Everton chairman Bill Kenwright claims the Abu Dhabi group who purchased Manchester City could have been interested in the Toffees had arrangements for new stadium been in place. Sheikh Mansour became City's owner in 2008 and remains top of FourFourTwo's Football Rich List for the 2011-12 season.
"I know for a fact that you met a lot of individuals who said they had the money to buy Liverpool Football Club, and I think I have met 10 times as many people as you met," Kenwright told former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow.
"I have to say, some of them were good and I thought we had a big chance.
"The main thing that has happened in the last three years is the recession, and football is a trophy asset more than anything.
"You do not buy a football club to make money, believe me - I'm living proof of that.
"All I can tell you is that there are various scenarios. It is a two-football-club city, it is not the capital and there is not huge, huge money in the world.
"Of course, you can throw Manchester City at me. But Manchester City had the stadium situation and there was a lot of what I believe was lucky manoeuvring going on there - not underhand at all, but lucky manoeuvring."
Asked if he thought the Abu Dhabi group might have bought Everton rather than City if the Toffees had had a new stadium or plan for one, Kenwright said: "And if I had been in the right place at the right time - which was very, very important to that deal, because I know about that deal - then yes."
Kenwright insists the majority of Everton fans have been understanding about the club's predicament.
"If you walked over to my desk right now and I showed you some of the mail I get, it's humbling," he said.
"In the main, there is a lot of logic and understanding there, and pride - Evertonians have a lot of pride in the way their club is run, but there is always a discordant note in every symphony.
"There shouldn't be, but there is in football."
