Journalist Xu Danlei reported on the wild dreams of Farhad Mosilid, and the most heartwarming thing in recent years was the erection of his statue in Everton's new stadium, after which the main stand was named. Every home match day, the British-Iranian rich man appears in the most honorable box and presents his arrival as a grace to the fans.
But the marvelous images conceived by everton's boss in his Monaco villa, in the haze of champagne bubbles and cigar smoke, have recently been washed up by reality. He spent an average of £100 million a year on Goodison in his last six years, and this week he fired his fifth manager, Benitez, the team's Premier League ranking is only two places above the relegation zone. Is it to cut flesh and bleed, or to continue to indulge? Mosili, who is 67 years old, is suddenly in a dilemma.
Building a "kingdom" without roots
For Everton's future, or his own "kingdom," Mosili conceived grandly. He wants to build a new stadium with a capacity of more than 50,000 people and cost more than 500 million pounds. In the preparatory work alone, he invested half a billion yuan. Robinson Crusoe metaphorically for the ultimate dream of almost all men—to be high in their own kingdom and look down on their subjects every day—Mosili spent most of his life approaching.
At the age of 24, he moved to England from his birthplace of Iran. In the turbulent years, he completed his studies at the University of London and became a Chartered Certified Public Accountant. Experiences in several top firms, including Deloitte, and most importantly, Mosili met the "nobleman" Usmanov in the early 1990s. It was from the beginning of the accounting for the wealthy Russian businessman that Mosili gradually became a private consultant, partner and shareholder of the Uzumaki series of industries.
In the middle of the first decade of the new millennium, Mosili was keenly aware that the threshold for foreign investment in the Premier League had flattened, and then joined forces with Wu shi to eat Arsenal shares, accounting for nearly 30% of the shares at most. After nearly 10 years of controlling war with Kroenke and retreating, Mosili first sold his shares to Urs, bidding farewell to Arsenal; soon after, he injected Moreton with more than 80 million pounds to go to Goodison. Compared with the astonishing wealth of the Wu clan, Moshiri is only a small rich man, but the ship is small and easy to turn around, and it is easier to hit it with one blow. It should be noted that when Wu Shi approached Arsenal, he was subjected to strict qualification examination and "moral" torture, and was despised by gun fans because he was revealed to have a "history of imprisonment".
From North London to Merseyside, moshiri has remained the same as his ambitions to have a Premier League side. Also unchangeable is his "identity."
The owners of 20 clubs in the Premier League, only Everton host nationality column is filled with "Uk/Iran". Are you British or Iranian? Mosili does not dwell. But it cannot be said that Mosili, who is far away from his homeland, does not care. He often lives in Monaco to avoid taxes, just as Tottenham boss Lewis has lived in Panama. But as soon as Lewis returned to London, he had familiar relatives, friends and environments, just like the previous Everton bosses, and Mossieri had no roots in Britain.
Frustrated, from London to Goodison
Buy an English club and make it stronger – moshiri and Usmanov, who think the same way, join hands again to come to the heart of England.
Forbes' "only" moshiri, whose wealth was "only" 2.1 billion pounds last year, has invested nearly 1/3 of Everton in the past six years. Can such a costly investment be supported just to pursue identity? It must be pointed out that the rich businessman's available information does not see his words related to football as a sport.
But behind Boss Mo, Wu's shadow loomed. Everton Training Base is named after the Uzekilet abbreviation. As soon as the new stadium plan was approved, Wu's name was 30 million pounds – a related party transaction investigated by the Premier League.
Usmanov, an investor who keeps pace with the times, and the world-class rich who earn money through steel, mining, the Internet and other fields, why is he not sparing a little football? Arguably, he is also seeking recognition.
Abu, a template that Uzi followed, another Russian who has won the most important position in the hearts of Chelsea fans through nearly 20 years of unrepentant investment; a businessman who has taken off his mask and smoothed out the edges and corners through his "love" for football, regardless of whether he can come home or not. Banknotes, always cold. Wealth is not only money, but also the admiration of the community and the miss of the people. Neither of these two investors came to the Northwest from London with frustration. They can only exchange money for it.
As of the mid-2020 financial report, Everton's salary expenditure in the past five years has reached 659 million pounds, the highest outside the Top Six of the Premier League in the same period. In 2015, a year before Mosili took over, toffee wages were spent £77.5 million, and in 2020 they were as high as £164.7 million. If Everton is sold now, it is estimated that Boss Mo will suffer a loss of 100 million pounds.
In the above five years, Leicester spent £50 million less on salary than Everton, but won the Premier League title here, participated in two European games, and finished fifth last season and lifted the FA Cup. Does Mosili have any hope that the blue club he owns is Leicester, not Everton?
Unfortunately a neighbor to the Red Army?
Blindly change the coach, one after another. Fired Benitez, and want to find the former Martinez, so why fired the latter in the first place? Martinez was able to take Belgium, Coman was also robbed by the Dutch and Barcelona, And Mosili did not give the Dutch enough patience at first, and was a layman in charge of the insider.
But as long as a boss is willing to spend money, no matter how wrong he is, he bears the greatest cost of mistakes. Unfortunately, the enthusiastic Moshiri may have come at the wrong time. Beginning with Moyes in 2002, the Toffee has had a stable record in the middle of the Premier League for more than 10 years, reaching the top four. It is precisely when it is necessary to increase investment to the next level, but the club is satisfied with small business, using its own youth training such as Rooney to transfuse blood for the giants; on the other hand, it is constantly creating a stage for the Championship players.
Did Mosili come to the wrong place? As one of the few teams in the Premier League era that has never been relegated, the Toffee, which is more than a decade before the history of their old rival Liverpool, has a strong fan base, a hot home atmosphere, close community ties, and, a long championship-free period. The old school is easy to become old-fashioned, so the old disrepair Goodison is the representative. It's hard not to be unbroken, and the opposite is Leicester: the year before the 2016 title, the Blue Foxes were able to relegate in the Premier League, and that season, they were the promotion horses of the Premier League.
As one of the "top five" that promoted the marriage with the broadcast giant to establish the Premier League, Everton did not seize the historical opportunity to successfully upgrade and transform, which had external influences. In 1985, the Toffee won the League One and won the Cup Winners' Cup for the first time, and finally recovered in the shadow of the neighbors' more than ten years of pride in England and the Champions League, but immediately fell into the British team suspension period due to the Heiser tragedy.
Thinking that Liverpool were one of the teams at the time of the Heisser massacre, Toffee was deeper resentful of their neighbours. Benitez, who chose to coach his sworn enemy, has his own hidden dangers. If the red and blue families are good neighbors and friendly all year round, will They extend Rafah's term of office? Everton is burdened by history, and this is one of them. Anyway, Leicester used Pearson in the year of relegation, and Ranieri in the year of winning the championship, all the way silky.
Wait another thirty years? Fans can
Two years and a month ago, the famous Duncan Ferguson put out two temporary fires, this time adding a Bynes. But of the five managers Moshiri fired, only Allardyce is not a foreign coach, which is a rejection of DNA? Perhaps because of the recognition that Everton's Premier League history is rich but not outstanding.
At the beginning of the Premier League, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal (and tottenham Hotspur) in the "founding five" rapidly expanded their commercial operations, enhanced brand recognition, upgraded hardware, and modernized the scouting system, while Everton stood still - want to unite fans? Continue the tradition of low fares and lose money to make money.
Beating Manchester United in 1995 to win the FA Cup was the last time the Toffee had ever been awarded an important trophy – for the first two years, the team survived until the end of the season before being relegated. In ten years, the Toffee has gone from being an English champion and king of Europe to a minor supporting role in the Premier League.
One of the former presidents, Pete Johnson, quarreled with fans, and his successor, Ken Wright, was stingy with spending and unwilling to cede power to attract Sugar Daddy. Moyes, always powerless for this. How many times have the Toffees lost the opportunity to soar with the Premier League?
To be old is to doubt something new – the forest and Vera, who have won the Champions League, do not know how long they have been climbing in the same pit. After a few hesitations, Everton welcomed Mosili. Commenting on the arrival of the new owner, veteran English football author and Everton fan Mark Godfrey wrote in a 2017 article: "After a wasted time in the 1/4th century, it seems that we can finally compete for the title again." "Insiders also look away – only big history can beat small history.
"On May 4, 1987, when I was only 11 years old, I saw the team win the fourth title in three years. Like thousands of other people, I still naively believe that's what Everton fans know, even thirty years from now, that we still call ourselves champions. "Godfrey-esque following is almost the only thing the Toffee is reliable on right now.
Because in The context of English football, the toffee's hunger for the title is not extreme. To regain the top flight title, Manchester City waited 44 years and Chelsea took 50 years. Leicester won the top flight for the first time 132 years after its founding. Everton have no title in the league and have only been 35 years.
But it's hard for Mosili to have another thirty years tied to football. It took him more than thirty years to meet a career leader, and another thirty years to reach the point where it is difficult to ride a tiger now. As a speculator, he should have retreated from the building before he was about to fall; as an accountant, he might have cut his position quickly and won at a loss. But once football is connected with dreams, it is easy to load and float. Mosili's fantastic drift in Goodison, not far offshore, in an unclear direction.