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Paul: Good morning, good afternoon or good evening depending upon where in the world you are and what time of the day you’re listening to this episode of Talking the Blues. George and Andy, hello to you both. 

Paul: Good day. Hi George. Are you well on this fine summer’s evening? 

George: Well, fine summer evening? I’m in the south of France and it’s 12 degrees. We’re in Woolies and socks and we’ve lit the fire. So personally, I’m in a great seat, but a fine summer evening. No, it’s like. 

Andy: you need to be in you need to be in sunny downtown leafy Cheshire then don’t you 

George: Absolutely, Andy, absolutely. At the end of the day, it’s even an election. 

Andy: Yeah, where it’s been cracking the flags today. 

Paul: Well, well, I suppose this is the most English of all podcasts, isn’t it? When we just talk about the weather. So how’s the weather with you, Andy? No, stop that. You can probably tell that we’re in a slightly chipper mood than we have been for quite some time, I think. 

Paul: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, what’s happening at Everton, first of all, the takeover now looks as if it’s going to happen. And we’ve also had some transfer activity and it’s only the 22nd of June. 

George: What’s the transfer activity? 

Andy: He’s signed a midfielder from Aston Vanilla. Who? His name’s Tim. I think I’ve got off to a name. He asked, but I’m not sure how you pronounce it. Did he 12 or something? No. I don’t know what shirt nobody’s wearing. 

George: Has he ever played brush and Ville? 

Andy: Yeah. 

George: All right. 

Andy: But it’s Eroganoonan or something. I’m not sure how you pronounce it. That’s why I’m just going to refer to him as Tim. 

Paul: OK. You don’t use the G – apparently. 

Andy: Apparently. There’s no G in Tim. 

George: Simmy, silly joke, very silly. 

Andy: You’ve got it! 

Paul: So his name is Tim Iroegbunam. Okay. 

George: Do we assume that… I mean, did we pay money for this point? Yeah, we paid… 

Paul: 10 million for him. He’s nine or 10 million. Sorry. 

George: a student that means that the door is now open for Anana to go for three or four times that amount of money. 

Paul: And it looks actually as if I might, you know, my brain’s just gone completely dead. It looks as if one of your favourite young players, George, is moving in the opposite direction.

Andy: Lewis, Lewis Dobbin. 

Paul: Yeah, Lewis Dobbin is going to move to Aston Villa in the opposite direction. 

George: Oh, no. Oh, dear. Well, good for him. That’s a good move for him. 

Paul: A very good move for him and a lot of this is to do with the profitability and sustainability rules because both Aston Villa and Everton and actually many other clubs find themselves in where they have to do some player trading before the end of the financial year which is in just over a week’s time and this is one of the ways of getting around the regulations are effectively swapping players in order to create a profit which you can then apply to profitability and sustainability.

 I don’t think that’s the only reason why we’re buying this kid he’s 21 years old but certainly it’s got a little bit to do with it and by all accounts it’s quite an exciting prospect 

Andy: I can’t really comment on whether he’s an exciting prospect or not. All I know about him is his name’s Tim. 

George: without expert analysis here. 

Paul: This is why people tune in in their thousands to listen to us. Tell us about Tim. The second name that also is quite difficult is Emeka . So it’s Timothy Emeka Iroegbunam. There you go. 

George: Tom and Big have been working on the champs now. 

Paul: So he’s 21 and he first appeared in Villa’s first team in 2022 and then he went on loan to QPR where he made 32 appearances and scored two goals. He’s a midfielder and he’s played for England under 19s and England under 20s. 

George: Great stuff. All right. Welcome Tim 

Paul: Yeah, so, yeah, as I say, takeover is underway and a transfer all before the 21st June. 

George: Didn’t I? I got a flash on my phone saying that Ben Godfrey was moving. Have you heard that one? 

Paul: Yeah, there’s a very good chance that Ben Godfrey will be moving. 

Andy: And is there any strength in the rumours of DCL wanting a way to Newcastle, or I saw before that there’s interest in West Ham or Brentford for him? 

Paul: I think there’s a distinct possibility, Andy, that he will go. I think it’s worth considering for a few minutes, because whilst he’s obviously not the most prolific of goal -scorers and he has got a questionable, I suppose, what you call a questionable fitness record, as we’ve identified in the past and I’m sure many others have done as well, everything looks a completely different side when he’s in the team, as against when he’s not in the team. 

I’ll say. And the question will be, if he does go to a degree, I can understand why he might. What do we do to replace him? Because we will need to replace him. It’s not as if we’ve got three or four number nines waiting to take his place, is it? 

Andy: We’ve got three. 

George: Thank you. 

Andy: We got better on Chemitti. 

George: And we’re still in Dobbin. 

Andy: Yeah, and if Dobbins is going down the road to Aston Vanilla, then that leaves us very light up from no disrespect to committee and Beto, but I don’t personally see either of them as the immediate and correct replacement, the DCL. 

Paul: No, I agree with you. I think let’s be frank about this and it’s somewhat unusual for us to be talking in such detail about footballers, but Beto is not going to make it as a number nine in the Premier League. 

Andy: I don’t think so. Well, compared, I mean, if you compare him to DCL, he’s agricultural. He’s very much, not quite sure how to phrase this. He’s not a finesse player, let’s put it like that. I think DCL has got way more finesse in his game than Beto has. 

Because, you know, if we are going to go with Beto, then he’s going to need even more of the service that he needs than perhaps DCL did. DCL works harder for my money. So we’re going to have to, you know, if Beto is going to be the number nine, then somehow we’ve got to find a way to give him the ball in such a way that he can actually make use of it. 

Because I don’t see him doing a great deal of chasing around the way DCL has been prepared to do. 

Paul: without DCL in the side. And, you know, for me, I’ve talked about it quite a bit. I think, certainly, you talked about it with both of you when we’ve not been on the podcast. The shape of our side looks so much better when DCL is there. 

And, you know, it’s not just the fact that he’s an old fashioned target man. He’s much more than that because he basically leads a line across the whole of the pitch, doesn’t he? He doesn’t just run, sort of, down the central channel. 

He can go left and right. And he appears to be out of all of the options, as are the three options that are available to Dyche. He appears to be the only one that can link up the midfield or link up a long ball as a defense with the rest of the side. 

And how many times, when DCL hasn’t played, does it just look as if, you know, we’ve got… there’s that massive gap between whoever it is that’s playing up front. And midfield, in particular, and we’ve talked about it, but I’m sure everybody has watched most of Everton’s games last season, and typically the season before, because DCL played a lot more games last season than he did in the previous season. 

That, you know, becomes a really big problem for Everton that we cannot… a), we don’t have the shape, and b), we can’t link up play, even to the extent that we did last season. 

Andy: Mm hmm. There’s always there’s always Neil Maupe of course 

George: Whilst you’re on that subject, can I raise the nightmare that Holgate will be coming back? 

Andy: Well, yeah, because he was only on loan at Sheffield United last season. 

George: So he’ll be back and Godfrey will be going 

Andy: Well, it certainly seems as though Godfrey’s heading for the action door, so if you need four players at the back, that’s going to leave us Tarkovski, Branthwaite, Kean and Holgate. 

George: And do you think Branthwaite is going to stay? 

Andy: And I hope so. Well, if we are going to lose him, I don’t think I don’t think we need to pull our listeners to know where we don’t want him to go. And certainly not for the knockdown price that the cheeky bleeders are trying to get him for. 

George: I would have replied to that by going double it or don’t even pick up the phone again. 

Andy: Well, exactly. They start talking about realistic prices. You know, a lead or it’s in the press that they’re talking about. Everything needs to be at risk, needs to be realistic about the price sag that they’re putting on Jared Branthwaite. 

Well, given the ridiculous price tags that they’ve paid in the past for players, they can do one. It’s 200, 200 million. Check it or leave it, pal. We don’t like Mr. Ratcliffe on your bike. 

Go and find somebody else. 200 million might be a bit too much, but I don’t quite honestly, there’s no way Jared Branthwaite should be allowed to go to Old Trafford for anything less than six figures, in my opinion. 

But I think you know, and I ideally should not go there at all. If we have to sell it, my father, I’d rather go abroad. And I hope he doesn’t want to go. 

Paul: The one advantage, Andy, of possibly selling DCL is that it reduces the need to sell Branthwaite 

Andy: Yes. Yeah, if we can raise money, if we can raise money through other exits, that gives us more chance of retaining Branthwaite. And right now, he’s much more of a future for Everton football club than just about anybody else in the squad. 

Paul: I would agree and yeah I mean you know I think we talked about a couple of weeks ago well you know certainly I was told by an agent friend of mine 

George: Thank you. 

Paul: Time will tell, but if we do sell these for you, and it looks like Onana is going to go, then perhaps the need to sell Branthwaite is significantly reduced, particularly with the deal that we’re about to do with with Aston Villa as well, where, you know, if Dobbin does go for a similar fee to what this guy Tim’s coming in for, then there isn’t a fact, there probably isn’t a financial, and given what we’re going to talk about in a while, about the incoming new owners, there probably isn’t a financial reason to sell him. 

So then it becomes a question of whether he wants to go, whether his agent wants to go, and who it is that wants to take him. And I think if it is, if it’s only United that are on the table, in terms of offering him an alternative, then first of all, a derisory bid that Everton are clearly not going to accept. 

And secondly, you know, if Branthwaite, and we talked about this before, he’s like, seems like a sensible kid, he seems like a kid that knows the direction that he wants to go in. And he’s got a plan. 

And surely that plan doesn’t feature Manchester United in their current state. 

George: He would be certifiable to go there. 

Andy: It would be a lot of advice to go there for sure. 

Paul: Yeah. 

George: So, the question they got was Harry Maguire. 

Paul: I find it very difficult to believe that he ends up playing at Old Trafford next season apart from when we go there. 

George: Yeah. Let’s stick to that for a hope. 

Paul: And then, you know. 

Andy: Can we just I’d like him to score that as well 

Paul: Yeah. So, not withstanding, what you said about DCL, if the choice was between selling DCL to Newcastle or selling Branthwaite to an other club, not Manchester United, you’d have to say that for all the great service that DCL has given us, and I don’t suppose anyone will ever forget that goal against Crystal Palace in particular. 

Paul: He would probably go with most fans’ blessing. 

Andy: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that was very special. 

Paul: And, you know, it has to be, there has to be a question mark, and this is not a judgment about him at all. There has to be a question mark as to his willingness to stay as well, given that he, you know, hasn’t yet signed a new contract. 

And he’s only got a year left on that contract. And he might not withstanding anything that might happen in the next few weeks about Everton’s ownership. He might just be taking the view that at his age, he needs to go to a club where there’s a greater prospect of silverware. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Paul: Yeah. 

George: and international football, because Kane’s not going to want forever, is he? 

Paul: No, no. And he’s not, you know, he’s 27 now, he’s not, it’s not as if he’s like, stolen the first full, you know, flush of youth. And this, this is the time in his career, isn’t it probably next five years, 27 to 32, say, where you’d expect him to, these, these are his peak years. 

Andy: It’s those of the years where he secures his financial future, isn’t it? 

George: Surely it was not. 

Paul: The other thing is, of course, he hasn’t played for England since 2021. 

George: No. 

Paul: So, and I’m pretty sure he would love to get back, you know, within England and share his arm. Is he going to achieve that whilst playing for Everton? 

Andy: I think that depends on the kind of service he gets. 

Paul: type of service he gets at Everton, or the type of service he gets with England?. 

Andy: anywhere. The type of service he gets, he needs service done to, he’s a centre forward, he can’t do everything. He is able to move across the line as we said and play on the flanks if he has to, but as he proved in that short period under Ancelotti that if he channels his plane through the centre and he’s given good service he can and will score. 

So from his perspective I suggest he needs to look at where wherever he’s going to go or whether he’s going to stay, who is going to provide him with the kind of service to score goals for whichever club it is and to give him a chance of forcing his way back into the national side. 

George: Yeah, it’s painful to remember that when Anciotti was saying to him, you know, stay in front of the goals, please, evidence for the blind included James Rodriguez. 

Andy: Yes. 

George: and was, you know, must have been a bit scary to face. 

Paul: I mean, he’s played, when did he join us? 2016 -17. So he’s played eight years in the Premier League for Everton. I think, if I’m correct, he’s only got into double figures twice, which would be 2019-20 and 20-21. 

And again, I think he scored 16 in 2021 and I think he scored 13 just in terms of the Premier League in 2019 -20. But 2021 was his best year because I think he scored 21 goals across all competitions. 

But since then, he’s come nowhere near that. I mean, this last season, it sounds like I swallowed a book of statistics here. I was reading about it a couple of days ago. I think he played 39 games for Everton last season. 

But he only scored… 

Andy: Never mind. 

Paul: No, no, I mean including other competitions, yeah. 

Andy: Right. 

Paul: Uh, he only scored eight goals. 

Andy: Mmm. 

George: Well, who scored more? 

Andy: that ever. 

George: Yeah. 

Paul: No, he was our top scorer, wasn’t he? 

George: Yeah, McNeil and Doucoure, you know, this is an endless problem. It’s probably, you know, if he was listening, he might go, this is a bit unfair to pick on me. No, because of scoring goals. Nobody’s getting any supply with that team. 

I’m not picking on him. 

Paul: I’m just talking about him, you know, notwithstanding all of that, I’ll go back to the point that Everton are a far better side when he’s in it. I couldn’t agree more. Home and away, particularly away. 

And the big question mark then is, well, who do we replace him with? Going back to the first point that we made. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Paul:  a), what are the transfer business we do in terms of sales? And b), I think it will be the case that the ownership situation is resolved, but it must be one hell of a headache for Sean Dyche if he’s thinking, this guy’s going. 

Andy: I’m sure he’s, I’m sure Dyche has been weighing all this up for a long, long time, Paul. He must have known towards the back end of last season that, whichever way the ownership and the thing went, there was going to have to be changes in the squad. 

I suspect he’s been toying with all the variables for a number of weeks. Hopefully, hopefully, you know, if he’s, you know, if DCL is, is going to go, we get a decent price. And then hopefully, whatever they are able to spend on the replacement, assuming that they do go for a replacement and we don’t go with Beto, Chermittii and Maupay, that they recruit solidly. 

Paul: Well, I suppose it could be fine. 

Andy: Yeah, I think we are probably talking about a loss. 

George: There’s no pay still, no pay still on our books, we’re still paying these wages. 

Andy: Yeah, it’s only on loan at Brentford. 

Paul:From memory. 

Andy: Yeah, I think he has. But he’s not the answer, is he? No, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn’t suggesting he is the answer. I’m just saying that, regrettably, he has to come into the equation because he’s still on our books. 

So we either need to move him on… 

Paul: Surely we’re going to sell him back to Brentford, aren’t we? 

Andy: Well, you would, you would have thought so. He seems happy at Brentford. In fact, he more or less said it in quite blunt terms that he was far happier at Brentford than he’d ever been. He felt like he’d come home and count that kind of statement. 

So, you know, if he doesn’t want to be here and in all honesty, I doubt there’s more than a handful of Evertonians who genuinely want him to stay, then, you know, do right by the player, do right by the club and move him on for whatever we can get for him. 

The problem, of course, is how much did we pay through him in the first place and how much are we going to lose on him? 

Paul: But, yeah, although much of that, to use George’s favourite word, will have all 

George: I knew that was coming. 

Andy: It will have been amortized. 

Paul: and I’ll get the line in before you. 

George: And you have to, I don’t know what it means. 

Paul: I don’t think many people at Everton, over the years, have known what it means either, but that’s a different point. So look, what else can you say? There has to be other transfer business done by the club anyway, doesn’t there? 

I mean, it can’t just be this, but moving more payback to Brentford, or indeed anywhere else has to be part of the plan, surely, for this summer. There’s no scenario where he comes back in place for everything, surely. 

George: Is Chermitti our player or is he on loan? 

Paul: No, he’s our player. 

George: Right. I think he’ll start with him, but he needs support because he’s not physically capable of. If DCL is going, I’ve got a sneaky feeling that Dyche’s preference would be to go with Chermitti who’s a better player than better, got more options, got more things, but he doesn’t have the weight to hold the ball up. 

And at the moment, you know, the way we’re playing, which is pretty much long ball football, you know, it suited us that DCL was playing so well towards the end of the season. I’m not sure that boy can do that. 

Paul: I agree with your assessment that Chermitti by himself can’t do, can’t take that role on, but then we have to change our formation because we need, as you say, we need effectively what would be an old -fashioned number 10. 

Andy: Yeah. And inside forward is what they used to call them. 

George: All to you. 

Andy: Thank you. 

George: Yeah. Well, is Doucoure got one more year in his contract? 

Paul: I just got to see. 

George: Yeah, because, you know, that’s the formation he’s been playing, that Doucoure plays alongside whoever the striker is. 

Paul: Yeah, it would require him to just occupy that advanced position all the time and maybe that’s the solution, you know. 

George:  Well, that one certainly helped Chermitti. Yeah. 

Paul: And if Gana Gueye stays fit for the whole season, and we’ve got James Garner sitting behind them, then maybe that’s what they do. 

George: We’ll see, 424. 

Paul: Mmm. Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh. 

Andy: A 442 would be a start. 

George: I didn’t say 4 -2 -4, yeah, I was dreaming of being our dealers. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Paul: Well, if it’s 4 -2 -4, the last season of Goodison is going to be one hell of a season. 

George: Yeah, fantastic ride. 

Paul: certainly won’t be the team that score the least and concede the least goals in the or near the least goals in the Premier League. Interesting stuff. So what else is new? 

George: Well, I’ve been watching, you know, the Euros have been occupying my mind, especially as I went around to a neighbour the other night, poor man. And sort of he offered to let me watch England on his belly. 

My God, we ended up the evening ended up with me going, Phillipe, I promise you never again. Never will I put you through that, even though I bought the years round and everything. Oh, God almighty, what a mess they are. 

You know, it’s just fascinating because the tournaments, you know, I never kind of thought of this before. But what happens in a tournament is the winning team or the, you know, the most successful teams grow into themselves. 

Andy: Yes. 

George: as they sort out what their best formation is. And, you know, Andy and I were just saying before you press the button, Paul, that I think he’s got to pick Gordon tomorrow night against Slovenia because they’re the weakest team left in the competition that we’re going to play. 

And after that, it’s no time to experiment with giving Gordon what effectively is a big debut. But he has to do something about the fact that Trippier means that the team is completely on balance with no disrespect to Trippier, who’s a proper pro. 

But, you know, he can’t do anything on the left hand side. So we need somebody who can. And I saw, you know, and that and the hole in the midfield where Kalvin Phillips isn’t and Henderson isn’t and nobody else is. 

All the options he’s got, that rat, Gallagher, Connor Gallagher and Palmer and Maimou to partner Rice don’t provide any muscle at all. And it was interesting watching the Denmark match. 

So every time Bellingham got the ball, three big blokes descended on him. Big Danish midfield players, not Ericsson, the rest of them. And we don’t have that kind of muscle in the England team. So having watched them twice now, I’m afraid my confidence in the fact that they were supposedly favorites of this tournament is waning. 

Paul: For a team that’s supposed to have the most, I mean, wasn’t it described as like the most potent attacking force in the competition? 

George: It has. But if you can’t supply it, it has. You know, the England feat, you know, when the squad was announced, I remember texting both of you and saying, this is a squad that cries out for attack, attack, attack. 

But that’s not Southgate’s mentality at all. But it is, you know, you’re right. It’s a cracking forward line full of all sorts of gifts. But, you know, he doesn’t play like that, does he? 

Paul: It would be a great site for Martinez to manage. 

Andy: Speaking of Martinez, his Portugal are currently 3 -0 up against Turkey. 

George: Has Ronaldo scored? 

Andy: No, Fernando Silva, an OG, and then Ronaldo very nicely gifted Bruno Fernandez, a tap in. 

George: That’s a pretty potent forward line too. 

Andy: Is it ever Is it ever 

George: Mm -hmm 

Paul: So do we think Martinez is going to walk away with the competition? 

Andy: No, Spain have got to be favourites. 

George: Have they? Yeah. Not Germany, Andy? 

Andy: I think, I think, I mean, Germany got the perfect start, didn’t they, by tonking the jocks? I think, I think, I think Germany, Germany has flattered to this evening in the last couple of years, but they’re on home soil, so you could never, you could never count Germany out, but just on what we’ve seen so far, I think you’d, I think you’d, if you were a betting man, you’d probably put a couple of quid on Spain, but there’s been some terrific games and there’s been, and there’s been a couple of letdown games. 

I mean, I watched France and Netherlands last night and whilst it wasn’t as boring as the England game against Denmark, it was nowhere near the classic it could and perhaps should have been, whereas the Poland -Austria game, early in the day, was a belter. 

End to end, both teams going for it. I really enjoyed that game. You know, there has been some good games. I mean, ironically as well, just going back to last night in France and Netherlands, you know, if you look at that disallowed goal and you’ve got, and you’ve got an English referee and an English guy on VAR, it took the longest of all the VAR reviews in this tournament so far and they made the complete wrong decision. 

That was, that was a goal. There’s no way that goalie was being impeded at all. It’s just nonsense, but there you go. Well, well done Anthony Taylor. You’ve cost yourself a final because if England don’t get there, you might have been in with a chance of being the ref. 

Not now pal. 

George: We’ll watch any of it, Paul. 

Paul: Just tiny little bits of it. 

George: Bye. 

Paul: Um, probably no more than 15 minutes in total, to be honest. Oh, wow. 

Andy: You have missed some decent games, seriously. But if you know, I mean, I said beforehand, I wasn’t really bothered because for me, it’s club over country. But I’ve tried to watch the games that I’ve seen, pure, absolutely as a neutral, obviously, just just to be entertained, because at the end of the day, it’s an entertainment business. 

Andy: And by and large, I’ve been entertained. There’s been a couple of no no’s like the England Denmark game was boring. And last night, I found France and Netherlands. Well, less than entertaining, from my perspective. 

But some of the others have been excellent. 

Paul: The stuff I’ve read about it, that sounds like the case, and I think a couple of things. Well, first of all, the Euros are normally a better tournament than the World Cup. There’s a better quality of football played, isn’t there? 

Notwithstanding the fact that I haven’t watched it, there’s normally a better atmosphere. And the other thing that, you know, just listening to a couple of podcasts and things, the atmosphere at each of the grounds has been fantastic, hasn’t it? 

George: Yeah, that’s noticeable. 

Andy: Yeah, the couch is great. 

George: from the Mayor of Cologne who thanked all the Scottish fans and said they’d all be welcome back any time they want it to come. That’s brilliant. And apart from, you know, one outburst of boxing from the England fans, they’ve been really well behaved too. 

George: So that’s all excellent, yeah. 

Paul: Yeah, maybe, maybe football’s turned a corner in that sense, but then I was thinking also maybe the cost of watching international football in tournaments is so high that it becomes self -selecting in terms of the people that can go. 

George: Yeah. 

Paul: But then, I suppose, if you only go to the tournament once every 25 years, you can save up. You can save up, yeah. 

Andy: Ooh, that one. 

Paul: 17 regular Dutch listeners. 

George: that hang the 12 jocks. 

Paul: OK. Well, look, the big news and the news that’s dominated this podcast, many podcasts, and certainly my thinking for an awfully long time is the ownership of Everson Football Club. And at long, long last and actually, although Andy and George, you won’t be aware of this because you haven’t heard it yet, but the the opening music, it’s not music, really, it’s just a commentary I took from a video produced by the the Friedkin group where you just it’s one of those typical sort of corporate videos. 

But some of the words in there I thought were just very appropriate. Seems that we have on our hands a group, a guy in terms of Dan Freakin, who ticks all of the boxes in terms of what we’ve ever asked for. 

Well, good, good. And I, you know, that’s all I’m I’m I’m hugely positive about it, I think the way that we have eventually got to these guys deserves several books to be written. But we’ve got to these guys in the end, all these guys have got to us. 

And I think they’re going to do. I think they’re going to do a fantastic job for us in terms of. If you look at their other businesses, the values that they bring to any business that they own, if you look at their experiences in Rome, difficult to begin with, but they’ve got a grip of the club and first of all, they’ve got a grip of the business, sorted out many of the business problems. 

And, you know, they’ve been successful on the pitch as well. And I was one European, the Europa League. Thank you. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Paul: and that they missed out in a final this year. Yeah it was, wasn’t it? 

George: I remember they sacked Jose, didn’t they? 

Paul: Yeah, I just think we, and it’s quite difficult, shouldn’t be difficult to say, I just think we’re on the cusp of maybe actually returning to being the club that we’ve always wanted us to be. 

Andy: Well, just getting back to being professionally run and sensibly run would be a major, a major leg up on where we’ve been in recent years. 

George: There’s a whole generation of Everton fans Andy who’ve no idea what that means. No, I know 

Andy: Aye! 

Paul: I think we’ve got to be realistic and we’ve got to start from the point that the club is still in a difficult position and will be in a difficult position financially, still for some time, although the way that they seem to be structuring the deal is that they’re not going to be as reliant upon debt as perhaps others might have been, certainly 777 and Farhad Moshiri, up to the point where he sold. 

They’re going to put a lot of permanent capital into the business, which is good because it will reduce the interest costs that we have to pay. But it’s the overall perception that these are people who really care about their own brand, they care about their own businesses and they care about the customers. 

Some of the language that was used in this is about a four minute video, which actually I’ll put a link into. It’s a good video on the website. Yeah, I think you saw it as well, George, and you were impressed with the slickness of it. 

But, you know, being change makers, best in class experiences and just using their language, they inspire to a joy and purpose. Isn’t that what we want from our football club? Yeah, absolutely. You know, Astro, who, you know, many people will know the Everton supporter from the US, he does those great videos. 

He made some great comments about the fact that Dan Friedkin in particular, you know, his the fact that he’s an aircraft pilot, the fact that he flies old planes, World War Two planes, demonstrates attention to detail, demonstrates risk management, but also demonstrates a love for history and a love for culture and a recognition of in terms of Spitfire, for example, what are iconic objects? 

You can’t get much more iconic really than the Spitfire, can you? And if you apply those standards to Everton Football Club, I think there’s a fantastic opportunity for somebody to get to understand and realise what the club has, what the club can offer, and what the club has failed to sell for many, many years. 

And I’ve had some really interesting conversations with people in the last couple of days about Everton and about its relationship with the city of Liverpool and the people of Liverpool, and the relationship between the city of Liverpool and Everton fans. 

And somebody said to me earlier today, you know, when you look at Everton Football Club, and you look at the city of Liverpool, Everton don’t have to sell the fact that they’re an integral part of the city. 

Everybody at the club, everybody within the fan base understands and understands the relationship between the city of Liverpool and Everton Football Club. And it’s quite interesting, the guy who mentioned it is quite a bright guy. 

And he said, contrast that to Liverpool and Liverpool’s messaging, where they try and force the image of the city upon their own club, the club that carries their name. And he just made the point that there’s a massive difference between the two. 

And if the new owners can identify that and recognise it, based on what they’ve done elsewhere in terms of looking after cultural assets, there’s an enormous opportunity to demonstrate to the world what we all know as Evertonians in terms of evidence position. 

George: Thank you. 

Paul: in the way. Exactly. There was an interesting point, and I can’t really mention his name because he did not want to mention his name, but there was an interesting point that was made. He called him. No, it was in the middle name, it might have been Tim, I don’t know. 

He said, but there’s new guys coming in, everybody gets a bit of a honeymoon period with new owners, new manager, whatever. Not that we’re necessarily getting a new manager, I don’t mean that, but there is a honeymoon period. 

He said, but think about it in this way. He said, these guys are coming in, they’re going to come in with fresh ideas, fresh marketing, they’re going to listen to people, they’re going to engage with people probably, hopefully, if they appear to be, if they’re as good as they appear to be. 

But he said, think of it from this point of view, and it is a unique set of circumstances. Their first season as owners of Everton Football Club will be Everton’s last season at Goodison Park, and on the basis that we are not fighting relegation for much of the season, if indeed at any point in the season, let’s assume that we just operate as a mid -table club. 

It gives the new owners a wonderful honeymoon period where everybody can enjoy the experience, the last season’s experience at Goodison, and that they will benefit from that. Assuming that we’re okay on the pitch, there is going to be an enormous goodwill factor about the football club next season that is unique, because nobody’s played in a football club. 

In fact, it might be the case that nobody’s played in one ground as long as Everton have played at Goodison, and I’d have to go away and check that. But anyway, regardless of that fact, it is going to be 133 years if my match is rising. 

Yes, it’s going to be 133 years, and I hope the club gets this right, and I think they might. It’s just going to be an amazing opportunity to celebrate the football club, and therefore an amazing opportunity for the new owners to be part of that celebration and to get to know about the club and get to learn about the club, and most importantly, get to learn about the fans and the fans’ relationship with the city. 

So that’s great. That’s like the first year, and then normally by the end of the first year, sort of the honeymoon period starts to disappear and people start saying, well, actually, what progress have you made on the pitch? 

What’s our transfer activity? Have you improved our commercial performance? Et cetera, et cetera. But actually then, and again, the Friedkins have got a unique opportunity here, because in the second year we’re going into a brand new stadium, and that is an entirely different and new story. 

And again, it’s something that they, one, should be able to take advantage of, and two, it gives them another buffer in terms of them getting their feet under the table and really addressing the underlying issues that we have spoken about for years. 

And if you think about it, and I hadn’t thought about it in this way, just the conversation I did, the timing of this, although we all would have liked it to have happened much earlier, and we all would have liked not to have gone through the last nine, 10 months that we’ve gone through in terms of 777 and other people potentially buying the club. 

Just said, if you think about it from a timing point of view, that actually isn’t a better time for a new owner to come into a football club as there is now. Sorry, that’s quite a long speech, but I think it’s 

George: You’re right. That’s absolutely right. They’ve got a lot of momentum and a lot of free, easy publicity and a lot of good visuals. And, you know, and you’re absolutely right. They should be taking on, you know, getting on board with the Echo and the whole of the Liverpool media. 

I’m sure they will. But, you know, they can’t resist it, really. 

Paul: stories to sell. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Paul: You know, it really is the opportunity to turn around and say that there aren’t that many club sides. There aren’t that many football clubs with such a storied history as Everton Football Club. And I know it’s not all about history. 

It can’t all be about history. It has to be about the future as well. But here we’ve got the opportunity to, on the one hand, celebrate our history and to explain to the world what we’re about, what is the culture of Everton Football Club. 

But also, under new ownership and going into a new stadium, actually sell the vision for the future. And I’m massively enthusiastic about the opportunity. And if you think about it, that’s one of the reasons, well, one of many reasons, but one of the reasons why 777 getting hold of the club was entirely the wrong decision, because they would never have been able to exploit this. 

Even if they found the money somehow to buy the club, they would never have been able to exploit this amazing opportunity. And if you look at what the Friedkin’s have done with their own businesses, this is exactly the type of stuff that they do with their own businesses and then Dan Friedkin with his interest in planes and stuff. 

I just think it’s a really amazing opportunity for them, but it’s also a really amazing opportunity for the Football Club. And I just hope that they take some time in thinking about what they’re going to do and they take on board as much opinion, advice and engagement with the fans in order to fully understand and then fully exploit the opportunity. 

George: 100% 

Andy: Yep, can argue any of that. 

Paul: So that’s like all the nice, warm, fluffy stuff, although it’s obviously much more than that because it’s critical to our future, and it may be a way of just rebooting this. It may be a way of creating a shortcut from where we are competitively to where we might be, say, in two or three years’ time, or maybe three, four years’ time, whenever. 

But they’ve also got to obviously address the financial issues, and they’ve started to do that already. One of the conditions of getting exclusivity was that they had to repay MSP, which they’ve done, and they had to provide funding for Laing O’Rourke, which they’ve done. 

And actually, it got quite tight in the end because the exclusivity was not granted until Thursday, and it was Friday by which we had to pay Laing O’Rourke quite a significant payment. So it couldn’t really have gone any later than it did, and that’s not necessarily down to the Friedkin’s’. 

That’s just the way it happened. But it’s done now. They’re already committed. They’re already £200 million into the football club. They have to go through the due diligence process. They have to go through the directors  and owner’s test 

But once they’re through that, I think it would be much shorter than the 777 proposed thing was. I think four to six weeks. I think four weeks is probably optimistic, but six weeks is realistic. 

George: 

Right, let’s cut to the chase. Have we seen the back of Farhad Moshiri? 

Paul: not yet because he’s still he’s still the owner of the football club but he’s agreed you know exclusivity terms with a group that have got the means to buy the club and i’m not going to have any problems at all passing the directors you know 

George: Is he going to bugger about and change his mind? 

Paul: I don’t think he can now he’s saying exclusivity agreements and that’s why it was so important He signed this agreement. He’s now committed to selling the club to Dan Friedkin In the same way that he was committed to selling the club to 777, but then 777 thankfully couldn’t conclude the transaction He’s now committed to Dan Friedkin. 

What? Why would the Friedkin Group have put 200 million pound into the club this week if they weren’t given that Assurance or didn’t have that legal assurance 

George: Yeah, no, I’m just certain aspects of this whole story that I’ve got on my tits and Farhad Moshiri is one of them. And if we made a talk in the blues rule that when they finally buy the thing, we never ever mentioned the B*****’s name again, that would be just fine by me, because all I get off vibes from him is negativity, failure, disappointment. 

Incompetence is a pain in the ass. 

Andy: Well, that’s a nice way of inviting you to explain yourself. Is he coming? 

George: Sit down, love. Sorry. Have a magnum. 

Paul: He’s had plenty of invites in the past, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to take one now. 

George: I’m pretty sure he’s not going to take one now either. He can invite us round to his house. 

Andy: Live from sunny Monaco. 

George: It’s no power for me, Andy. I’ll just drive down, mate. I’ve bought me tape recorder and three magnums. One for you, one for the missus. 

Paul: It’s probably a bit warmer in Monaco as well, George. 

George: It couldn’t be any colder, Paul. It’s actually ludicrous. 

Pail: Make sure you take an ice box with you for your magnums. We don’t want any more melted magnums. 

George: I’ve got to just get out to Marseille and get him off the boat. 

Paul: Yeah, I’ll make sure we leave a container for you. Anyway, that’s a reference that nobody else will understand, but let’s not go over that. So, yeah, I think we’re in the position that we always hoped we would be in. 

Obviously, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and they now have to demonstrate that they can do with Everton what they’ve started to do with Roma, and what they’ve done elsewhere in the other businesses, which have all been hugely successful. 

George: We bought a Toyota. 

Paul: George is already ahead of the game in being a lead sponsor. 

Andy: Thank you. 

Paul: You just send them an invoice, George, for… 

George: I’ll send him the next service charge here. 

Paul: Yeah, I think you should, you know, you’ve been driving around with their brand for years and not received a penny from them. 

George: It is a privilege, they’re good cars. They are good cars. 

Paul: And so, yeah, I mean, I’m not sure there’s much more to say at this point, really on them, other than there is this amazing opportunity and the timing of it in terms of, you know, moving the stadium and also where we are as a football club, assuming that they’ve, you know, and they have got the finances, assuming that they saw the structure of the club bring in. 

And this is the other thing, of course, that they did at Roma, that they just brought in a brand new management team. And none of this nonsense about, you know, keep keeping on previous board members and stuff. 

They brought in their own people. So yes, they had a plan. And they didn’t get quite right to begin with. And I think we talked about Saturday and they found it quite difficult to begin with, partly because they didn’t have a local presence. 

And that’s maybe something they need to look at as ever, although I have to say, I doubt it will include Andy Bell or George Downing. If people are thinking that’s the direction of this conversation is heading in, I don’t think it is. 

But, you know, it’s all there in front of us. And we are. We are so, so I think we’re I mean, they have to prove themselves. Yeah. But we are so, so fortunate to be. 

George: Great. 

Paul: that is, I think that’s about as good as it gets at the moment, given all of the difficulties that we’ve been through. And you know, we don’t need to repeat them. We’ve repeated them ad nauseum for years on end as to why we’ve got into this position. 

But at last there seems like an opportunity and a plan. Well, we haven’t seen the plan yet, but there seems like an opportunity and they seem like the right people to bring the plan forward to get us back to somewhere near, if not at, where we want to be. 

George: Fingers crossed as ever. 

Andy: I’ll show you. So. I’m with Tim in midfield. 

Last time we had a Tim in midfield, we had a decent Tim in midfield. If you can score as many goals as the previous Tim, it’ll be our treat. 

Paul: and I think that’s him as a one -off yeah probably but it would be great if he could yeah anyway there we are in the absence of any any other news and that’s today’s Talking the Blues 

George: Peace. 

Paul: Fair enough. appreciate all the comments from last week and yeah we look forward to much brighter times ahead. 

George: Come on, you blues! 

Paul: Thanks George, thanks Andy. 

Andy: Pleasure.