American Blue Scouser Column: The Friedkin Group Brings Hope

It's a new era for Everton as they are finally out of the hands of Farhad Moshiri and into the ones of Dan Friedkin and his group. The American billionaire looks to bring trophies and more success for the club as they embark on a new time. With supporters having been kicked in the gut the last few seasons, there is renewed hope. However, will Everton be seeing more success?

Moshiri wanted the club to be a winner. He wanted them to be at the likes of Manchester City or Arsenal. The ambition was there, but what we all got was incompetence and a financial crisis. Can't blame Moshiri for what he wanted, but he clearly had no idea how to run a club. Everton then spent several seasons either mid-table or on the brink of relegation. One such story was when Moshiri was so enamored with Alex Iwobi that he hassled Marcel Brands to bring him to Everton in the summer of 2018 to which Brands had to tell Moshiri that there was no money to spend. The next summer, Moshiri went after Iwobi again and shelled out way too much money for his services especially for the type of production Everton got out of him, though he did start to produce more towards the end of his tenure. Moshiri went through a ton of managers too including a great one in Marco Silva. Even during Ronald Koeman's time as manager, Moshiri spent a lot of money for players of the same position instead of going after positions of need. It's that type of irresponsible spending that caused Everton to be on the verge of relegation and even the possibility of going into administration. The debts mounted up and the supporters became enraged. Moshiri had to go. Yes, it did hurt the club when Russia invaded Ukraine and multiple countries put sanctions on Alisher Usamanov thus causing him and his money to leave, but even with that type of funding, things were bad.

Luckily for Moshiri, he recognized The Friedkin Group as the people to take over the club and sold it to them. It's a blessing as it looks like the ownership group has plenty of funding. With the club moving into Bramley-Moore Docks stadium (Hill Dickinson), their money should help with the construction. What it also means is that there will no longer be any Financial Fair Play rules constraints like it had been for the last few seasons. Having to sell players like Richarlison, Lucas Digne, Iwobi, and Anthony Gordon hurt a lot, but it helped with any financial burdens that was inflicted. Now, that won't be a problem as David Moyes and whomever replaces Kevin Thelwell as director of football shouldn't have much constraints when it comes to the recruitment.

Another great move by Friedkin is also hiring Angus Kinnear as the CEO. Kinnear just gets it and it's going to help Friedkin and Everton achieve greatness. What Kinnear can do is make the club not only more profitable but possibly becoming a bigger club than it already is. One thing Kinnear needs to make a point of is attracting more supporters. As an American, while Everton was the first team to make an impact in this country, they are slowly losing steam especially as the English football league system is becoming more appetizing for people in the nation to watch. They can use the fact that some big name American players had played for the club (Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, and Brian McBride to name a few) and that could be a good way to attract more American supporters. Friedkin is also American, so that could help with the marketing in the country, but with the third largest nation in the world that loves sports, this is a golden opportunity and it feels like the club is missing that chance. More fans is only going to equate to more money and interest and that bodes well for the club especially after the financial problems that plagued Everton. Americans also love underdogs and Everton pretty much epitomizes that underdog mantra which probably would mean more people here will want to follow them more. There are other places too that Kinnear needs to attract more supporters from, but the other biggest one is Australia as Tim Cahill could factor in as a reason Australians become more interested. Another thing Kinnear can help with is the sponsorships. What that would mean is that Everton could get bigger and better sponsorship which only makes the club more profitable thus allowing the team to be able to recruit some incredible talent. The hiring of Kinnear is going to help make things so much better the Blues.

Dan Friedkin looks to bring optimism and hope to the table. This club and the supporters are dying to win trophies and earn as much success as possible. Could they consistently be competing for Champions League? Maybe. Could they consistently compete for the Premier League title? Possibly and that should be the goal every season. With the resources ownership has, that could be a realistic outcome. Regardless, it's a new era and renewed hope for Everton. Just spend the money wisely and identify talent needed, it's not a hard concept. However, it needs to be collaborative effort on everyone involved if they want to be successful. The money and resources were there under Moshiri, but it was just sheer incompetence and wasteful spending that put them into a financial crisis. With Friedkin, the hope is that there is competence. There probably will be some bad signings, but that happens all the time in the sport. It's just whether it's going to be a problem down the road. That being said, the renewed optimism is what is going to be what helps the most.