Less than two years after The Friedkin Group (TFG) bought Everton, the club’s new owners are looking for new investors. The FT reports that TFG is working with financial advisers on a potential sale of a significant stake in the club. Nothing is imminent or indeed guaranteed at this stage, but the timing is difficult to ignore.

The news arrives directly after a transfer window in which Everton were roundly criticised for a lack of ambition. The headline sale of Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City was coupled with expenditure that was dwarfed by many of their Premier League rivals. David Moyes has been left with a paper-thin squad, with the main focus likely to be an all-too-familiar goal of avoiding relegation this term.

The investment search and underwhelming summer transfer window are not necessarily directly linked, but their proximity makes questions about Everton’s financial position all the more interesting.

TFG bought Everton from Farhad Moshiri in December 2024 for around £331m, with the hope that they would bring some much-needed stability to the blue half of Merseyside. The owners do deserve considerable credit for reducing debt, securing long-term financing for and overseeing the move to the new stadium. The club’s 2024/25 revenue rose to £196.7m, while its net losses fell to £8.6m, according to the FT. The financial story at Everton is complicated, and what TFG have done is bring much-needed stability to the club. But stabilisation and being competitive are not necessarily the same things.

The financial landscape of the Premier League has changed, and Everton aren’t competing in the world as it was five years ago. They’re increasingly up against deep-pocketed ownership groups, state-backed clubs and those willing and able to spend £100m+ on individual players with regularity. Everton’s combined summer spending of around £100m is clearly responsible, but it puts the club at a competitive disadvantage. Without an increase in revenues or outside capital, it is unlikely that this prudence can coexist with Premier League competitiveness.

Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool, England. (Photo by David Blunsden/Action Plus/Icon Sportswire)

Everton do have an opportunity, though. The new Hill Dickinson Stadium gives the club the potential for a commercial reset. They need to convert this into increased matchday revenue, hospitality income and overall commercial value. The stadium could give the club the revenue base to compete differently, but as we have seen with Arsenal and Spurs, it takes time for a stadium to generate the money to be re-invested.

So why are TFG looking for investors? There are a few possible explanations. The obvious one is the desire for another partner to provide capital to strengthen the club without TFG having to fund everything themselves. The potential investor or investors would be sharing the risk, but also the future upside from the stadium development.

TFG might also be seeking to realise some of their investment gains. TFG bought the club for roughly £331m, and recent ownership transactions in the league would suggest they would be making a significant return on this. A minority investment isn’t necessarily a sign that the owner wants out. It can be a way of monetising part of an asset while retaining control.

The Guardian described Everton’s deadline-day situation as a “shambles”, and this is surely a sentiment shared by many Evertonians who have seen limited recruitment leave David Moyes with a thin squad heading into the season. The issue wasn’t purely the lack of spending, but the fact the club seemed unable to execute a coherent strategy.

The attempted sale of Harrison Armstrong was a case in point. The proposed sale of the 19-year-old academy midfielder for around £40m created an extraordinary reaction among supporters, before the deal was eventually abandoned. There is a clear void between what the club believes is its strategy and supporters who question how selling one of their most valuable young players builds a better Everton. Are they trying to develop players to sell them, or developing a team capable of keeping them around?

Everton instead find themselves in the middle. They aren’t operating as a Manchester City or Chelsea, but nor are they any longer allowed to behave like a traditional mid-table club. The Premier League has become too financially competitive for that. Their peers have wealthy owners often willing to invest in the playing squad – Leeds, Fulham and Brentford all had net spends in excess of £50m. By contrast, Everton’s net spend was roughly -£25m.

The prospect of new investment might therefore be good news for Everton. The key question is what that investment will be used for. Any new partner needs to arrive with a coherent strategy and a clear plan for the club.

Everton’s problem isn’t poor ownership or a lack of spending on its own. It is that the economics of the Premier League have changed around them, and they have been left behind.

TFG may have stabilised the club, but that alone is a fairly modest achievement in a league where hundreds of millions are now being spent simply to maintain a club’s position, let alone improve it.

The new stadium offers Everton a lifeline, and new investment could accelerate how they capitalise on it. But Everton’s storied history means they should aspire to be more than a club that simply survives. They have escaped their last financial crisis, only to discover that the Premier League has created a new, and much more expensive, one for them.