Everton owner Farhad Moshiri puts club up for sale for £500m amid mounting pressure from fans

Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has reportedly put the Merseyside club up for sale with an asking price of £500 million.

It comes during a tumultuous time at Goodison Park where poor results on the pitch have left the side battling to avoid relegation, which in turn has sparked unrest among the supporters.

Now Moshiri, less than 24 hours after sacking manager Frank Lampard, is cutting his losses and wants out.

With just three wins all season, the least out of any Premier League club, the Toffees acted by giving Lampard the boot.

And with fans calling for his own head, it seems Moshiri is keen to follow Lampard out of the Everton exit door.

The report suggests the British-Iranian billionaire would consider a minority or majority sale with a number of potential buyers already expressing interest.

The lack of direction on the pitch and the even worse lack of direction in the boardroom means the Everton fans have made a number of protests.

But this underlying tension in the terraces hasn't just sprung up out of nowhere in recent months – this has been going on for years now.

Regardless of however good-of-a-businessman he is, Moshiri's reign has been riddled with poor decisions.

From the £550m spent on a bunch of bang average signings to the appointments of managers like Ronald Koeman and Rafa Benitez,

Oh, and throw in a brand new stadium in development costing around £700m and it's easy to see why tensions are boiling over on the blue side of Merseyside.

"A decision had to be made, and I always feel with a manager, if you’ve got a similar record to the guy before who you replace - so Rafa Benitez was on a similar sort of run, one win in 12 or something like that - you can’t complain then when the club decide to make a change.

"So we’re gonna look at Everton this season and the underlying numbers as well really. You look where they are with points, we know where they are - joint bottom of the table with Southampton. The problem is the underlying numbers in terms of expected goals, expected goals per game is pretty much where they are."

He added: "Their supporters haven’t got banners in the crowd for Frank Lampard, they’ve got them for Farhad Moshiri and the board. I said on this programme six to 12 months ago Everton are the worst run club in the country, and it wasn’t a flippant remark - I believed it.

"I’m not saying that as an ex-Liverpool player, I’m saying that as an ex-Everton fan.

"When I made that comment Everton got in touch with me and I admired it, almost on the front foot trying to defend their club, and I thought okay, fair enough, you say some things in the media and people come back at you, but I didn’t think I was wrong then, and I’m not wrong when I say it now."