As the season approaches, the frustration level increases with sad inevitability, Chris. But valid reasons why Kenwright is not selling have been aired on other threads. And the lack of investment is something many find hard to understand, while others can again offer plausible explanations.

What a surprise... another Kenwright bashing piece.

Nothing new in this one I’m affraid.

"Whilst others are buying success" - Who exactly? Citteh? That’s a given; who else has brought in any players you would consider at Everton? I will not give you Downing as a) I don’t think he is good enough for us, and b) he is out of action until Christmas.

"When players like Arteta say in the Liverpool Echo that the board needs to spend, it is a subtext saying "spend or I’m off"" —No it’s not, players and the manager have been saying it for years.

"Kenwright has to go sooner rather than later. His mention of massive debts in the last club meeting was a veiled hint that there is probably no cash" — Again nothing new there, we have been skint for ages.

I am not saying this to protect or vindicate Kenwright, not in the slightest but if you are going to have a go at him, it would be good to be truthfull (I know, ironic isn’t it?)

I respect what Blue Bill has done for the club, but it's time to sell. There are plenty of buyers out there! Just look at Pompey, Sunderland and Man City — the three of those clubs shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as Everton but they've found buyers!

If I was going out to buy a car and had the money for a Ferrari, I wouldn't buy an old unreliable banger, would I?

This isn't a slagging of Blue Bill but it's the same old story: we do well, so we should be investing heavily in the squad — we are after all a club players would want to join after yet another good season... but here we go yet again: struggle to find money for players of quality! I fear we will lose our better players if investment isn't sorted soon! COYB

Christopher Brierley, oooh look another BK defender! FFS he couldn’t even answer a straight question on how much Everton is for sale for despite his CEO, moments earlier, saying the club wants to be open and no question is out of bounds at the meeting. The guy is a charlatan and holding back the club, he is Everton’s Peter Swayles.

Tony — I’m afraid Arteta's comments do kinda mean that! It's pretty much a given that Arteta will not end his career with Everton and a move back to Spain will be sooner rather than later if Everton fail to progress.Sad but true I am afraid.

Also, the fact that Everton as a club publicly state our transfer targets are loans and Bosmans worries me. Why do we continue to commit PR suicide! Even if it's the case, please at least put some spin on it too look even a little ambitious!

James, it is a given that Arteta will move back to Spain, he has confirmed this many times, as well as Cahill going back to Oz or perhap be with his mate Arteta in Spain. He is on a long-term contract with us and more importantly is injured so how on earth can his comment mean, "buy big or I’m off"???

Darren, once again we hear of the many buyers out there, that some feel Kenwright is fending off. I again ask, do you really think a potential buyer serious about getting the club would never let anything slip to the media? Why has there been nothing at all reported in the papers, radio or internet?

Yes Kenwright wants a big pay day, fair play to him. What business man doesn’t? But to constantly state that there must be someone out there... and nothing, absolutely nothing in the way of any substatiated proof is forthcoming — then that is as bad almost as saying "Watch this space"!

I am starting to think that maybe it's not BK's decision to sell or not to sell. Maybe Earl and Green are calling the shots and Kenwright has no say in the matter as he is just a stooge. It makes more sense than the "Everton being constantly overlooked by would-be investors because Bill won't sell" theory.

Any sane Evertonian in Kenwright's position would've sold up by now if it was possible. I mean if you can't do the job properly what's the point being in it? A chairman with no cash to fund the club is useless and surely BK knows this... He wouldn't just stick around for the Kudos... would he???

There are two things I want to say:

1, The grass is not always greener. Every Portmouth and Newcastle United fan would love a bit of stability in the boardroom. Newcastle were the butt of many jokes last season and Pompey are for this one. How do you know that a rich businessman is going to be better for your club than a fan??

2, There are a few reasons why we cannot sell the club. I can think of four reasons why Kenwright cannot sell Everton:

a. The club is already overachieving with no money and a canny manager — to prevent a downward trend would involve Man City type money for limited success!

b. We do not have a state-of-the-art stadium, which will cost a new owner upward of £200m in a city where the council have made it clear we are not really wanted. Kirkby is very annoying and I wish it would swing off.

c. The club has large debts which will see the best part of £100m disappear from our budget without bringing in new personel.

d. David Moyes will not allow Kenwright to sell the club to any owner that won’t let him have the final say on transfers; if you are spending £30 / £60m on a player you might want a bit of influence... so could be Kenwright goes — Moyes goes.

Now, if you had £400m to spend and the aim of your budget was to buy a Premier League club, how many would say our great club offers the best return on investment??? - Probably not many.

I agree with Tony Williams that there is nothing new we don't know about... except for one issue — namely that the players are starting to make noises/comments themselves. They clearly feel as though they are so close to breaking into the Top 4 and that if either:-
(i) Lescott is sold; OR
(ii) there is no immediate 2009-10 class addition(s) — not the normal buying youth, he’ll be ready in 2 years...

Then you may start to see the likes of Arteta, Yakubu, Pienaar, Rodwell say, "Hey, we’re wasting our time here, there is no chance on CL football. Anyone fancy us?"

Whilst we can argue that AV, Spurs and probably Man C are still behind us, they are clearly demonstrating that they are targetting for the Top 4. Man C clearly are and AV and Spurs are talking the talk; we are not with phrases like Bosman’s and Freebies... they will not cut it with the squad. The lads have clearly stepped up in a gear last year and want to be given the opportunity to make the crucial step.

I think more comments similar to Arteta’s from the likes of those mentioned above would be invaluable in letting Bill & Co know that serious money is required one way or another.

Thomas, sorry to go all "Tony Williams" on you but can you tell me anywhere it emphatically states in black and white that Liverpool City Council have said we are not really wanted? The same council that waited for the ringfenced KD money, the same council that has never had an application from Everton to build on Stanley Park, the same council that tried to approach Everton to discuss other sites such as the loop but got short shrift from BK and his "exclusivity deal" with Tesco. The same council that has said it thinks a shared stadium would be beneficial to the city and both teams...

Gavin Ramejkis, I'm not another BK defender — just getting tired of the same old pieces and arguments being written here over and over again with nothing new being brought in. It's just the same old arguments spewed out time and time again. We must be desperate for articles at this time of the year on ToffeeWeb otherwise I’m sure the Admins wouldn’t have even bothered posting this.

An excerpt from the shareholders meeting, courtesy of KEIOC:

Shareholders will do well to remember two statements made during the meeting………

“The agenda today is all about communication. As has always been the case at Everton we stand up on every issue…nothing is off limits tonight…no sense of a closed door or a closed mind…that’s not the way Everton are…Everton are proud of the way it communicates.”

Robert Elstone - CEO
15th July 2009

“I’m not answering your question… I’m bored with your question… you’re not getting an answer to the question.”

Bill Kenwright - Chairman
15th July 2009

Looks like the pressure is certainly starting to tell on Kenwright. I was gobsmacked by the way a perfectly valid shareholder's question was stonewalled. This guy plumbs new depths!

And the question was:

QUESTION FROM A SHAREHOLDER…

“Looking at the record turnover…most of it from TV rights…the core business, the commercial side, stayed the same, slightly backwards; you say we’re punching above our weight how long can we go on without investment…I hear every week…I read the paper and there’s club’s being bought…if you’re looking 24/7 why haven’t we found someone……… Is one of the reasons no on has come in for Everton is that the board are asking for too much money?

Bill Kenwright…

“No”

SAME SHAREHOLDER…

“Some clubs have consortiums bidding for these clubs… Peter Trembling former commercial director, recently left the club, we’ll never find out why, within three or four months of leaving he found investors… Middle East based… to buy Notts County… if Everton are for sale how much are you asking for the club?

Bill Kenwright:

“Here we go…oh please………come on”

SHAREHOLDER:

“You’re not answering the question…”

Bill Kenwright:

“I’m not answering your question… I’m bored with your question… you’re not getting an answer to the question.”

I felt the need to post this up again (despite link on this site) as it deserves more prominence. You all make up your mind on Kenwright, I did a long time ago.

As a follow up to what I wrote earlier, I think it's ironic that Moyes's success has made clown Kenwright’s posiiton tenable. Should Moyes be seen to fail through a lack of investment, then a lot of neutrals and some of the pro-clown Kenwright crowd will no doubt turn bandit on Clown Kenwright.

FOYR

Might not the reason for Kenwright having not sold the club simply be that the club isn’t his to sell? He’s certainly a major shareholder, but does he own over 50% of the shares? Does he really have control of the club or would any sale be dependant upon all the major shareholders agreeing to sell (and agreeing upon a price too, of course)?

The question from the shareholder...

It was a good question to ask. I believe BK has to answer as truly as possible (business terminology etc...), especially in that forum.

I truly believe BK is running the club well to it’s current maximum potential. However, if he does love the club, he needs to discard the "wouldn’t it be better if it was won without buying it?" mentality and seriously hard-sell this historic club to someone/party who is willing to spend hard cash. Both on the current stadium and the team.

I have just read the statements posted by Anthony Newell, taken from the KEIOC website, on the coverage of the Shareholders Forum; if the statement from BK is accurate then it just confirms my thoughts of EFC’s Chairman and his attitude to us all.

I don’t know about you guys and gals but, if I would have been at the Forum, I would have treated BK with the contempt he deserves after making such a childish and crass statement to a fellow shareholder. Even though BK is Chairman, he has no right to act in this manner and not have the ’class and dignity’ to respond to what seems a perfectly legitimate and sensible question.

The comment made by BK sounds like a playground threat of ’it’s my ball’ and all that, and not the retort of someone in what should be a respected position as ambassador of this great club. The sooner this two-faced charlatan is gone, the better!

Surely if BK had some balls, he would just be open and honest to us all and admit that he will decide to sell once the move to the Tescodrome has been rubber stamped and that he is looking for a healthy return on the money he has invested into the club. I for one would not hold it against BK if this were his motive because, let's face it, business men go into business to make money.

I know what most of you will think when you read this and the phrase ’pigs might fly’ probably comes to mind! Bill, if you are reading please do the right thing and at least be honest with your fellow Blues, surely we deserve that much? COYB!

If Everton are spending all they generate, then — in order to spend substantial funds on new players — you need a Chairman who will either give funds to the club or loan them, in which case, the debt is increased once more.

I think I am correct in saying that we would have to win the Champions League about three times to recoup a £60 million spend — and then there are wages on top of that.

Abramovich has essentially had to write off a lot of the Chelsea cash by converting it to shares and I suspect we will land a man on Mars before City break even.

We need a few quid more but it does have to be paid back; to expect anything else is unrealistic.

By the way, why should Kenwright have a price for selling the club for public broadcast? If it was a fire sale like Newcastle, then I could see the point but prior to any real offers of substance he would be dumb to broadcast a price.

I think Arteta’s comments were right on the money, so to speak.

A lot has been said before on this... but if BK said publicly that he had to wait for the DK decision, then it wouldn’t cheer everyone up.

Green and Earl may well be the puppeteers, but BK’s got himself into that position if that is the case. How can we be actively trying to secure a buyer if nobody wants to dilute their shareholding and they all want Bill at the helm "protecting their interests"???

Christopher Brierley, I did think twice about posting it, mainly for the reasons you state. And, also for the reasons you state, I did post it.

Now wouldn’t it be nice if, instead of this pap, we could feature something of riveting topical interest from your good self? Rather than this somewhat negative, glass-half-full TW-bashing?

Dennis Stevens, interesting comment.

By last year’s accounts, the share ownership among Everton Directors looks like this:

W Kenwright CBE 8,754 shares
J V Woods 6,622 shares
R I Earl 8,146 shares
Sir P D Carter CBE 714 shares

So Bill is the major shareholder, but would need the agreement of both Woods and Earl to exercise a controlling interest in excess of 50% of the 35,000 Everton Shares out there. This became a problem (for Bill) when Gregg owned a portion of those shares, but that problem effectively disappeared when Earl bought Gregg’s shares. My feeling is that they all now sing from the same hymn sheet, but you could be right: Earl (or Green) may actually be calling the shots.

Michael et al, it was strongly rumoured but very hard to substantiate that Green is the money man at the top of the tree. BK never had the money he bought Everton with and rumours back then were that he borrowed heavily from his friends.

When Gregg got agonisingly close to gaining control in order to finance the KD, BK blew a gasket and came up with the Fortress Sports Fund fairy tales and used his influence with the local Liverpool Echo and Daily Post to paint Gregg (who had been a long-standing friend at that point) as a non-footballing fan only out for gain at the club’s expense — exactly as Bill is, right now, coincidentally.

Suddenly, Robert Earl appears and buys out Gregg with again very very strong rumours of him being a front man for BK having gone cap in hand to his mate Green again. Why would a Spurs man buy into Everton? Why not Spurs, a London club whose shares were available?

Hard to prove but I’m certainly not the only one that thinks no substantive interest stinks. Oh and to cap it, those tiddlers Notts County that our former Peter Trembling brokered a deal to be bought by a Middle Eastern family have just announced Sven as their new manager, surely a sign they have new wealth and a signal of intention to build from where they currently are. Remember it was rumoured Peter Trembling tried to broker that deal at Everton and walked as BK blanked it.

I have been defending BK this summer based purely on the fact that we are not privvy to any talks between the board and any potential investors. Therefore, any reasons that anyone writes as to why he can’t or won’t sell are pure speculation. As has been the case with transfer speculation, it doesn’t mean anything.

BUT when I’m reading direct quotes from Kenwright where he can be so dismissive to an Evertonian (especially as he always goes on about being one of us) who asks a valid question, I do start to become more suspicious. If Kenwright was actively looking for a buyer, what better public forum does he have to advertise the club than that meeting? Why is he being so candid on the matter of investment?

The noises from the players such as Arteta is worrying as they were from Moyes last summer. We all know if Arteta was fit this summer we’d be facing a massive battle to keep hold of him.

I think also Dennis and MK’s point about Green and Earl’s involvement is the most probable answer to the investment problem. Can anyone predict what they're stance will be if DK doesn’t get the go ahead?

I used to dismiss the ’relinquishing control of the trainset’ style arguments as a reason why the club hadn’t been sold. Surely, someone with the interests of the club at heart would not behave in such a childish manner? However, I’m starting to have second thoughts on this given the childish nature of his remark at the Shareholders Forum.

Kenwright always dodges the difficult questions and tries to create the impression that he knows little about what is happening on the business side — he’s the chairman for Christ’s sake!!!

Bill wants to go on living in some kind of luvvy delusional dream where Moyes, as the ’greatest manager ever’ and Arteta as the ’new Golden Vision’ will somehow save the club against the tide of what is happening in the game — that being us needing major investment to standstill, nevermind progress.

What has just happened at Notts County confirms the ’24/7’ search is complete bullshit and he may in fact have been chasing Arabs out of his office.

While I’m not certain that a big investor would fix all our problems (be careful what you wish for etc), I think that BK is doing himself no favours in the way he is presenting on this matter.

I think it defies logic that nobody is in some way interested in investing in Everton. As pointed out, there are plenty of investors involved or looking at seemingly much worse options.

I would accept it, if he said there was some interest but Everton have rejected for whatever reason. However, to say that nobody is interested in a club which is consistently finishing top 6, qualifying for Europe, best EPL Manager 3 times in the last 6 years, FA Cup finalist, great fan base, wonderful history and no greater debt than other clubs (better than most)... that does not make sense to me.

I am not trying to defend Kenwright but I can see why he is not answering that question. If he submits to writing what he wants for the club, how is he going to ask for more than it's worth when prospective buyers come calling?

That’s a fair point, Tony, but he could have said as such instead of behaving like the proverbial child who has spat the dummy out. All that was required was something like ’we have a valuation in mind and await serious interest’.

Instead, he treats a shareholder with utter disdain and leaves everyone wondering just what the hell is going on...

Remember what Elstone said at the beginning of the meeting:
“The agenda today is all about communication. As has always been the case at Everton we stand up on every issue… nothing is off limits tonight… no sense of a closed door or a closed mind… that’s not the way Everton are… Everton are proud of the way it communicates.”

I agree Anthony, he should be polite to these people but it is possible that he gets asks this every day and gets pissed off, the same I do when all the girls everyday as me how I got to be so handsome ;-)

If Kenwright fitted his own selling criteria, then there’d be no need to sell...

Amusing point - if a little illogical.

However, I do think you air a very valid point about the sub-text of what players like Arteta say.

Worrying.

I think it’s fair to assume that this club has only been "for sale" for the last 12 months or so.

Before that, I’m convinced that BK thought he could remain at the helm and still take the club forward, but then the economic crisis began to bite, the bank that likes to say "yes" suddenly began to say "on yer bike" and, to make it even worse, some cash-rich Arab fella scooped up a club none of us were mildly concerned about and began spending money as if it were going out of fashion.

That’s when BK’s public statements with regard to selling the club began to become ever more desperate, and I now believe he DOES want to get rid. The problem is though a Premier League football club is no longer considered to be every billionaire's essential purchase and the list of potential buyers is as thin as Ricky Ponting’s bowling options.

Therefore, all eggs now lie in the DK basket, with the hope that a favourable decision will prompt slightly more interest. If DK gets the thumbs down, however, then BK will have two choices. 1. Publicly name a price that is so low that it can’t fail to generate some interest; or 2. Stay around to take the flak when the inevitable happens and Moyes and most of his best players walk out the door.

What’s worrying is that it is clear that not only can’t we move forward under our current regime, we can’t afford to sustain where we are now. We announced a record turnover this summer, but then admitted having to go back to the bank to borrow some more.

To me, Everton’s financial situation isn’t too different than my own. During these worrying economic times my income is completely swallowed by my outgoings, meaning there is nothing left over for non-essentials, hence no season ticket this year. If my income were to suddenly drop, then further cost cutting would be necessary, but fortunately I have a reasonably stable job in a large company where pay cuts are unlikely.

Everton’s income though is almost completely linked to on-field performances, and although we can rely on Moyes and his boys doing us proud again, we will be doing very, very well to match last year’s achievements, let alone improve on them and so next summer, unless something dramatically changes, has the potential to be even more painful than the last two.

Tony Wiliams,

Would you consider ’asking for more’ than the club is worth..as the actions of someone who is amenable to a sale?

You’ve fallen over your own defence.

Ciaran, what part of "I am not trying to defend" is unclear, I was offering an option as to why he may have said it.

I have no inside knowledge and don’t proport that I have. I merely offered a reasoning that occurred to me when reading the question.

Bill Kenwright behaved in a very similar manner at the ESCLA AGM last Summer during a Question and Answer session.

You may remember his flippant quote of , ’’Don’t ask me, I’m only the Chairman’’ during some questioning. and his refusal to answer some straightforward questions properly.

To me this actually shows that he doesn’t know the answers because he is not in control. It’s Green and Earl, a pair of Tottenham fans hoping to make a killing out of DK, and Bill is the frontman.

If DK gets thrown out there will be some interesting times ahead as those two look to unload their shares, I just hope selling our players to raise money does not enter the equation.

Your disclaimer on defending Kenwright has no bearing whatsoever on qualifying the merit of your opinion.

If you now see it’s fallacy, then fair enough.