It was a great podcast from the esk who articulated his point well as always. As people have said though it is his opinion and interpretation of information and I take a differing approach on a couple of points.
Primarily I think esk puts too much emphasis on someone coming in wanting to have control to buy shares. Lots of people would buy a minority stake in Arsenal currently. It will rise in value. It will require minimal investment or time to continue to run a tight ship. They are the biggest club in the capital city of the biggest sporting franchise. It is difficult but by no means impossible to find a buyer for shares.
As for Kroenke not buying them there is maybe something in it. I think Kroenke would buy them as the investment will grow.
His next point then hinges on why didn't Usmanov come first. That's reasonable enough. There are a lot of answers to this but none can close the question off. Maybe Usmanov was undecided? Maybe he wants to hedge his bets and see if Kroenke blinks? Maybe he feels Moshiri is a better frontman? Maybe it's as Esk says Moshiri is going it alone. Difficult to answer that but it's not without credible theories. Maybe Usmanov had more capital to purchase moshiris shares than vice versa?
I think the most credible answer for Usmanov not pumping money into us above board is what was being hinted at by the Russian experts on the podcast. Why does he need too? If he buys us FFP prevents him giving us 500 million even if he wants too. He can essentially arrange from lucrative sponsorship deals as a way of giving us cash. He is already able to do this while remaining on Arsenals board, keeping shares in a growing business so I don't see any massive incentive for him to go out of his way to sell shares in Arsenal.
Lots of itk guys spoke of Usmanov coming on board in the winter. I wonder if rather than him announcing he'd buy shares in Everton what was meant was he would be putting into Everton via sponsorship? This may well be the first of many interventions on his part.
As the other guys on the podcast said, in Russia it's not uncommon for front guys to manage a business but the serious money men to be in the background. Moshiris comments about "we do everything together" and sitting with him at Everton games just seem a bit coincidental to me.
Obviously they can't just come out and announce it but those words are telling and weren't really touched upon by the esk in the podcast. As I said it wouldn't be out of context for a multi billionaire like Usmanov to send in his billionaire employee to front the operation while he provides capital behind closed doors. He keeps a stake in arsenal, worse case scenario he has a stake in 2
Major franchises. It's an appealing option. He doesn't need to formally leave arsenal to help Everton.
The other important point of the podcast to me was that Everton look in a very positive boat. As many said this looks one of the best takeovers in recent years. You can't just whack 500 to spend at all.
However that's no bad thing. What we may see longer term is serious investment into our infrastructure to grow the club more organically. Sponsorship, expanding fan base, facilities, commercial activities, youth facilities and scouting are all being driven up. Whatever happens re Moshiri and Usmanov the club will look far healthier in 10 years than it is now.
I hope and expect most transfers Windows to be like the last. We will sign players, flex our muscle and look to satisfy the manager. At times we will spend more, gross and net than anyone else. It's not quite City or Chelsea level spending but hopefully the sort Spurs have engaged in where they build a team over a period and improve year on year.
