The message was clear, loud and passionate from Everton fans at Bournemouth. “Don’t sell Armstrong! Don’t sell Armstrong! I just don’t think you understand,” the away end sang at Bournemouth. “If you sell Armstrong, Harrison Armstrong, you’re gonna have a riot on your hands.”
The news that prompted this outpouring was that 19-year-old
midfielder Armstrong, the finest player produced by Everton’s youth academy in
years, was likely to move to Nottingham Forest. Wary of breaching squad
cost ratio rules (SCR), the club’s leadership were reluctantly willing to
sanction the England youth international’s exit for some £40million.
Had the Bournemouth game not taken place, giving Everton
supporters the platform to vent their frustrations, Armstrong would likely be
posing for photos holding a Garibaldi-red Forest shirt now. Instead, he will
remain in the royal blue of Everton.
For all of the owners’ billions, the episode shows that fan
power remains in the Premier League — and represents somewhat of a marker. Or it could just mean that the Friedkin
Grpup are weak.
Over the past three years, dozens of academy players have
left their home clubs because of their outsized financial importance to those
teams — because these youngsters are not signed for a fee, which then has to be
amortised against any sale, their exits represent pure ‘profit’ to the sellers.
That said, the unintended consequence of them, discovered a
few hours after Armstrong’s future was resolved, is that Senegal international
winger Iliman Ndiaye, the club’s key creative force in the past two seasons,
will now join Tottenham Hotspur for some £60million.
More than half the Premier League’s clubs are now
American-owned — a sporting culture in which, by contrast to English football,
fans wield far less influence. Franchises are moved from one city to another
(more than once in some cases); supporter groups have limited recourse by which
to protest against ticket-price rises; there are no examples of a fanbase
preventing a team from signing or drafting a player.
Two years ago, The Friedkin Group discovered the flipside. The American consortium also owns Serie A
side Roma, a club who, like Everton, boast some of the most vocal and
demonstrative supporters in their league.
In September 2024, they decided to sack manager Daniele De
Rossi, a club legend from his days as a player, just three months after
extending his contract. The Curva Sud at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, home of their
ultras, responded by boycotting the first 30 minutes of the following game.
Everton’s protests over Armstrong never reached that level of ferocity — but perhaps it was the memory of those months at Roma that provoked the owners’ unprecedented decision to pull out of the deal with Forest in the final moments.
Had the England youth international’s departure been
confirmed, The Friedkin Group would have risked losing virtually all the
credibility it had built up since stabilising the club over the past couple of
years following Farhad Moshiri’s turbulent near-decade of ownership.
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