The Mail Bag
There but for the grace of Kenwright go we?
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Much maligned is Bill Kenwright — yep, I can understand some of the criticism — but thank God we are not like Portsmouth with four different 'owners' in a year and on the brink of financial meltdown...
When you look at what has happened in the past 18 months of recession, I for one thank my lucky stars that he has often steered clear of the temptation to push the boat out just that little bit too far, which could have disastrous consequences.
Yes, perhaps he has walked away from investors also in the past (who knows?)... but maybe Bill's personal 'fit and proper' standards are much higher than the Football Association's and Premier League's when it comes to his most treasured possession.
All of a sudden, we have the best squad in years, a potential great in Moyes, and are keeping the creditors at bay. Yep, granted, Kirkby was a huge mistake (Kings Dock was an equally unfortunate episode and lost opportunity).
But to not have £500m debt and to have someone in charge who would not let the likes of a 'Ali al-Faraj' or a 'Shinawatra' or even, dare I say, a 'Gillete and Hicks combo' anywhere near the Club is pretty good in my book, so credit where credit is due. I for one am quite happy about that.
Steve callaghan, Posted 04/02/2010 at 16:40:27
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I am not saying I want Kenwright to stay chairman. I am not even saying he is a good chairman. I am saying that there is a bright side to his reign as chairman.
The truth of the matter is nobody apart from BK has ever expressed an interest in us, that’s what’s hard for us all to take... but some blame BK.
What people always seem to forget is BK doesn’t own our club; he is just the major shareholder. Nobody has publicly expressed an interest let alone try and buy themselves in to recognition by purchasing other shares that are available.
Palace went this week and I cast my mind back to when Ron Nodes called us a small club, look where we both are today!
Calling for a mutiny can only work if the new is significantly better then the old. As it stands currently, we are better off with BK; moving forward, who knows... but the likes of Gavin will always blame him for not having a billion pounds spare.
To blame the boss is endemic in our Scouse culture, realists like I see the death or Moores and the Peter Johnson era thereafter that caused the financial hole, BK has never had or even promised cash to fill it enough to take us to the next level — therein lies all of our problems, pro- or anti-BK. COYB
I’ll give you a freebie, I want a capable business person with the acumen to have a strategic short- and long-term plan and not a gushing media luvvie whose cringeworthy comments far outweigh his positives.
How about a business person that wouldn’t have ignored the capital of culture and had a retail presence in the city before and during it and not after it had finished? How about that for starters or is that too just a little too difficult to comprehend?
How about a business that has contingency plans for a project? I’ve my own business Alan and it’s running very nicely thank you. My last client, the MoD; my current the DVLA... previous have included banks, so I guess my acumen might be good enough.
It has a few loyal customers, but the shop is crumbling. Sure, it’ll occasionally sell the odd little trinket for a profit that will keep the shop running, but the owner has no ambitions at all to expand or vary from tradition.
Eventually, the shop goes under because it can’t afford to make repairs as the roof caves in. Yet, for all the years it was obvious this was going to happen, the owner and it’s customers disregarded it, because for the moment everything was fine and they could enjoy their little shop.
That’s the best analogy I can think of.
Look back a few weeks ago and there was a very reasoned debate about the level of involvement and responsibilities of a Chairman and a CEO.
Consensus was that business decisions on exploiting the company was the CEO's job not the Chairman’s.
Yes! all this 24/7 searching for new investment and Kenwright didn’t even check Human Rights Watch’s most wanted list?
Another thing to add to the list of Kenwright gaffes.
Good for you!... but how about getting from up your own arse?... just saying like!
Anyone looking objectively at his tenure can see that he has done his best to ’muddy the waters’ on club finance. No-one knows for sure who’s owed what except him, his ’ghost backers’ & maybe an ex-CEO... who was alledgedly given 100,000 reasons to keep his mouth shut!
What we do know for a FACT is: that he has sold or mortgaged ALL our physical assets; and survives by loans based on future TV revenue.
Would I rather have Kenwright than the Portsmouth owners? Yes, of course, but so what ? Just because there are worse owners does not make me feel lucky, privileged or proud to have Kenwright and rest of them.
Alan, yes of course I could run the club better, if I thought I couldn’t, I would give up my life now because the people running it are completely inept.
I totally agree with Gavin, Lee Kidd, Marc Williams and Peter McHugh, not forgetting Ciaran.
I personally cannot stand liars let alone the incompetence of a board who only made a profit the year they sold Rooney.
For every "Portsmouth" owner there is a Randy Lerner who actually expressed an interest in EFC before buying Villa and I personally know of of at least one other group of investors who enquired into buying EFC but were put off by the complexities created by Kenwright and his buddies.
Let's see if all you pro-Kenwright posters feel the same when we get to close season and have to sell another "star" player to keep the wolves from the door.
EFC have massive debts so don't kid yourselves all is well in the boardroom.
We have mortgaged everything including future revenues under Kenwright's deceitful, incompetent reign.
Yes, Bill should go and he’s a liar and so on and on.......
Change the record and deal with it. As much as we all want change, it's not going to happen, especially when no-one is prepared to do anything about it.
The fact is, the majority of the fans have not complained by doing what most other clubs have done with shit boards and showed their feelings in mass groups of protest. So you have to ask yourself, Why is this?
It seems to me over the last couple of years of reading posts like these and their responses, it's always the same people responding. So do something about it.
There's nothing worse than people who go on about the same thing over and over again yet never do anything about it and when people question them and their motives they defend themselves by putting that person down.
Oh Dear, Jay — do you not think that is a little bit of an over-reaction? The whole fanbase will have perused my thread...? ToffeeWeb reaches far and wide, Jay — but not that bloody far.
I can fully understand the oposite view to mine, by the way... but, for me, I’m glad we have stability and are not having to worry about the Premier League holding onto our income to pay creditors because we are not capable of doing that ourselves, that’s all.
As for being ’mortgaged to the hilt’ as one or two have suggested above — well, I am too, but I can pay my mortgage thankfully without the bailiffs knocking on my door. Just like Everton... so it ain't all bad ...
Anyway — I will be at the game tomorrow, one of the fortunate few and hopefully we will see no ill-affect in terms of togetherness due to my post! :)
However, surely decisions to sell or mortgage EFC property aren’t taken lightly and are last resorts. You have to wonder where we’d be now if these decisions weren’t made...
Unable to spend record sums on transfers, unable to pay decent wages to decent players and managment, unable to keep creditors at bay and unable to finish in the top 6, annually.
In an ideal world the 90s wouldn’t have happened and/or we’d be bankrolled by a wealthy Evertonian — but this isn’t an ideal world.
All the huff and puff about how we need a ’presence’ in the city centre and how we missed the boat with regards to the capital of culture annoys me too. We had a shop by central station years ago and it closed due to lack of business. I’m sure they’re running everton two at a loss as well, just to moaning idiots like Gavin Ramejkis happy.
We are a fantastically well run club these days, as anyone who remembers the latter half of the nineties will testify. Off the field we were completely stagnant back then, in an era when football was rapidly modernising and new revenue streams were opening up. BK has done a great job bringing us up to speed.
The one legitimate criticism you could level at BK would regard the fortress sports fund and its dissapearence, but people would rather just blame things that are out of his control on him.
I am not an apologist. However, he has kept the ship steady, he has gradually improved our situation and he has avoided us going the way of Leeds and Portsmouth. I think he has not found a major investor because he is looking for someone who will commit their money but let him retain control. That’s a tough sell. It is also difficult to sell a business which exists in the shadow of a competitor in the midst of a diminishing market base.
Some people have forgotten how bad things were under Peter Johnson. Selling to a US multi-national or some corrupt Russian oligarch or some oil-rich Arab layabout has serious dangers as well as advantages.
Frankly, right now I’m proud Everton is still owned by an Evertonian, is one of a diminishing number of clubs with a British manager and can still field some English players. We can still get rich from our own efforts, by developing good young players, keeping some and selling others, by doing well in Europe and by finishing in the money in the domestic competitions.
Gavin, take note.
The fact that Bill is also as much a bluenose as any of the rest of us also strikes a cord with me and allows me to keep some faith in the state of today’s game.
Unfortunately for Bill, he has put his head above the parapet as soon as he became the major shareholder and now has to suffer from the maxim....’ You cannot please all the people all the time’.
As for tomorrow’s game... We’ll see who’s in whose shadow come 3pm.
Come on boys, do the scum tomorrow.
I agree with you except for one thing. I think BK’s choice of CEO was spot on. In my book Elstone is doing a good job and his blog on the OS yesterday was an object lesson in the art of communicating with supporters.
Like many others on here I was at the game where we fluked a 1-1 draw to stay up and the pitch was invaded by thousands chanting "we want Johnson out". BK took up the reins and over his reign we have gone from laughing stock to class and dignity, respected throughout the football world.
Just what do the BK knockers wish for? He is broke like the rest of us; all he can do is his level best for the club we all love.
Kenwright’s a blue. Grew up. Made his money. Became head of the club he’s supported since a boy.
Get over it.
Or.... if he’s such a useless piece of shit - why not go one better and replace him?
Big game tomorrow. My bet is we wont lose, 1-1? But could be a 2-1 to us on the cards - Cahill and Yak.
COYB.
Yet some point out ridiculous facts. ’The club are in the most debt ever’. Yes, because our revenue is higher than ever also, and this services the increased debt. Earn more, spend more. Is it really that hard to understand?
What winds me up, is that had BK not got loans and refinanced areas of the club to free up cash for players, the same people would be whinging even more. So as chairman, he gets the funds to build this good squad we have, and people complain now because, believe it or not, he has spent money which has increased debt!! What exactly do they expect?
You can't indefinitely spend more money than your turnover without ending up like Portsmouth, which was the original point.
Of course, when those clubs start getting in debt (inevitable - you could see Pompey happening over 18 months ago), their fans will wish (as Pompey’s will right now) that the club had been more prudent. If some of those disagreeing with the post were in charge, we would be heading the same way.
Gavin, just a quickie, your company debt free is it?
The assumption always made is that any potential investor would be automatically bad and plunge us into debt.
BK is not the devil incarnate, and there’s no doubt about his passion for EFC. I admire the fact that he chased his dream of owning the club - but he’s now out of his depth - the game has moved on, and he’s not on the same page. He’s admitted as much.
The fact is he has presided over two disasterous stadium proposals. Kings’ Waterfront was deliverable, but he wouldn’t accept the terms offered to him by Gregg. In doing that he pissed off a lot of people who worked tirelessly on the proposal (my former employers were one such company).
You may have your own view as to whether Paul Gregg’s "reverse mortgage" was a good deal, but ask yourself this question:
Did BK turn it down because it was not a good deal for him, or for Everton Football Club.
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1 Posted 05/02/2010 at 07:35:09
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Potless
Smallest squad in the EPL
Serial lies - too many to list
Divided fanbase over an out of city stadium decision
Millions wasted on a doomed project
No nearer to a new stadium - U-turn on redevelopment which was said to be impossible?
Last but not least, highest debts in our history and ownership of nothing but player contracts
Have to disagree, he’s a joke out of his depth and there but for BK who knows where we would be... but how about none of the above? Shinawatra didn’t put City in debt by the way.