More news that US Investors still talking to Everton

We've had a pretty crap story surface about Chinese investors following at the heels of the American Investment group looking to buy Everton, but according to everything out there is looks like Everton are still dealing exclusively with the Americans, John J Moores and Charles Noell. There hasn't been a split yet and while the "exclusivity" period might be up any day now it doesn't look like things will finish quickly.

Journalist Rory Smith of the Times made a post on Facebook Wednesday night and said some things specifically about the deal.

As far as I can tell - from the information I can gather - the deal is still alive.

This was pretty clear since we haven't seen either side leak anything about talks breaking off although who knows if the Chinese investors wasn't a play by Everton to pressure the Americans to make faster progress. That's cynical on my part, but the rumor was too vague and unsourced for my taste. Continuing with the Facebook post, Rory said:

What should happen next is another round of talks, fine-tuning price and ironing out any difficulties.

That makes sense since things might change after they view the books and making a contract to buy a £200 million dollar sports team can't be easy. Perhaps some agreement on how much debt needs to be paid and what investment is needed for a new stadium. The final comment  that interested me was as follows:

...they have already tried to invest in a club (Swansea) so know what the process entails, and how drawn-out it can be, and they have also had lawyers and various consultants engaged on Everton for some time

There is a lot of money invested in just taliking to a team to make a purchase, which isn't to say it's a good reason to blow another £200 million, but you wouldn't just walk over nothing either. I'm still expecting this is the group that buys Everton in the end. We can debate if that is a good thing for Everton, but I see buyers jumping at the TV money coming next year and a team with solid standing that should avoid relegation is a big get. On the other hand if things fall through we may not see a buyer until the summer since these things can take some time.