The Mail Bag
Ian Ross defeated by his own man of straw
Comments (38)
Reading David Maddock’s lame defence of a lame duck chairman, I had a revelation the game is up — Kenwright, Elstone and Ross have run out of ideas.
Ross, in attempt to turn away the tide of inevitable criticism that will come the board’s way, as soon as Destination Kirkby is rejected, has spoon fed the man from The Mirror, an attack on an anonymous caller to a radio phone-in show! It’s pathetic.
That a journalist or anyone else for that matter can write an article about Bill Kenwright, while ignoring the white elephant in the room that is DK is incredible. Maddock’s sin of omission is unforgivable and totally undermines his panegyric, hagiography or arselicking.
Also the man of straw puts forward a better argument than Maddock... or should that be Ian Ross? This, I believe is a first.
David O'Keefe, Posted 10/11/2009 at 17:40:51
Comments
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
Read Bluelou in the comments, far superior.
For a long time now, Kenwright has had the media eating out of his hand. The Echo in particular thinks the sun shines out of his backside. Fans who give him stick get this kind of attack off pillocks like Maddock, I remember Mike ’the muppet’ Parry having a similar go at Kenwright's critics in the Echo about a year ago.
If his cronies in the media auctually looked deeper into his inept running of our club they might understand why he gets such criticism a lot, instead of giving it the usual ’good old Bill, he loves Everton... blah blah blah’ all the bleedin’ time.
The only journalist I recall ever questioning him has been Brian Reade and he’s a Red. Also, former players in the media pathetically defend him, particularly Graeme Sharp when he hosts phone-ins.
For some reason BK has a complete stranglehold on the media.
Guardian Jan 2000
"As Everton’s new owner marched towards his seat, the strains of Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory inexplicably accompanying his every step, he would not have needed reminding that it is only in the land of the lame that the one-legged man is king."
When, on 27 November, the formal announcement is made, we shall really begin to discover what Bill Kenwright is made of. My information is that ALL our part of the money is in place. If that turns out NOT to be so then even my unstinting loyalty will be severely tested!
-----
So where’d it come from... down the back of the sofa?
Wyness: Kirkby will not affect investment on the pitch..
How on god’s earth could it not affect the amount of money being spent on the team!
What nonsense.
Didn't a certain Ian Ross say in early september that if the go-ahead wasn’t given at the time of the Labour Party Conference at the end of September that the club would "expect the worst"?
Thanks in anticipation.
To answer his question, I come to that conclusion based on a few things; the evidence from the inquiry and other documents that have been made available; the fact that it was called in; I also took in the club's failure to make a business case for the stadium; and my from that I formed an opinion and made a judgement call.
I may be wrong in predicting the demise of DK, Doddy, but this sorry article from Maddock/Ross is a case of getting your retaliation in first. If it's rejected, there will be the inevitable blame game involving the club, LCC, KMBC and Keioc. Maddock and Ross have got their excuses in early and for anonymous radio caller, read Keioc.
I may be reading too much into it, but I doubt it. November 27th will be fireworks night as soon as the verdict is delivered — Kenwright will set off his (Tom) Cannon and blame everyone but himself. It happened in 2002 and 2007, so consider that copy/paste lame defence of Bill the opening salvo. They know what's coming, Doddy.
Tesco?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPf-xhJkx7U
What does he mean by ’allow club to the wipe the slate clean and start again’????
On the borrowing, all I can say is that first, if ever we are going to do anything to improve our stadium (stay at GP, ground share, build the Loop) we are going to have to borrow money. So unless you believe we shoud stay at GP and spend absolutely nothing, bewailing the fact that we are going to borrow is a bit illogical. One way or another, at some point soon, we will need to borrow some substantial sum of money to improve our facilities.
Having said that, of course the most satisfactory and normal situation for a large capital project is that in effect you borrow money against that project itself (although maybe secured in some way against more identifiable immediate assets). In other words, if the project is not going to increase revenues in the medium term more than its costs — why are you doing it? And that kicks off the usual debate....
One wild card always in this is whether securing the new ground brings in a new owner and new investment. Some of us remain hopeful... but, in the current environment especially, who knows?
EFC has already done this, in conjunction with KMBC and Tesco; if we hadn’t then the consortium would have changed the application and kept it a retail development.
In my opinion and based on what I have heard through my business dealings with one of the consortium, Tesco will underwrite EFC should it be required. At what price, I have no idea... but the obvious one is naming rights to the stadium. COYB
The majority of projects, with very little exception, that fail are those that continue ignorant of when the project fails to meet the original project scope, which I believe in this instance was to above all else provide the club with a way to generate more income through on- and off-field activities. The limitations of access and reduced off-field capabilities should have been the death knell but this has been ignored by the powers that be, dooming this to join the mass of failed projects worldwide.
The club needs to swallow its pride and go back to the drawing board and knock this project on the head; no matter how much you have spent on a project, if it no longer meets the business requirements, you should stop and start again. Carrying on has no purpose other than to save face.
They will see that they now have a more or less capped investment on absolutely needed new facilities at a relatively modest £100M odd. So they will no longer be looking at buying a club and not knowing how much will be needed for a new ground. This must be a major deterrent.
Of course you are right — if they agree with you that attendances won’t be realised, then obviously they won’t buy except perhaps at a heavily discounted price (but Ashley hasn’t been able to almost give Newcastle away, so maybe not even then).
In that scenario of course Kenwright would have been personally better off not going to Kirkby at all, and selling up before now. That may give you some satisfaction.
Gavin, we’ve been over the prospects of Kirkby many times. There are indeed some alarm bells, but it is very difficult to predict what will actually happen, and much in my view depends upon our performance on the pitch.
The ’drawing board’ sounds an attractive idea. But what — given our financial poverty — might actually be on it? You guys above seem to agree that we can hardly afford to borrow anything, so what are we going to do for the small sums you apparently think we can afford?
Actually, I am not at all certain that Kirkby will get us a new owner and new money. I am certain, however, that it makes it more likely.
Sod it, I’m off to the Weld Blundell!!!
Either he’s a very good actor or to me he looked to have no real idea of what the outcome will be. He said that KMBC and Tesco are confident that it will get the green light, but admitted immediately that they had also said it would not get called in... so he did not think much of their ’crystal ball' powers.
With regard to the return to the ’Drawing Board’, all EFC have as Plan B appears to be turning some offices into Lounges at Goodison, which seemed to me incredibly defeatist. Asked if any approach had been made to LCC regarding assistance in either relocating or expanding the footprint at Goodison, he ummed and aahed a little before saying that, as far as he knew, no money was available. He stopped short of openly admitting they had never enquired, but, perhaps mindful of that wretched Exclusivity Agreement, did not admit to an enquiry either.
Whilst I suspect LCC does not have £150M to throw around sat in a suitcase, he neatly avoided the fact that they could borrow — just like EFC and LFC can — to fund a joint stadium.
All-in-all, a bit evasive, but you were sadly left with the conclusion that they have no Plan B at all really; and, as he said himself, there is every chance there will be no World Cup matches in Liverpool in 2018 at all.
No-one would expect to suddenly gain an extra dozen players to our already pitifully thin squad, again the smallest in the EPL by some way, but with another high placed finish, two appearances at Wembley, you need to ask where is the money? If you can’t get investment or a buyer on the back of that whilst lesser teams can then what exactly is the price tag or ROI (return of interest) on offer for investment that means we still have none?
DK would appear to be folly of investment on the pitch as it is increasing debt which will need paying before investment on the pitch — which is already way below acceptable.
In response to Ste, the underlying factor of Phil Green — and whether or not BK is just a potless puppet whose loans have been called in by the aforementioned — smacks more now than him trying to make a quick buck with the retail... meaning a whole lot more than his gushing bullshitisms of "boy’s pen", "one of us" and other tripe he and his followers churn out in support. If Phil is demanding his money back via the opportunity to open some tat store in a godforsaken backwater retail park, then BK should go down in infamy as a far more destructive owner than Agent Johnson ever was. He would even surpass Ashley as the EPL's biggest gobshite.
Without doubt, he’s the most he’s the most inept, out-of-his-depth chairman/owner the Premier League has EVER seen.
Add Your Comments
In order to post a comment to the MailBag, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.
Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and MailBag submissions across the site.
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
1 Posted 11/11/2009 at 17:26:52
Report abuse
My particular favourite is Mike Parry, the idiot's idiot... the man who advocates wing mirrors on horses, or who’s idea of social cohesion involves parents preventing children playing with any kids that are deemed to be overweight...
A man who proves that a little knowledge is a very dangerous... yet funny thing...
Add Maddock to the Parry list... Just another moron being spoon fed crap he doesn’t understand.