Friday morning brought a 178-word statement, and Evertonians read it twice. The Friedkin Group put out a statement saying it is "exploring new investment options for Everton Football Club, including the potential sale of a controlling interest." Moelis are advising. Less than 22 months after Dan Friedkin's group bought Farhad Moshiri out, Everton are on the market again.
The timing is the cruel bit. Everton go to Hull City on Sunday at 14:00 seventh in the table, unbeaten in all seven games this season, on three straight clean sheets. Hull are eighth, one point behind. The fan rooms spent Friday night trying to do two things at once: work out who owns the club next, and work out how to break down a newly promoted side that sits deep and loves a set piece.
"Maybe I shouldn't be that surprised"
ToffeeTV did the news desk properly. The host isn't shocked by the sale, only the timing. His read is that the warning signs came in the summer, when the money stopped with ten days of the window still to go. He gives the Friedkins credit for the stability, and still wants them gone if they can't take Everton where the fans want it. He also has a theory for where the attention went. Roma have a new stadium to pay for, and there's an NHL expansion team in Texas. "If their energies are going on those two projects, then it's no wonder that Everton have been pushed to the side."
Then he plays the David Moyes tape. Moyes says he found out that morning like everyone else. He "was surprised" because "they'd only came in a year and a half ago", and then he lands the line that every Evertonian has quoted since. "Maybe I'm a little bit surprised, but maybe I shouldn't be that surprised." ToffeeTV's reaction to Moyes saying he expected them to stay "20, 30 years" is a fair one. Come on, David.
The squad is low
Falcon Blues TV clipped the bit of the presser that matters for January. Asked whether the sale makes it hard to plan, Moyes didn't hide it. "We were close to buying one or two players right at the last minute. Things didn't quite work." He hopes the owners "stick to their word and back us if that's required", because, as he put it, "our squad is low as it is".
That's a manager publicly holding the owners to their own statement, the one promising to "support the club in all ways necessary". The same clip has the news on Christian Nørgaard, and it isn't great. He has had about a week and a half on the grass, and 45 minutes in a behind-closed-doors game is all the football he's played in months. Elsewhere in the presser Moyes said he'd rather give him more time, then admitted that with numbers this short he might have to look at it anyway.
"A massive sleeping giant"
Ollie Hayes of The Toffee Blues got the national radio slot on Friday night. He was straight on the transfer window. The reins were pulled, deadline day was meant to be a formality and wasn't, and Everton are in a new stadium with, by his count, 18 outfield players. "It just feels like another bitter blow to a project which we finally thought was going in the right direction."
He's fair about the Friedkins off the pitch. Commercially, he says, the club has gone up massively, between the stadium naming rights and the new front-of-shirt deal. On the pitch, though, he wants an owner who knows football. He'd hoped Everton would be fighting Newcastle, Villa, Brighton and Brentford for the top six by now. The talkSPORT host's reply was that Everton are bigger than every one of them. Ollie agreed. "Everton are a massive sleeping giant." His prediction for the knock-on is the defiant one. Backs to the wall, Moyes comes out swinging, and the news galvanises the dressing room instead of derailing it.
"Cheeky" is the polite word
FollowEverton were back on X after a suspension and had a Hull preview to record. They managed half an hour of it before the sale took over. The host's verdict has no hedging at all. These were business people who saw a club in distress, bought it cheap with a stadium that needed finishing, put up season-ticket prices, underinvested in the window and now want to flip it. "They've conned us." The other voice on the pod is a touch more forgiving. For an American sports owner it's a business transaction, he says, and Evertonians just feel it differently.
The football bit is sharper than you'd expect from a pod that's this angry. Cory has watched more Hull than most people in Merseyside. He warns about the low block, the set pieces and a young bench that comes on in waves from the hour mark. The fix, they reckon, is an early goal and Tyrique George stretching it on the right, because Everton haven't had real flair since Iliman Ndiaye was sold. Their call is 1–0 Everton. They also note what comes next: Chelsea, Arsenal away, Newcastle away.
The neutral says it's good business
Younes Talks Football comes at it from outside the fanbase, and he's the only one in the pile who sounds impressed. His argument is that this is the moment to sell high. Everton are stable, seventh and in the new stadium. The mid-table dips will come later, and so will the drop in what the club is worth. He reckons the Friedkins could roughly double their money on a club they bought for something like £400m. No sale price has been made public, so treat that as Younes doing the maths, not a number on the table.
He also says the thing that hurts most, because it's partly true. On his count, they did bring stability: 13th, 13th again, and seventh now. He doesn't think Evertonians will be gutted. He doesn't think they'll be dancing in the streets either.
Meanwhile, in Hull
The Toffee Blues also got a Hull fan from To Hull and Back in for the opposition preview, and he was a lot calmer than anyone on Merseyside. Everyone tipped Hull to go straight back down. Instead they won their first two, over Manchester United and Coventry, without conceding. Then came a home draw with Aston Villa and a 2–2 at Stamford Bridge. Hull lost 2–1 at St James' Park after conceding twice in the first seven minutes, and he reckons they won the second half and should have had something. The BBC had Hull on 21 shots that day, so he has a point.
His weak link is Oli McBurnie up front. He'd take any points at all. His prediction is the most Hull thing you'll hear all weekend: 0–0, and he'd take it.
The argument
Everton fans can't agree on what the Friedkins were. One room calls them stewards who fixed the finances and finished the job. Another calls them flippers who priced the fans up and starved the squad. Moyes is in the middle, publicly asking them to keep their word. Everton have won none of their last seven Premier League away games, and Sunday is the first test of whether the news galvanises this side or gets into it. Win at Hull and Everton can call themselves the sleeping giant with a straight face. Lose, and the conversation on Monday is about the squad the owners left behind, not the one Moyes built.