Everton boss Roberto Martinez believes the arrival of Farhad Moshiri as the club's new majority shareholder is the start of a "new era" on Merseyside that will help the club compete with the Premier League's elite.
It was announced on Saturday that Iranian-born businessman Moshiri has purchased a 49.9% shareholding of the club, subject to Premier League approval.
That should be a formality given Moshiri spent several years as an Arsenal shareholder before selling his stake in order to fund his purchase of Everton.
The deal ends Bill Kenwright's long and painstaking search for fresh investment and caused much excitement among the supporters, who feel more optimistic about the future than they have done in a long time.
Speaking for the first time since news of the Moshiri deal broke, Martinez was effusive in his praise of the 60-year-old, who he believes is absolutely the right man to take the club forward.
Martinez said:
"This is the start of a new era without a doubt. Our chairman has been very careful in looking through every single detail in order to find the perfect partner to take us to the next level.
"I’ve got no doubts that as a human being and as a winner Farhad Moshiri is the perfect person to come into Everton.
"It is really really good news.
"Obviously I met Mr Moshiri and the impression that I got is of a gentleman with incredible values and someone who knows the Premier League inside out, because he has been involved in another Premier League football club and he knows how difficult it is to have a vision and to put it into practice.
"Sometimes you get business people who do not understand it, but obviously this is not the case here. It is someone who has been working very closely with a Premier League football club and he knows what it takes."
"He is someone who has been introduced to Everton and who has followed the football club very, very closely and it’s fair to say he has fallen in love with Everton and what Everton means - the heritage and the history and that’s really exciting."
Though Mr Moshiri will become Everton's largest shareholder, his current 49.9% stake means that, in theory, the other shareholders could block any moves by Moshiri they find unacceptable.
With Kenwright also staying on as chairman, at least in the short-term, there is an important safety net in place that also ensures continuity.
Martinez was quick to praise the impact of Kenwright and his role in bringing Moshiri to Goodison Park, adding:
"I am well aware that before I was the manager of Everton those conversations were taking place, but to have the right person at Everton is very important.
"What we have is probably the perfect person to fit in at Everton and you cannot say that lightly.
"What I am really really excited about is that we are not going to lose any of the good things we have as a football club – it’s the opposite.
"All we are doing now is sharing the excitement of this new partnership. It’s early stages. Now is just a new message to every Everton to be really really excited. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
"Our chairman throughout the years has been a true Evertonian and with this decision he is giving the club a great opportunity to kick on."
"When I came our ambition was that we had to look to the Champions League positions and we had to become a winning team. That’s a very bold statement and it’s a difficult aim to achieve but the investment and the involvement of Farhad Moshiri will take us into a different level and help us to get there.
"The new investor understands the history of the football club, has fallen in love with our football club and is someone who is going to be a really strong addition and will not bring any other thing than trying to get Everton where they belong."