He said: “You are trying to steal a march on the competition, and I don’t blame you, by getting a stadium you can’t really afford, aren’t you?”

He suggested that the club did not urgently need to relocate and that the Kirkby plan was simply a means of Everton getting ahead of its rivals.

He added: “If the club is sold then the £52m will still be safe for the club and the owners will take away that value with them, won’t they?

“There would be an outcry if any hypothetical company got planning permission on these grounds to buy a factory and then sold out.”

Mr Elstone agreed that club owners Bill Kenwright had said the club was up for sale to the right buyer with the right attitude and there were clients who were looking for buyers.

But this was probably the case for most clubs in the Premier League.

He also repeated his belief that Everton were in immediate danger of falling behind their rivals, having “punched above their weight” for a long time.

Rather than stealing a march, this bid would shore up a club with a long heritage, he claimed.

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