Back in September, Farhad Moshiri struck a deal to sell Everton to 777 Partners for over £550m.
A sum that was subject to change depending on various factors, what has followed has been a season of turmoil and unrest, with a second deduction potentially looming for Sean Dyche to contend with.
And yet, somehow, this has not been the most frustrating process throughout the term, as that proposed takeover still rumbles on.
It has been over six months now since that fateful day, and a lot has changed across that time span.
Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert, has now made his prediction on when this nightmare might finally come to an end, and whether it will be good news for 777 Partners.
What Kieran Maguire said about 777 Partners’ Everton takeover
Speaking on the Price of Football podcast earlier today, the football finance expert sought to give his verdict on 777 Partners.
The organisation, who are finally due to learn their Everton fate after so long waiting this week, have come under intense scrutiny for numerous questionable actions made this season and way before it.
So, there are many fans who desperately want to see this deal fall through.
Fortunately, Maguire predicts something along those lines, noting: ‘They [Everton] won’t be owned by 777 this time next week, I think it’s unlikely that they will be approved as well to owners in due course.
‘That’s my gut reaction unless, it sounds very mean now, unless the Premier League, in light of what’s happening with the regulator, want to give the regulator a hospital pass.’
Could Everton go into administration?
Given how reliant the club have recently become on 777 Partners’ funding, with £180m of loans having been pumped in over the six months they have waited for a decision, the takeover’s failure could prove catastrophic.
After all, no longer would that just be a generous donation to an outfit the Miami-based firm hopes to acquire, but instead a string of financial injections which they will soon demand back.
And whilst they would be last in a long line of people waiting for Everton to remunerate them, it marks a terrifying prospect that would plunge the club into further financial disrepute.
However, there is a silver lining. If you could call it that.
Chatting with finance expert Dan Plumley earlier this week revealed that, even if the club are to drop into the relegation zone, administration is far from a certainty.
What that possibility relies upon is solely Moshiri, and whether he is comfortable to keep pumping money in and covering the losses the club makes. Or, he sells up elsewhere.
So administration is not tied to sporting performance, but instead whether the club can continue to operate viably. It is certainly a worry, and a stark possibility, but the chances are that survival, alongside 777 Partners’ failure to takeover, could see multiple new investors emerge to potentially save the club.