re: Everton 2015/2016 Season long thread: Chelsea, you can't have Stones

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Chief football writer Phil McNulty

The announcement that Farhad Moshiri is to be Everton's new major shareholder ends a decade-long search for investment by chairman Bill Kenwright. Moshiri has bought a 49.9% stake in the club and has promised new investment - which indicates there may be even further new arrivals in the Goodison Park boardroom in the months ahead. Kenwright has consistently stated he would step aside if the right investor could be found and believes he has found the "perfect partner" in the 60-year-old billionaire who sold his 15% share in Arsenal to his business associate Alisher Usmanov for around £200m on Friday.

For Moshiri's part, it means he can now exert the power and influence his money could never buy at Arsenal, where he and Usmanov could not wrest control from majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. There will be some major items on the new Everton owner's agenda when he settles to his task, namely the next move on whether the club moves ground or considers redeveloping Goodison Park - and also how to keep the club's most coveted players, with top scorer Romelu Lukaku and England pair John Stones and Ross Barkley expected to attract serious interest this summer. For Everton, however, they will hope Moshiri's arrival will finally provide them with the financial power they have lacked to threaten the elite at the top of the Premier League.

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