Stop Obsessing about Kenwright

I firmly believe that had some of the posters lived through the years when we graced the 2nd Division watching teams like Doncaster Rovers and the biggest thrill being beating Oldham Athletic to gain promotion to Division 1 they would really have a legitimate concern.

Yes the years of McKay and Manager Cliff Britton were not top drawer. Glad to see we are getting different views on the state of Everton Football Club rather than selective journalism that has been the order of the day in the recent past.

I don't particularly think only Kenwright is to blame for the present split in the support. I think the whole board are equally to blame and that includes Grantchester and Elstone. Let's be honest, the lies that have come out of the club, the arrogant disregard shown to supporters, have come out of the boardroom and not just BK's mouth.

By supporting, by saying nothing to the Chairman in his exploits of recent years, I reckon the whole board are culpable. Yes Elstone is BKs' man, he appears extremely articulate and clever but as far as I'm concerned he ? and Grantchester ? has no guts.

Surely Business Class 101 should be a QED of the top man/woman is ultimately responsible for the decisions and directions of that business; they employ suitably skilled staff below them to drive their strategy and vision. If those staff succeed, they claim the glory of employing them... and if they fail, they get bounced and you get the brickbats for employing them.

The "poor old Bill can't win" scenario smacks of naivety, his is failing as custodian of the club to develop it and either employ staff that can, or move on, accepting defeat and make himself a handsome profit in the process. The trouble is he has hung on and hung on and failed to do either.

The sceptic in me personally sees him as little more than a con-artist way out of his depth, clinging on whilst the club suffers his ineptitude and lack of business acumen or kudos.

I just don't care enough about the things that I cant influence by virtue of being neither rich enough or dodgy enough to be in that position!!!! I support EFC and for now that includes David Moyes as manager and Bill Kenwright as, well, Bill Kenwright!!!!

I personally don't hold out for a billionaire to suddenly appear on a white charger but rather a more competant businessman or woman who will finally demolish the old boy's club and run the club as a business and turn it around on the P&L sheets.

If he had acted differently and secured a workable deal with his one-time friend Paul Gregg over Kings Dock, then surely things would have been far far better for us, and your £300M shortfall would be far far smaller.

I know it doesn't help us going forward but how do you bring yourself to trust someone after two dismal episodes like that? They hugely outweigh any positives ? especially as the positives you cite are contexted within a negative environment that was created for Everton primarily through failings precipitated and/or overseen by the man himself.

So how will we get back on a more stable footing? No sheik-like saviour means no quick fixes. So then what is in prospect ? higher ticket prices? More of a selling club? Ground share? Pretty unpalatable stuff... but can some/all be avoided ? whether under BK or A N Other?

As a football club, your bread and butter for raising money has to be matchday revenue. Why in all these years is Kenwright only now looking at spending money on improving Goodison Park? (? where the matchday revenue comes from!) With the new admin building being built behind the park end, hopefully this will allow for improvements to the corporate facilities within the Main Stand, increasing the ? you guessed it ? matchday revenue!

Going back to your original point, Neil, Kenwright may not have set the traps, but he has done very little to free Everton from them, both as a business and a football club. NSNO.

I'm doing not too bad and I believe it's because I'm straight with all my customers. If I say I can do the job, it's done... and in my particular case, honesty is everything.

You spout all this shit about Obama and lying in business is acceptable. Maybe it is and maybe that's why the country's in the shit it's in!!

Bill has said many times he's just a fan. So maybe it's time we all shared the burden of responsibility and appoint a person(s) to make decisions who is directly answerable to the fan base. Our PM, David Cameron, thinks this is a good idea. http://www.supporters-direct.org/news/item.asp?n=11395&cat=sd_eng

My problem is, Neil, that those assurances ? that the club is up for sale and that Keith Harris was retained to sell the club ? were given to shareholders, the people who own the club, BEFORE the public inquiry took place ? and at the inquiry the Government was told by our club that Keith Harris WASN'T retained and the club WASN'T for sale.

What never ceases to amaze me, like many others, is the sheer lack of shame you have on here. Despite all your contradictions to the contrary, we all know you were an avid fan of Kirkby. As has been pointed out by others, you swallowed the club line ? hook, line and sinker ? but you're convinced you weren't and now deny everything ? obviously that must have been another Neil Pearse!

Now, to complete your transformation, you're now promoting the ideology of KEIOC though your enthusiastic support for the Swiss Rambler ? the piece is based on what KEIOC has been telling the fans for years, here's just a few:?

1. Their financial problems may not be quite so spectacular, but the fact is that Everton?s business model is bust.
2. Something has to be done to boost the club?s revenue, as the profit-and-loss account looks simply awful.
3. The debt largely arises from a £30M 25-year loan arranged with Bear Sterns in 2002.
4. Even where revenue has grown considerably, as with broadcasting increasing from £27M in 2007 to £49M in 2009, this has little to do with the club.
5. Although the club promised to improve its commercial operations a few years ago, it remains feeble at £9.2M, up just £0.5M from the prior year.
6. But where Everton really fall down is match day revenue, which was only £21.9M last year, even though it rose 7%.

He also said that the Swiss Ramble writer, Kieron O'Connor, is good but isn't an Evertonian and hasn't had the benefit of having lawyers set on him, being lied to, and battling with the club and the media for three years until proven right... so his pieces tend to be sanitised versions gleaned from the accounts and the media.

I asked if he was pleased to have a new supporter, I can't print what he said but it had something to do with preferring a water based lubricant and a kopite.

As for your alternative explanation for Kirkby are you for real? Did you actually follow the enquiry? Did you actually read and hear what various people said? No one, not Earl, Green, Tesco or KMBC were giving us anything.

Please, Neil, you have to get it into your head that DK was never never an option. Read the enquiry report and you'll understand why. It's not a case of disagreeing with you it's a case of you closing your eyes and ears to what actually happened.

This isn't the time of Shankley and Busby and they couldn't do now what they did in the 1960s, these are limited companies now not members clubs; there are no restrictions on pay for and movement of players and the leagues are infinitely more competitive now.

Well thought out argument, let's have more.

Ask anyone at LCC.

I could name a lot of business aquaintances but I won't out of courtesy.

You might also ask Trevor Birch. I am sure he will give you 1 or 2 reasons not to get involved with him. Four Chief Executives in 10 years also speaks volumes.

1) BK and his cronies removed the rights of the shareholders to call an EGM and 2) when they did last hold one regarding the whole Kirkby fuck-up they closed rank and used the one-share, one-vote and not one-person, one-vote and silenced the valid questions. As not a single member of the Board, who hold the lion's share of the shares, are willing to sell or dilute their shareholding (courtesy of the DK hearings), then you have a Catch-22 with the board sitting like the three wise monkeys ? see no, hear no and speak no.