks impossible since all the club’s assets are already security to £600m of current external loans.

He said (27m): “The selling of players will continue and any thoughts we had that we may be able to keep some of the players that we wanted to keep now disappears.

“I read the articles and the statements from the club that ‘this doesn’t effect our player-trading position’, but clearly it does, there’s no point in beating around the bush. They have to say that from a negotiating point of view, I get that.

“But we don’t know where the future funding for the club is coming from at this moment in time.”

Dan Friedkin pulls out of Everton takeover from Farhad Moshiri

Alan Myers (19 July) is among those to have relayed the club’s stance that the transfer business is safe from the turmoil at the top of the club.

Evertonians will obviously hope that is true when multiple incoming signings are being lined up [Myers, 21 July] and the club have been refusing to cave to Manchester United‘s attempts to buy Jarrad Branthwaite on the cheap.

David Ornstein reported for The Athletic (20 July) that the Toffees have informed their Old Trafford that the position on the £70million-rated defender hasn’t changed so if it is a negotiating position they are doubling down on it.

There appears to be different readings of the current situation and both can’t be accurate, but it was only a few months ago that The Esk was insisting that 777 Partners could not buy the club while Moshiri was claiming they would.

Given the tumultuous nature of the situation at Goodison right now it is unlikely that even the club can be 100% certain of much beyond the immediate term so funding issues further down the line will be a concern and logically could make more exits a possibility.

Those involved were said to be shocked by the takeover collapsing so dramatically [The Guardian, 19 July] which few would have expected even a week ago even from those, including The Esk (16 July) and Goodison News pundit Bryan King, who both noted the existence of the issue which ultimately brought it down.

Amadou Onana is already completing his planned transfer to Aston Villa and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s exit was looking increasingly unavoidable due to his contract situation already [TEAMtalk, 9 July].

Paul Joyce has reported in The Times (19 July) that the club will now look to offload the striker as the takeover situation seemingly ends any hopes he’ll sign a new deal.

But it is bound to be Branthwaite above all that fans and rival clubs alike will have their eyes on regardless of the current stance on Merseyside.

In other Everton news, the “most likely” buyer to return to the table has been named.

For more Everton news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.

The post 'Selling of players will continue' - The Esk: Everton now can't stop any transfer exits despite club claims appeared first on Goodison News.