The Mail Bag
Come on, Bill!
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I had to laugh/cringe at Bill's comments on the OS regarding "closure" to the Gosling incident.
He said: "It was a nine month joke of an episode between Gosling's agent and this football club. If you can't rely on people's word and a handshake in this world then we live in a world I don't want to be in."
He added: "The agent said he would never have signed the contract (anyway) but the compensation would have been nothing like the figures quoted in the papers. It was a sad and sorry situation. This Club has been here for well over 100 years and it has never happened before and it will never happen again.
"Why did David Moyes and I go to a hideous tribunal and hear hideous stuff we did not want to hear about how someone did not want to play for this football club? I apologise to anybody who thinks somebody at Everton let them down but I don't think they did."
I think a slight admission that someone at EFC cocked up "just a little bit" might put an end to this stupid saga but all this does is make us look idiots. I don't know of any business where a simple word and handshake says DEAL DONE.
Its clear to me that whenever Gosling returns he will get torn apart. I agree he and his agent have been poor in this situation but its not ALL down to him.
Honestly Bill get real, everyone involved in this mess has to take some responsibility, at least have the good grace to say "EFC got somethings wrong"
His "Seeking closure" interview just stokes the fire further.
John Audsley, Posted 05/08/2010 at 07:26:27
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"If you can't rely on people's word and a handshake in this world then we live in a world I don't want to be in."
Really Bill? Well unfortunately we do live in that world. What was the bigger shock? That a young, distinctly average footballer would seek to sign as big a contract as possible? Or that a football agent would have no difficulty screwing over a club to ensure his 10% was as big as possible?
You may not want to live in this world Bill, but while you are chairman of a Premier League football club you have little choice. What happened with Gosling could easily, by the club's account, have happened with Rooney and/or Rodwell. So in future I, and thousands of others, would appreciate it if you could suspend your utopian dreams of a world when everyone can "just get along" to ensure that Everton do not lose out on a talent far bigger than the mediocre one we have lost so far (or the £30m we get from selling them).
If you shake on something and agree to sign then you should stick to your word, i know i would of but Gosling obvioulsy got his head turned by his agent or who ever and wanted to leave, not stay cos if he did want to stay he would of done the honourable thing and stuck to his gentlemans agreement and signed a new contract.
At the end of the day people will have mixed views and ill probs get slated but i was brought up to honour and respect things like that, shaking on things meant a done deal, you wasnt to let people down and go back on your word once you'd shook on it, its disloyal and ill stick up for someone with the same views.
Its looks to me reading between the lines he is using the same tactics employed to agree a deal with Gosling to try and get the two players to stay.
These are professional players, they play for money, "the pull of the blue" means nothing to them, whether we like to think otherwise or not.
i hope i am wrong, but it looks to me that these two players are on their way out, Mr Kenwright just smoothing the path for the backlash that will follow.
Pienaar may stay, but run his contract down.
"We live in a world that I don't want to live in", bloody hell,the man lives in a fantasy world anyway.
"Why do people insist on looking to blame the club for something that was inevitable?"
Inevitable?
How was what happened with Gosling it inevitable?
The club thinks a verbal promise is enough to secure the services of the player.
It isn't.
The player's agent says "verbal schmerbal, they're fucking you about son and even if they're not, I can get you more at Newcastle".
Off to 'the toon' they go.
Where's the inevitable?
In fact a more (word invention warning!) uninevitable scenario I can't think of.
They used to say life's only certainties were death and taxes.
You can add to that Mr L Darling talking bollocks.
By the way, HORRIBLE thought.
Older TWers will know that Kenwright played Gordon Glegg in Corrie (mistakenly thought Maggie Clegg was a his mam, turned out he WAS a bastard - Betty Turpin's).
Anyway he packed up the acting (well....) but always said if Corrie needed him he would make an exception and has on a few occasions.
Now I don't wish any ill-will towards actress Betty Driver but she is 91.
I just get an awful feeling should anything untoward happen to her, our Chairman, in the guise of Gordon Glegg, will head down from 'Wimbledon' (where he's an accountant) and deliver the eulogy.
To spare us toe-curling of epic proportions, let's hope Betty's knocking out hot-pots for a few years yet!
ever thought of "going the match".
But this talk about handshake deals, honouring someones word, please, this is the guy and the club that gags shareholders, threatens fans with legal action and I wonder what Paul Clegg made of made of the remark? Did he feel he was treated honourably? Do we?
Sorry Bill, whilst you may think a handshake is all it takes, the rest of the world is not as quaint as Everton Football Club, its a mercenary world and you have to protect to survive.
Oh dear me Jeff.
Dear, dear ME!
That was TRULY desperate, in fact as desperate a response as I've EVER seen on TW.
"Ever thought of going to the match?"
Did you think I'd be cut to the quick Jeff?
Did you think (Homer Simpson's voice) "That'll learn 'im!"
Did you think I'd respond angrily with my match attendance over the years?
Oh Jeff!
Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff JEFF!
Still I can't stay cross with you for long you little monkey.
So here's some advice.
Here's something you (obviously) don't know.
Something worth remembering and something that will serve you well when responding in the future (nb: and I tell you this without a hint of anger or malice)
One can go to the match AND have opinions about other things.
Good luck with the eleven plus!
(tousles Jeff's hair, slips him a nicker for sweets)
"The agent said he would never have signed the contract (anyway)"
Sounds pretty inevitable to me. Gosling clearly no longer wished to play for us. A written contract wouldn't have changed that.
You can't blame the club for his departure, because he was going anyway. His agent invented a way for it to happen for free. I bet he got an extra percentage off Newcastle for that.
Tell me, if someone is mugged; do you blame the victim for carrying cash on them in the first place?
Those who talk about a 'loss' of £4m in not being able to sell him are deluding themselves. A fully fit Gosling was possibly worth half that at a push, a crocked one was worth nothing.
The Club wanted shut, couldn't sell him, couldn't sack him, didn't want to pay him more money so presto! Everything else is just filibuster.
As for not signing the contract anyway (so there...... nah nah na nah na!!!!) the last time I heard a comment like that was in the playground....as well as..... 'I didn't want to play anyway....'
Bollocks.
£4m - who makes these figures up. If Dan had signed a new contract, the only club interested in a sale would have been Plymouth. A million at most, and we saved that in wages. Newcastle are welcome to him.
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Editorial Team
1 Posted 05/08/2010 at 15:37:25
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However, I think it would be remiss of us not to have something acknowledging that the so-called "closure" provided by Bill Kenwright at the Shareholders Forum was nothing of the sort.