Everton takeover: Bidder sends message after admitting defeat to Dan Friedkin

One of the bidders who made a play for Everton said the club “deserves to be competing for trophies once again” after accepting defeat in the battle for the Blues.

Vatche Manoukian was the frontman for a £400m bid backed by a consortium of investors, including from the US and said to have included a Gulf royal.

The proposal was one of a series submitted to Farhad Moshiri in the initial aftermath of the collapse of the 777 Partners takeover deal. But rival parties were left accepting they had lost the initiative as Dan Friedkin emerged as the favourite candidate on Friday night, ending a week of uncertainty and confusion among some of those involved in talks and on the periphery of events.

READ MORE: Everton lead tributes to Kevin Campbell as club plans to honour 'giant of a man'

READ MORE: Thank you Kevin Campbell, you were the hero Everton needed most

London-based businessman Manoukian publicly conceded his group looked set to lose out. As he digested the advance of Texas billionaire and Roma owner Friedkin’s bid, he said: “Everton fans deserve to be competing for trophies once again and we hope this deal delivers success for the club on and off the pitch. I want to thank our world-class investors for their support and we are excited to turn our focus to new opportunities to take great clubs to the next level.”

Manoukian was spearheading a group understood to have viewed the Blues as a sleeping giant that could be stabilised and then taken forward by its vision for the club. An outline proposal had been submitted on June 7 after talks with the club's majority shareholder Moshiri, with it being hoped the finer details would be thrashed out should the offer win exclusivity.

Its main competition for much of this week appeared to be an offer led by Everton supporters Andy Bell and George Downing and a separate bid advised by former club deputy chairman Keith Harris, details of which emerged late this week. Bell and Downing, successful local businessmen, have been in the picture over the Blues since last year, when they were linked with the failed talks for a minority stake undertaken by MSP Sports Capital. They are among the club’s creditors and were understood to have put together an offer based on finance that would be provided by the merchant bank that handles the wealth of tech billionaire Michael Dell.

Harris, meanwhile, had advised a consortium spearheaded by Vici Private Finance that was said to have the backing of two billionaires and the cash for Everton’s revamp ‘ready to go’. Overtures had been made to local politicians as part of a wider consideration of the role the Blues and their new stadium could play in the region. The bid had been months in the making - though details of it only began to emerge late this week. Like Manoukian’s bid, those of Bell and Downing and Vici had been submitted by Friday, June 7.

The complicated backdrop to negotiations had led to a week of uncertainty. The complexity of the process was intensified by a tangled web of interests and intrigue that included additional parties that were either involved in discussions or closely tracking the unfolding situation. They included MSP, which is behind a £158m loan provided to the club last year, and A-CAP, the backers of 777 Partners, which supplied nearly £200m in loans during the eight and a half months of its failed talks. John Textor, who owns 45% of Crystal Palace, has been another voice in proceedings. He is understood to have been in contact with Moshiri, though his involvement at Selhurst Park was always a significant hurdle to his chances, even with him currently attempting to sell that holding.

Some of those on the periphery of talks painted a picture of confusion as they sought to second guess Moshiri’s ambitions and intentions, while uncertainty over his timetable was also a feature among sources who claimed difficulty in getting insight into how Moshiri planned to conduct his search for a preferred bidder.

Some explanation for that may have been provided by the emergence of Friedkin as the frontrunner on Friday night, a development that caught some rival parties off guard and which has prompted differing reactions from those monitoring the situation.

While some have conceded their hopes appear to be over, others are holding on for an official announcement. Should Moshiri and Friedkin enter into a deal, as is now widely anticipated, it would be the fourth set of exclusivity talks in the two years since the Everton chief started to explore a potential exit from Goodison Park.