Do us a favor lay off Bill mate and give him the credit he deserves, the same also goes for Moyes and Keith ’Bully’ Wyness. Without Bills intervention after the Agent Johnston years we would have been dead and buried, the three of them have worked miracles since the boardroom wrangles of 2003/04 to make the club solvent, financially stable and have put together the bones of the best Everton team since the mid/late eighties. We will also have the best training facilities when finch farm opens later this summer. The club WILL do business this summer and I expect 4/5 new faces (on a budget of @25-30m). The new stadium will not have any effect on transfer dealings, EFC will make a contribution for the stadium of around 30/35m with the cash coming from the sale of Goodson and the naming rights (we are lead to believe a deal has been done with Mr. Earl on the rights). You also say that the move to Kirby will be a disaster.....I don?t think so, the move is only 3 miles up the road, it will give us a modern stadium, improved revenue streams from conferences, functions and match days in terms of exec boxes etc...I like most Evertonian?s would love to see us stay at Goodison but unfortunately this is not going to happen as it cannot provide the essential revenue streams we require to produce profits, it is not cost effective to renovate (maybe it would have been 15 years ago before Johnston ruined us) and we cannot secure the land surrounding it ? Liverpool City Council have also failed to come up with a site that would fit the financial model of the club. Kirby is the best deal on the table and unless a similar offer comes from Liverpool Council before the end of the exclusivity period we should go for it for the health of the club and its future.

Ian give the Saint Bullshitter line a rest, he was on the board during the reign of agent Johnson, did sod all to change anything he was up to, borrowed money from a longtime if not lifelong friend in Gregg then decided to shit on him from a great height to protect his own interests with a carefully delivered and despicable media attack courtesy of the Liverpool Echo and I’m fed up to the back teeth reminding selective memories of his lies after lies.

Keith Wyness has earned a remarkable amount of money from the club of which to this date has not reinvested a single penny. His business operations have been a self interested sham that only an idiot in BK would allow to continue; running his own business on the club’s time, getting performance related bonuses whilst off sick, he must have though every one of his christmases had landed at once working for BK as he has been able to write a blank cheque and bluff him into bonuses with short sighted gains by asset stripping the club’s premises and outsourcing virtually every single income stream. I’ll show my arse if anyone else can post in to tell me that their boss has ever allowed them to do this.

Finally how can you be 100% sure of the health of the club when 24/7 still to see an investor beyond fairy tales and Wyness sells GP for one last ride on the gravy train are in control?

Gavin, because of Peter Johnston and his cronies? shareholding in the club at the time, it was difficult for any board member to change anything. Johnston was the Chairman and the majority shareholder, he controlled the business. Let's not forget he resigned from the Board some 18 months before he sold the club ? a period when he starved the club of cash.

I agree Bill does have to be held responsible for a certain amount of failings at the club and that includes from the time he took over until 2004; however, he has to be praised: firstly, for buying the club when nobody had made a serious offer in 18 months because of the clubs dire finances; secondly, for ousting Paul Gregg and his family from the club.

Bill's relationship with Gregg was a business one from the outset (theatres) ? you can?t be any other way when you are running a company, let alone one the size of Everton. The Gregg?s were always in it for the money ? that?s why most investors invest in businesses.

Since the boardroom chaos in 2004, Bill and Keith have restructured the club and made it financially viable. Yes, we have sold off some of our assets ? we had to in order to take the club forward. Without the new training facilities, without the plans advancing for a new stadium, without a sound financial structure, there was no hope of attracting any investment. After all, would you invest in a company that was in the mess we were in during the pre summer of 2004?

I do believe either before the stadium is built, or shortly after, Bill will make way but any investor coming in has to be right for the club ? there is no point in someone coming in buying the club only to drag it back down to were Johnston had us or takeover and heap debt on the club like United & Chelsea. What happens when they get bored? ? Do they clear the debt? I don?t think so.

On the point of Keith Wyness, he does earn a good wage but why should he invest in the club? Would you if you did not own it? I don?t know many other Chief Executives who would either unless it was of benefit to them! His outsourcing of parts of the business has been excellent ? this is something most companies if you are not an expert in the sector or it is not your key market. Everton aren?t experts in retail so it gets outsourced, straight away a lot is saved in overheads and the commission JJB earns as a partner is minimal against the profits it produces for the club as recently reported.

I, like all Evertonians, want to see the club challenging for top honors and the progress we have made since 2003-04 is fantastic ? yes I want to see money and investors coming in; and yes I want to see Bill stand aside should it happen... but it has to be the right time for the club and the right type of investor who is going to carry on building on the foundations that are now in place ? without putting the club in jeopardy, like the 90s era.

Interesting and reasonably informed perspective, Ian. The only thing I would take exception to is the Gregg thing. I still question the labelling of Kenwright?s former friend as a harbinger of evil and a dastardly feind who had to be ousted from the club.

What was all that really all about? What was wrong with the reverse mortgage for Kings Dock? Would it really have been that bad? Shit, we would be in the friggin thing by now! Instead of contemplating a quite demeaning move out of the City to Kirkby, to avoid being in the shadow of the New Anfield.