Everton can seemingly never do anything with ease, and when it comes to ownership and takeovers of late, that has never been more blatantly clear.
It is so painful to watch this club bumble about, with their inept board at fault for many of their failures in recent years.
However, it has arguably been even tougher to see the likes of 777 Partners try and fail take over from Farhad Moshiri, with a process spanning nine months set to bear no fruit.
Hopefully, John Textor’s Premier League expertise might make his dream of assuming control a more realistic one.
Kieran Maguire delivers John Textor takeover verdict
Speaking on his The Price of Football podcast, Kieran Maguire couldn’t go through without mentioning the tricky situation that is Everton’s takeover.
Having consistently been mentioning the Toffees all season now, whether it be regarding PSR or 777 Partners, this latest update feels like the first positive one in years.
And yet, even that was tinged with an element of doubt, as the football finance expert was forced to outline the hurdles that are in front of Textor ahead of his proposed purchase of Everton.
Maguire noted, citing his relationship with Crystal Palace: ‘You cannot have more than 10% ownership of two clubs in the Premier League. There’s a Steve Parish-shaped blockage in (Textor’s) ambitions, and therefore he’s looking at an alternative route.
‘Does he have the money? Yes, but he needs to sell before he can buy in order to satisfy Premier League rules anyway.’
777 Partners have failed in their Everton takeover
Whether Textor is the man to take over at Everton or not, one thing seems certain: 777 Partners are out of the picture.
After numerous trips to Goodison Park and even more affirmations that they were and would be the best people to own the club, it seems they have unsurprisingly failed to live up to their own lofty ambitions.
And, that is despite the Premier League giving 777 Partners clear conditions to meet, which were simple for an institution that could actually justify such a position of power, which would have let them waltz into control.
Were Textor to have been given those four hurdles, he would have taken over in seconds.
The fact of the matter is, 777 Partners simply didn’t seem to have the necessary backing or the long-term strategy to turn Everton into a success again.
It would have been a woefully risky move to have handed the reigns to them, and fortunately, the radio silence on their end is deafening. They have failed in their Everton takeover.