Everton takeover: Simon Jordan gives Dan Friedkin verdict and makes 'economic carnage' claim

Simon Jordan has given his reaction to Dan Friedkin’s prospective takeover of Everton.

Majority owner Farhad Moshiri has reportedly chosen the American billionaire to purchase his 94% stake of the club. After 777 Partners’ deal collapsed, there have been several parties interested.

They include local businessmen George Downing and Andy Bell, MSP Sports Capital and a consortium that included a Saudi royal. But Friedkin, whose Friedkin Group also owns Italian giants AS Roma, are the favourites.

Jordan, speaking on talkSPORT, believes Moshiri will want to make as quick a decision as possible so he does not lose more money in what has been ‘economic carnage’ since his arrival in 2016. And he believes Friedkin can provide Everton with the ‘stability’ they haven’t had for a significant period.

Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan said: “They [the Freidkin Group] have got the cash and the ability to do it off their own volition and not loading things with debt that never felt like a model Everton can sustain anyway.

“Everton can’t sustain, going forward, a debt-servicing mechanism because their cash flow is already proved that. To load it with more debt wasn’t really going to work.

“You’ve got various people, one a very good mate of mine George Downing and his colleague Andy Bell both very well financially. George, you’ll never see in the public domain so I’m going to be quite sensitive, but I understand both of these scenarios - whether that be Friedkin, Andy Bell or whoever else - have the means to be able to, within reason, what they want.

“The idea Everton were in some mortal jeopardy was something I never really contended with. Moshiri, on other hand, going to have to take a view rather quickly because the idea that Everton can pull themselves through the summer that you can pull through the TV revenues that will drop in August, you can’t because they have been assigned to other people to other debts.

“Moshiri himself is going to have to write cheques out to bankroll it so the quicker he gets into a situation where he alights on a deal he wants to do, the less it’s going to cost him and the more he’s going to be able to extract what economically has been carnage for him. He will be taking a £500-700 million bath.

“Dan Friedkin has plenty of money. If you look at his background, his father owns huge Toyota franchises in America. They have plenty of cash. Everton will be moving in a direction, sooner rather than later, that gives them stability they haven’t had for some time.”