JOHN Textor has revealed he has received two “good bids” for his stake in Crystal Palace – as he moves closer to acquiring Everton.
American businessman Textor, 58, was granted a period of exclusivity by Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri to complete the deal before November 30, and the Eagles part-owner is confident it will happen.
Textor must first sell his 45 per cent stake in Palace.
Textor also has stakes in Ligue 1 club Lyon, Brazilian side Botafogo and Belgian club Molenbeek through his company Eagle Football Holdings.
He appeared to make a barb about Palace’s history as he spoke about his desire to take over Everton, who have won nine top-flight titles, the last in 1987,
“With no disrespect to Crystal Palace, they have wonderful fans, but they have never had that sense of greatness and being on top and then losing that,” Textor said in an interview with Sky Sports.
“You get up every day and take a step at a time. Fans look backwards at history – I can’t look behind. I look forward. I’m prepared for it.
“I know if I become the owner of Everton, there will be those who think l make decisions that look idiotic, and people will say that I don’t know football and I can’t make my way out of a wet paper bag. I’m going to be mocked and not trusted.
“I work for the anonymous fan whose father and grandfather loved the club, the ten-year-old fan wearing his Everton colours. Admit your mistakes and work hard.
“Nobody wakes up and thinks, ‘I get to buy Everton’. But if you decide football is what you want in your life, and then somebody comes along and asks you if you want to become the owner of Everton, it’s like someone asking you if you want to be President of the United States. Of course you do.
“But you don’t necessarily think that things are realistic. When I grew up and loved football, you didn’t choose to watch the MLS which was still developing. You watch the Premier League and great European football.
“My great-grandfather was English so I tended to watch more UK football. My pastor was a Wolves fan so I watched him go through all kinds of agony.
“When I travelled to the UK for business, I would try to watch games – usually at very small clubs, like Leyton Orient or Stockport County. But Everton? I never thought about it as it was like looking at the White House and thinking I’m going to live there some day.
“When it becomes available, obviously I’m not just interested but hopefully we can get it done. It would be quite an honour.
“Everton fans will understandably be wondering how you as an owner can transfer from one Premier League effectively to another. So how do you get out of it?
“There’s been articles written about how we’ve experienced difficulties selling our interest, but that is wrong. We haven’t had difficulties selling. We started the process a while back and that process takes a while.
“We have 14 groups interested in Palace who are very qualified and we have five that went to the next level and now we have two who have made good bids while there is also the possibility that our partners might still want it as they love the club as much as I do.
“We’re into the final week or two of knowing who the buyer will be. The contract I have with Farhad gives us a lot of time for that as November 30 is our deadline set to make sure we can complete it.
“I feel we can do so before then. Fans should know that Everton are pretty well off right now and have good cash to support themselves.
“The idea they need somebody to loan to them in order to survive is nonsense but there is a stadium that needs to be completed and so we’re looking forward to funding the completion of that.
“But you’ve got to be ready for the next transfer window as this is an opportunity to leap forward up the table and my challenge is make sure I get in early enough to deal with that.”
In response to the interview, Everton interim CEO Colin Chong said: “The club is aware of the comments made by John Textor in relation to a potential purchase of the club.
“While positive conversations and progress continues to be made with Mr Textor to formalise any deal with him, there remains some work to be done to complete the transaction.
“Accordingly, the comments made by Mr Textor merely represent his personal view on club matters.
“Everyone at the club is staying focused on providing the best support possible to [manager] Sean [Dyche] and the squad as we head into the weekend’s fixture.”
