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It’s rarely dull at Everton, is it?

Recent days have seen fans protest against the potential sale of homegrown talent Harrison Armstrong, UMSNT striker Folarin Balogun snub a deadline-day move to Merseyside at the 11th hour and a host of departures, including the £65million sale of Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City.

Some supporter groups have walked away from organising pre-match tifos for the foreseeable future due to the perceived lack of ambition shown by the club’s hierarchy and others are threatening to boycott food, beverage and merchandise vendors inside the ground.

Jack Grealish returned. And Everton finally have a right-back.

So, with the window closed and so much having gone on, time for a brief pause to come up for air then?

Not quite. The Athletic reported yesterday that the club’s owners, The Friedkin Group, are now seeking fresh investment, most likely with a view to selling a minority stake.

So what is going on? Should Everton fans be concerned? And can a full takeover be ruled out entirely?

The Athletic’s Patrick Boyland, Matt Slater, James Horncastle and Chris Weatherspoon have been in search of some answers.

So does this mean Everton are for sale?

The cute answer is to say “yes” because most clubs are a little for bit for sale all the time. But it is the actual answer in this case because The Friedkin Group (TFG) has — very subtly — made it known in U.S. sports business circles that it is in “make us an offer” territory with Everton.

The real question is how much of Everton is for sale. Nobody is saying anything on the record but several sources — all speaking off the record to protect relationships — have said Plan A is to find a junior partner to share the burden of restoring Everton to contender status. The fact that neighbours Liverpool have just announced the sale of a large minority stake to a high-profile and uber-rich consortium may have planted a seed.

But The Athletic has spoken to other sources, again all speaking anonymously, who believe TFG is actually looking for an exit. This might be a two-step process, of course, with the next custodians initially coming in as minority partners. Again, the Liverpool example could be a clue here.

The rationale for the exit theory is that TFG never saw Everton as a long-term play. It was a more opportunistic investment as Everton were a distressed asset moving into a new stadium. There was an immediate upside to anyone who could quickly sort out the club’s debts and stabilise the operation.

The Friedkins have done that. Maybe now is as good as it will get for them on Merseyside in terms of a return on their investment. Maybe they have seen enough to know that getting Everton back to where they were in the mid-noughties, when they regularly qualified for Europe, will cost more than they expected. They must know that getting Everton back to where they were in the mid-1980s, when they were one of the best teams in Europe, is probably beyond even TFG’s considerable resources.

Matt Slater

Why are The Friedkin Group looking to sell a stake so soon after taking over?

The Athletic understands that their current position is unrelated to The Friedkin Group’s agreement with the NHL to found an expansion team in their home state of Texas and build an arena for it. The expansion fee and cost of such a facility have been reported to be $3.5billion. However, sources speaking on the condition of anonymity claim The Friedkin Group do not need to sell a stake in Everton to help fund its plans to enter the NHL. This is a company that reported more than $15bn in revenue in the last financial year.

That said, Premier League ownership is cash intensive. Everton are still loss-making — they would have been nearly £60m in the red in 2025 but for the near £50m intra-group sale of their women’s team and Goodison Park — and there is a general sense that it would be a huge financial undertaking to get them to a point where they are regularly competing for Champions League qualification and silverware. They were also recently ordered to pay Burnley around £40m in compensation due to a past regulatory breach.

In that context, it is perhaps easier to see why additional external investment, at whatever level, would appeal.

It also remains to be seen whether the disappointing end to the transfer window, and negative fan sentiment, will leave a lasting mark.

Patrick Boyland and James Horncastle

How much would the club be valued at?

Club valuations are tricky, not least because they regularly bear little relation to football’s financial reality.

English clubs, even in the richest league on the planet, routinely lose millions, are subject to wholly inadequate cost control regulations, don’t pay dividends, and are increasingly reliant on stakeholders propping them up. Yet sale prices keep rising, with investors either incognisant of the costs involved or just imbued with the belief they themselves will find someone else to flip to for profit at a future date.

Roundhouse Capital Holdings (RCH), the UK-based investment vehicle which TFG owns at least 75 per cent of, bought Everton for £331.3million in December 2024, comprised of £25m for the shares, £251.9m in debt repayment, £12.1m of transaction costs and £42.3m in deferred consideration that does not appear to have fallen due yet (and may not).

Since then, a further £107million in equity cash has flowed into RCH and, in all, the group — which includes minority shareholders Christopher Sarofim and Jason Kidd — is in on Merseyside for £400m to date. At at least a 75 per cent holding, TFG’s minimum committed is £300m.

In keeping with how the industry currently works, Everton would be valued at far more than that now, even as they lie well south of England’s elite club valuations. The Hill Dickinson Stadium is an obvious asset and the financial distress the club found itself in under Farhad Moshiri has significantly eased.

Everton are £480million in debt but the picture is much less parlous than before TFG arrived. A large majority of club borrowings — £350m — are not repayable until 2055, while a remaining £130m credit facility is held with JPMorgan, a much more reputable lender than those Everton were in hock to in the days of Moshiri.

Wisely or not, the club’s value being seen by investors as double, or more, of what RCH picked them up for would be little surprise.

Chris Weatherspoon

What could this process look like?

The first stage has already started, as we and numerous other outlets are writing about Everton’s availability. If you were not one of the bankers or brokers who were tipped off about this possible opportunity over the summer, you now know as much as them: TFG will listen to offers.

But having placed a free advert in the papers, TFG do need someone to answer the inquiries, vet them, and create some market tension to get those offers up. This someone is usually a bank, a law firm, a management consultancy, or some combination of all three.

The Texan-based company used global banking giant JPMorgan to refinance the stadium-build debt and for the club’s overdraft facility, so there is an existing relationship, and JPMorgan has made no secret of its desire to get into football’s lucrative mergers and acquisitions (M&A) business. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino can vouch for that.

But TFG appears to have gone with a different bank for this gig: Moelis & Company. The New York-based investment bank has become a significant player in football’s M&A industry, as it advised Todd Boehly and ClearLake Capital on their purchase of Chelsea in 2022 and the Amit Bhatia-led 1892 Holdings’ pending investment in Liverpool. It has also worked on several recent MLS deals and been hired by the owners of Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers to look for investment. So, it should have plenty of leads and Everton should not be a difficult sale… at the right price.

As to what that might be, well, the Friedkins are in for at least £300million. Sources have told The Athletic that TFG believes the club’s enterprise value (EV) is now £1billion. A company’s EV is the price of its equity — what most people would call its actual value — plus its net debt. According to the last set of accounts, Everton owe about £470m. So, a sale at an EV of £1bn would mean the Friedkins had almost doubled their money in two years. Nice work, if you can get it.

That would, however, represent an EV that is five times the club’s turnover in 2024-25, the most recent set of accounts that have been published. That figure was £197million, a club record. But the new stadium will have significantly boosted that number, perhaps beyond £250million, which would mean the £1bn valuation is four times turnover. That still seems a bit optimistic for a mid-ranking Premier League club, as a three-times multiple is more typical at that level of the market.

But whoever gets the job of marketing Everton might be able to achieve that higher multiple by pointing out that not many mid-ranking Premier League teams are founding members of the EFL, Premier League ever-presents, and nine-time English champions. The new riverside home might help, too.

Matt Slater

How long has TFG been involved at Everton and what has the group done since being there?

TFG arrived at Everton in December 2024 after a period of financial turmoil for the club. One of its first acts was to restructure Everton’s debt on longer-term, lower interest rates secured against the new stadium.

In January 2025, David Moyes replaced Sean Dyche as manager. The Athletic reported that TFG was initially minded to let the former Burnley boss see out the rest of his deal, which ran until the end of that season, until he informed the club that he felt the side needed a change. While others at Everton pushed Graham Potter as a replacement, and extensive due diligence had been conducted on his potential appointment, TFG chose Moyes. The concern at that stage was simply avoiding relegation.

TFG decided not to renew director of football Kevin Thelwell and appointed Angus Kinnear to lead a new executive team. Kinnear spends a significant chunk of his time on footballing matters and implemented a new leadership structure which saw the duties of a director of football split between a number of individuals with specific briefs.

Dan Friedkin, CEO of The Friedkin Group (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

The women’s team was sold to Roundhouse and moved to Goodison Park in 2025. That move was largely popular, resonating with fans who did not want to see the club’s home of 133 years bulldozed, but Goodison could do with more investment.

Under TFG, there has been a constant push to maximise revenues. Season ticket prices have increased, prompting criticism from fan groups.

A structural review this year led to what club sources describe as a small number of departures across a number of departments. Everton say this is separate to the club’s footballing operation, where new roles have been created. A review of the academy setup is close to drawing to an end.

There was significant investment — a net spend in excess of £100m last summer — but they finished 13th for the second successive season. The summer window just gone has been heavily criticised by fans, with around £100m in sales made shortly before the deadline, a late move for Balogun collapsing, and the club having entertained the sale of academy product Armstrong before a backlash from fans prompted a U-turn. Moyes’ squad remains thin in numerous key areas, notably at centre forward and in the full-back positions.

TFG has also been criticised for not attending games. Chairman and CEO Dan Friedkin is yet to attend a match, while his son Ryan was in attendance for the friendly with Roma, another club in TFG’s portfolio, last summer. Other TFG delegates are regularly in attendance at games.

Patrick Boyland

Does this explain Everton’s transfer business this summer?

Sort of. The end of the window certainly painted a picture of a club actively looking to make sales, and has prompted many both in the game and in investment circles to speculate about a potential exit for TFG.

Everton did invest earlier in summer, bringing in Hayden Hackney, Tyrique George, Merlin Rohl, and Christian Norgaard for combined fees of what could be over £70m. But that spending was later offset by the departures of players such as Ndiaye and Tim Iroegbunam, who cost Hull City up to £22m. In total, Everton made a net profit of around £25m.

It felt like Everton’s priorities shifted in the final weeks of the window and those departures were prioritised over the squad’s competitiveness. The Athletic reported that Everton were mindful during the window both of the need to retain steady cash flow and maintain a strong SCR position.

The potential sale of Armstrong was also a red flag. It has left people questioning whether those at the very top of the club understand what supporters want. Fans rightly want answers.

Patrick Boyland

Could it mean anything for TFG’s other clubs?

When The Friedkin Group acquired Everton, it did lead to questions about their intentions for Roma.

Usually, in a multi-club operation, you have a senior and junior club. Take Chelsea and Strasbourg. Or a series of similarly sized emerging clubs. Look at the Red Bull lot, for instance.

Roma and Everton are on another level. Both are major undertakings. Cannes, who play in the third tier of French football, a little less so. Fears that Everton would become the priority in the same way Watford seemed to be at the expense of Udinese when the Pozzo family had a Premier League and a Serie A club were unfounded.

The Friedkins are committed to Roma. There is more to do in the Eternal City. Unlike Everton, their stadium project isn’t complete. Roma also generates far more drama and tends to need more attention. It is also where The Friedkin Group got started in football. It was a father-and-son project. They’ve won something together and are now back in the Champions League for the first time.

Rather than scaling back, Roma paid a €6m fine for a breach of FFP and invested more than €100m net in the transfer window. The Athletic understands a stake in Roma is not actively on the market. However, the context, more generally in football, is that clubs will listen if the right strategic partner emerges and has the ability to enhance the club’s existing operation.

Everton’s neighbours Liverpool constitute an example, having taken on significant minority investment by a consortium including Jeff Bezos, Amit Bhatia and Eduardo Saverin.

James Horncastle

What happens next?

Well, that is anyone’s guess at this stage.

If we’re talking about TFG’s ownership in Everton, we will have to wait and see how the sales process goes, but there are other big questions here: namely whether the club’s bruising end to the transfer window will have ramifications internally.

Everyone at the club, particularly TFG, is under the microscope. Fans are likely to voice their displeasure and several prominent supporters’ groups have already spoken out about the summer business. Winning them around will not be easy.

TFG was given enormous early credit for their early work putting Everton back on an even keel, but the honeymoon period is now very much over.

Patrick Boyland