Jonathan Northcroft has dropped a worrying Everton claim regarding Alisher Usmanov while speaking on The Transfer Window podcast.
Everton have recently cut all of their ties with Usmanov’s businesses such as USM and Megafon due to his apparent ties to Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine, which has left the Toffees in a tricky situation, as he sponsored the training ground and had already bought the rights to sponsor the Toffees’ new stadium.
Should Everton be punished because of Usmanov?
Yes!
No!
While Everton acted swiftly to rid themselves of those deals, what’s happened at Chelsea has seemingly made it a lot worse than it had first seemed, with Usmanov mentioned in Roman Abramovich’s citation after he saw his assets frozen, as Northcroft mentioned.
Northcroft has confirmed that the situation is a worrying one for Evertonians.
He said: “The mention of Usmanov’s name in Abramovich’s citation really raised my eyebrows. It made me think this isn’t good news for Everton, because there’s now a real linking together of those two oligarchs and the Russian regime.
“The logical next step is to scrutinise Usmanov’s football interests further, which hasn’t really been done at government level yet.”
TIF Thoughts on Everton’s current situation…
Everton have been one of the league’s most lavish spenders in recent years, with big arrivals such as Alex Iwobi, Moise Kean, Andre Gomes and Jean-Philippe Gbamin costing them a combined total of £97.1m, with very little return or impact being made at Goodison Park.
However, it’s now their long-term future which is potentially in doubt given that they have a new stadium to budget into their plans moving forward as well as a new training ground sponsor.
These two things may become a lot more difficult to do if Everton are relegated into the Championship, which is a very real possibility given they are still just one point and place above the drop zone.
And if the knock-on effect of sanctions on Usmanov could lead to the kinds of difficulties awaiting Chelsea, as we have seen in recent days, it would appear there is plenty for Everton and their fans to be concerned about.
In other news: ‘Shouldn’t be anywhere near the team’ – Scott blasts player ‘not fit to wear the Everton shirt’