By Paul Brown
It’s hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about Farhad
Moshiri. He’s a man of few words himself, certainly, and has been described as
“a doer, not a talker” by more than one person familiar with him.
His interview with Jim White and his comments at the club’s
most positive AGM in years gave the biggest public insight into the man, and
basically confirmed much of what has already been written about him. But if he
really does achieve his ambitions at Everton he will transform not just the
landscape on Merseyside but in the Premier League as well.
Moshiri wants a new stadium, and as he told the chairman of
the Everton Shareholders’ Association a few months ago, he wants it to be
iconic and atmospheric, with the fans as close to the pitch as possible.
Everyone who has spoken to him about it seems to have complete faith he can
deliver that too.
But he wants more than that. Moshiri wants to turn Everton
into a top-four club that is regularly playing Champions League football. That
might sound wildly ambitious considering Everton have only ever qualified for
Europe’s top club competition once, and failed to make it to the group stage.
But it’s music to the ears of success-starved fans.
I remember speaking to one agent in the summer who had noticed
the difference in approach straight away. “There has been a major change at the
club. It is clear. Everton are competing in the market for players previously
out of their reach financially. There is an attractive project there. There is
ambition.”
That was confirmed by a friend of Moshiri’s I spoke to at Wembley
on Sunday who insists the Iranian is “the best investor in the history of the
Premier League” (quite a claim) and is willing to bet that his vision,
experience and investment will take Everton into the top four in the next few
years. He has also innovative, exciting plans for the Academy and clearly hopes
to transform the club’s commercial operation as well. All that will take time,
which suggests he’s in it for the long haul. How long exactly is anyone’s
guess. I’ve heard talk of a five-year plan, though not from Moshiri himself.
But I’ve also heard he has a Plan B if things go wrong, and that he may not see
Everton as a lifetime investment. I guess we’ll see.
For now he seems happy with the status quo at Everton. It
isn’t just his PR people who insist he has no plans to buy out the other major
shareholders at the club just yet, though he has that option is available to
him. Maybe he’s waiting on the new stadium, maybe for something else.
One thing that comes up again and again when you speak to
people about him is the fact that “Moshiri means business”. So does the fact he’s
“a football man”, something several journalists who know much more about him
than I do repeatedly bring up. What does that mean in practice? It means that
unlike many rich investors in the sport who are just milking a trophy asset, he
has a real love of the game and a good knowledge of players, teams and tactics.
Ask him for an informed opinion about the merits of 3-4-3 over 4-3-3 and you’ll
get one, seems to be the consensus.
Another thing that keeps coming up is Moshiri’s relationship
with his long-time business partner Alisher Usmanov, with the recent USM
investment into the club setting tongues wagging. That deal has been described by
one person with extensive knowledge of such agreements as “slightly curious”,
though the Premier League currently have no problem with it as a related party
transaction. It has to be said Moshiri and Usmanov still share interests in
several companies and also still share the same PR firm. But whenever I ask
those who speak for him whether Usmanov wants to join his mate at Goodison, the
answer is always an emphatic “No”. The last time I asked I was told such
suggestions were “a scam.” Some reply, well they would say that. But they could
just as easily have said “no comment”.
Speaking in 2007 just after he first bought into Arsenal, Usmanov
gave an interesting insight into the pair, saying: “We
studied a proposal from a UK banker to invest in Tottenham and Mr Moshiri was
in talks with Liverpool. They are a great team with a great manager but there
was something that stopped me. I always used to say to Farhad, 'You are a Man
Utd fan, I love Arsenal so why are we going for a third club? Why not be a
shareholder in a club we really love?'"
Well, Usmanov still loves
Arsenal and insists his investment is one he wants to hold on to for future
generations of his family, despite his lack of influence there. That doesn’t
mean one of his companies won’t cut another sponsorship deal with Everton. But
he could just as easily decide to sponsor another club instead, and the chances
of him actually upping sticks and joining Moshiri at Goodison appear slim. I’m
not sure Moshiri needs him anyway.
ends
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