Kieran Maguire warns Everton fans that they narrowly avoided a ‘disaster’ takeover

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Everton, seemingly on numerous occasions, came frighteningly close to being bought out by 777 Partners.

After all, Farhad Moshiri was actively lobbying for the Miami-based firm to assume control, desperate he was to be rid of this club which has haemorrhaged so much of his money.

Albeit, that financial ruin is largely born of his own poor decision-making.

He has hired and fired managers with reckless abandonment, and sanctioned huge transfers with no clear plan in place.

And yet, for many his sticking around was a comforting thought, with many suggesting ‘better the devil you know’.

Well, Kieran Maguire actually used his own hellish metaphor to describe 777 Partners too, to affirm this vantage point.

Kieran Maguire issues grim Everton takeover possibility

Speaking live on talkSPORT just yesterday, the football finance expert, and host of the Price of Football podcast, spoke openly about just how close Everton came to a really precarious takeover position.

Given 777 Partners were the frontrunners for a good nine months, they are the obvious target of his claims, in which he suggests that had they gotten into power, it would have proven to be a ‘disaster’ for the club and its fanbase.

He noted, when asked what Evertonians could expect for the future: ‘I think they’re actually in a better position today than they were yesterday, in the sense that 777 would have been a disaster as far as ownership is concerned.

‘We’ve only got to look at 777’s other investments, the airline that it owned, that’s gone into administration, the troubles that have existed at some of the clubs in continental Europe where players haven’t been paid and so on.

‘You don’t want that being transferred to Everton, so change isn’t the same as an improvement, and in the case of 777, it would’ve been from the frying pan not just into fire, but into the gates of hell.’

Everton got so lucky avoiding 777 Partners

To think, had the Premier League not been so stubborn in their assessment of 777 Partners, they could be in charge now, making a mess of Everton in the same way they have done at Standard Liege or, as Maguire said, their airline company.

Whilst they should have been rejected months ago, it is relieving to see that the process has stopped a somewhat shady and unpredictable bunch from assuming control at a Premier League club.

After all, it was all there for them to succeed, had 777 Partners just met the Premier League’s four conditions to take over.

But these proved too tough to overcome, and thus the test did its job.

Hopefully, whoever is next in line to compete for the club, enjoys a far more streamlined process due to their huge finances and capability as a leader.