Exclusive: Francis Jeffers on Everton's Future in New Stadium and Relief over 777 Deal Falling Through

We could have easily spared him from this line of questioning, but neither Jeffers nor we shy away from difficult topics. And difficult they are, with a new owner yet to be determined and a costly new stadium on the horizon.

“We have to move into that new stadium as a Premier League club. With all the issues that have been going on for the last few seasons, staying up on the last day of the season a couple of seasons ago, points deduction last season, we have to give Sean Dyche great credit for the job he's done. 

“Since he came into our football club, the circumstances that he’s has had to work in, and the job he's done, has been incredible, but it has to be a Premier League club when moving into that new stadium. It would be a travesty if we weren't. I believe that when we get the new ownership sorted and get into the new stadium our club will flourish,” says  Jeffers who came through the youth system at Goodison Park, breaking into the first team in 1997 as a 16-year-old.

Clearly still identifying with the club, Jeffers has no clue how Sean Dyche puts a squad together during these strange times.

“That's way above my knowledge because who is making the decisions now to buy and sell players? We thought we had new owners but that fell through and I’ve had people saying to me it was probably a good thing that that one fell through,” Jeffers states, referring to the takeover from the 777 group which never went through despite a month-long process.

New stadium will lure in buyers

With clubs like Birmingham, Crawley and Burton Albion being taken over in recent time, Jeffers ventures a guess as to why a big club like Everton is finding it so hard to get new owners in.

“I think it has to do with the stadium, but the size of and probably how old it is. You couldn't even take Goodison Park and build it up to 50,000 it simply wasn’t possible and we're always looking for improved things like that. I think it's a totally different football club with this new stadium. 

"It must be a real proposition to these people who come over with the interest of purchasing our football club and you get taken down to the docks in Liverpool and see the new stadium. You're going to be blown away. I don't think we'll have too much difficulty in finding people who want to buy our football club, it's about finding the right one”.

But going back to who makes the decisions, clearly someone has a say in the transfer market as Everton has looked at the French Ligue 1 as though, we’re having some of that. They have brought in Jake O’Brien from Lyon and Iliman Ndiaye from Marseille while also adding Danish international Jesper Lindstrøm on loan from Napoli.

“O'Brien has obviously got good pedigree, playing for Lyon, and he's at a good age, but listen, the sole focus for me is for us to get that new stadium, playing a Premier League football match there in front of 60,000 Everton fans.”

- Francis Jeffers was talking to Tribalfootball on behalf of William Hill Vegas