Please bear in mind that the majority of staff involved worked for EFC at the time of the Kirkby propaganda onslaught and they had the £52 million from Tesco rammed down their throats along with the rest of the lies.

It took a long time for a lot of them to realize and accept just how much the club had lied to them. It was very hard to take for employees who for the most part are also fans.

Anyway, I was told;


1) In late March 2013 all internal staff met in a hotel in Liverpool to be informed by Robert Elstone how hard his team had been working all year and that this was mainly on a new badge and a more modern branding.

There was silence from them throughout the meeting. Elstone provided an anonymous suggestion box to be used as the staff left the room at the end of the meeting.

[Please note that morale amongst the staff has been going downhill for a number of years. The staff are in constant fear of losing their jobs and knows they will face reprisals if they speak out when asked for opinions.]

The fear factor is that deep that, as far as my relative knows, despite the general disappointment and despondency with the direction and lack of leadership from Elstone, no-one was prepared to make a suggestion.

Also, it has got to the stage that they believe their handwriting may be checked to verify their identity or someone may have been watching the box. Making a ‘suggestion’ would constitute not toeing the official line and repercussions would follow.

My relative said that he found out later that everyone thought the new badge was a disgrace and once again Elstone showed why he is not up to the job of CEO. He simply does not get ‘it’ – it being EFC.

2) The staff believes Denise Barrett-Baxendale, CEO of Everton in the Community, would be an ideal replacement as CEO of EFC. This is based on her involvement with the internal staff over the years, the ideas she has floated for the future of EFC and her overall personality and intelligence. It was said she is and has been ‘running rings’ around Elstone for a while and highlighting his failures and weaknesses.

As said, the staff would be very much in favour of her taking over from Elstone asap for the well being and future of the club but Kenwright sees her as a threat.

Some insights and opinions from someone who loves EFC and has worked for them for over 10 years.

It's gonna be Neville. Martinez will laugh his fucking head off once he meets the luvvy bastard.

On a more serious note, I have been surprised to read and hear of people like Kilbane, Unsworth and a few others who will still have connections at the Club, stating they are surprised Everton are talking to Martinez and had expected an internal appointment.

That would tie in somewhat with the above.

As for Elstone, I just don't know. I met him once and he seemed nice enough, but I'm not 100% he is much more than a buffer between BK and the rest of us. Likewise, I have had some positive dealings with Dave Biggar, but after the badge shambles and revelations he's a Red, I'm far from convinced about Everton's management and their reasons for being there other than obvious financial ones.

Sounds like fanciful gossip rather than anything else.

On the CEO thing - I think it doesn't really matter so long as BK continues to want to be "the man" in terms of public facing decisions, while not being prepared to take a role actually running the club on a day to day level. It forces whoever the CEO is into a situation where they don't have enough power delegated to them to act effectively (remember how long BK kept Elstone as "interim"), so they end up being a glorified administrator rather than an executive actually in charge of the business side of Everton.

This is not the club that I grew up supporting, don't get me wrong they were never a charity but they always had time for people and that image has been dealt several blows in recent years. I do hope the source is wrong about the internal paranoia because that is not an environment that lends itself to progress and as resentments build people start to not care about the job they are doing and end up just turning up for the wage without regard for the clients, so ultimately it falls onto the fans.

There is probably a semblance of truth that the players didn't always get on with DM, but I'm dead against player power as a concept, input and dialogue yes, but the manager whoever that is must have the final say on tactics etc. Let's be honest there are no Drogba's or Lampard's et al at our club so they shouldn't be in a position to revolt if indeed that is what they have done.

Sheedy didn't get on with him did he? It could be him.

Complete and utter cods wallop...
all hearsay & ITK from people who work at the club...

The silly season is well underway....

What a depressing article. Not sure of its point or value! Moyes was the manager and is not there to keep players happy they're getting paid enough!

If the new manager is internal I'll do the proverbial in Lewis' window!!

This is someone with a huge axe to grind!

"it has always been 100% accurate when factual and 75% accurate when opinion"

Does the source wear Sex Panther cologne by any chance?

I'm digging your recent Partidge / anchorman comments JD... keep em coming!!!

As far as I am aware it is usually the CEO that conducts transfer activity and the recruitment of any potential manager. Ian Ayre would therefore appear to hold more clout than his counterpart Elstone with Kenwright conducting the managerial sideshow. The leaked Ian Ross e-mails a couple of years back deduced that Elstone suffers from a distinct sense of paranoia and wouldn't appear to trust the integrity of those working close to him. There is also an online petition gathering pace looking to put pressure on Everton to get rid of him.

Sid, I think you'll find the manager is absolutely getting paid to keep the players performing, which usually equates to happy. This is regardless of what they get paid.

Personally I can believe Moyes was rubbing many of the players up the wrong way, and I personally believe that Moyes in the last few years got a very big head with all of the media hype surrounding him, so I can imagine that he'd annoy a few people.

However, I think the idea that all the internal dislike him, and that all the first team squad were against him frankly unbelievable.

Sounds completely Believable with the way I seen Moyes carry himself and his regimental squad.

If it is an internal appointment then no wonder Bill looked so 'happy' after meeting DM as that's going to go down well on top of the badge fiasco.

Probably the press that made DM's head get bigger telling him constantly how much Everton are punching above their weight with him in charge and all the 'plucky' Everton comments.

*sorry should be RM meeting

Cowardly, badly written drivel. Sub tabloid wet dream with no rhyme nor reason to it what so ever. None of this reflects on any of the people praised, damned or ignored in this gossip. If I was editing this site I'd do the decent thing and just take it down. Recall the *innocent face*

The post says that Moyes lost the squad on a number of occasions due to his attitude.
Not all the time.
I would suggest that it is highly believable except it should have said the majority of the squad - Can't see Neville and a few others rebelling somehow.
And I agree it was probably the majority of internal staff who cheered rather than them all.
But I think Moyes had started to believe his own hype fuelled by SAF,the media and Kenwright over the years.
I think the really important issue raised from the post is the continued incompetence of Robert Elstone.
As said above it re-confirms what was exposed in the leaked emails.
And very interesting re Denise Barrett Baxendale who has an excellent reputation and is highly respected amongst her peers.
COYB

Intersting stuff but I'm a tad sceptical. I think if Moyes had really lost the dressing room so badly, there would have been many more transfer requests and players jumping ship at the first oppotunity. Our player retention has been pretty good over the years.

And just to add some substance to this, I can report that I generally find that I'm approximately 100% accurate when I'm right, 50% accurate when I'm nearly right, and 0% accurate when I'm wrong.

I don't think Moyes' head has gotten bigger at all. I don't believe he had or has any doubts about himself as a coach, even before becoming Everton manager. He seems to have a clear idea of how to achieve his goals & has been thoroughly effective in doing so. I'm glad he's finally moving on.

I know many people inside the club, the article is true but no one who supported Moyes will like the idea that he was disliked, he was a Dictator and eventually like all dictators he believed his own hype and has taken on a job that will swallow and devour him.
A cloud has been lifted over Goodison Park.. Martinez has smiled more in the last week than Moyes did in 11 years. Good Bye Mr. Moyes your fate awaits you.

I once stood in front of David Moyes and in a clam and respectful manner criticised some of the things he had done / not done. He sat there cold eyed and never said a word Arrogance personified.

I am now looking forward to the future with a more positive manager and a back room staff that can do something other than organise a defence.

I know someone who works at Everton and he is gutted Moyes has left and never mentioned people being happy about it.

Anyway good to see Coleman getting MOM tonight

Hurrah! Something positive! Something real! Well done, Ian, I agree entirely. Great to see Coleman play so well and a fantastic cross for the Irish goal

Fortunately he's gone now and soon enough the truth of what he's made of will be revealed.

With Fergies squad not only trophies (nb. plural and continuous) are expected but it has to be done a certain way. Throw in the massive egos at OT and unless he hits the ground running he won't last the season.

Mark Dunford 633.
Why do you feel the need to attack a fellow blue with such vitriol.
The source of the information is impeccable and in fact you are attacking a member of my family.
If you wish to bury your head in the sand and believe everything in the Everton garden is rosy then fair enough.
However, in the real world that is not the way it is.
The source has no axe to grind. In fact quite the opposite,they love working for the club they support.
What they are concerned about is the working atmosphere, the leadership or lack of from their CEO
and what they have observed in and around the work place.
As said in the post I was shocked myself that a lot of staff cheered re the news of Moyes leaving but I do not work there and there is no way my family member was lying.
As said if you cannot accept inside knowledge fair enough but lay off with the cowardly comments etc.

To add, I have been happy to provide the editors with the full details of the source to prove how genuine the information is.

What a load of bollocks! Why are half of the staff going to follow him to Old Trafford then? Why was there a love in among the whole 1st team squad when he was manager? I'll tell you why, it's because he generated the spirit amongst them. That's why Stubbs and Weir wanted to come back and work for him. That's why Duncan came back and shook his hand 5 years after they fell out.
If any manager has served in any industry 11 years and never fallen out with anyone, I would say they are not doing their job properly. Tough decisions have to be made, and feathers will be ruffled. Big deal.
Moyes has gone now, but he was a good man and conducted himself well when he was with us. He might have upset a few, but he had a good working relationship with far more, I'm sure of that.

True or no, future events down the track may shed more light. The fact that some one was prepared to write it and have many on here saying... why am I not surprised.

It's all about perception, the ' If it walks like a duck etc '

Badge-gate and now this ITK-gate show a pattern, and the pattern seems to say, If you asked a Club spokesperson to comment all you would get would be...

Quack.

Because people should have the courage to stand by what they say. Everything else is rumour.

Like many Evertonians, I met Moyes and was impressed with him though I confess it was some time ago.

As someone working in the media, my guess is this change was planned sometime ago and then leaked accidentally when SAF's health became an issue

I'm getting fed up with so much of ToffeeWeb. There is good stuff yet the drumbeat of drivel drowns everything. Decent voices should be heard not hounded. Nothing personal but your post adds nothing of substance.

All true...apparently Moyes insisted the tea-ladies add the milk after the tea had been poured rather than before and they couldn't wait to be rid of the ginger know-all...

Mark would you put a relative's job in jeopardy in these tough economic times I think probably not Bob has answered your questioning and I'm pretty sure if it was he himself who worked at the club he would have had the gumption to put his name and address on the post. Of course his relative could have misinterpreted or misrepresented the facts but that doesn't mean that Bob is a coward.

David Moyes brought great dignity to our club. Always something positive to say about the opposition and people in general.

It was obvious he became disillusioned with Bill and cronies the last couple of years but that didnt prevent him from getting the most out of the playing squad 75%!!! of whom thought the world of him.

Lets not try to undermine a man who dragged us from relegation fights to "top table" fights and has left the club far healthier than he found it despite the efforts of Kenwright and co.

Maybe some of this is true, and internal staff didn't like him. But no player who has ever left as ever come out and said anything bad about him. Shandy, Drenthe and even McFadden all had their runins with him some very publicly too, but they have all praised him since saying he was hard and fair and can see he was only like that cos he demanded the best.. As Danny 697 says, Stubbs, Weir and Dunc all came back to work under him. So what there are some people put out by the boss not saying hello to them every day, he dragged us up the league over the years. He had faults I agree, loads tbh. He's gone now so move on, but thanks David all the same.

Mark - 683
I agree people should have the courage to stand by what they say but that is not possible in certain circumstances.

Working in the media you know everything is not that black and white hence why we have annonymous whistleblowers.

I also agree you cannot please all of the people all of the time regarding Moyes but as I said above the really important part of the post is regarding Robert Elstone, his role and the working atmosphere he has created.

It would be interesting to see what he would list as his achievements since becoming CEO because I struggle to find any to be honest.
COYB

I hate all this conspiracy shite, he was good for Everton and he got us up the right end of the table, but he wasn't perfect obviously. Lets just move on, Christ, he certainly has.

I thought he was in post for another month, Owen.

Balderdash ! The only bit of this bearing much veracity is the fact that the `insiders` money is on an internal appointment.
There was not one Evertonian in the Freshy tonight who would even lay odds against Stubbsy,the local hero,getting the job.My money on Roberto was gobbled up......all £10 of it!

Richard I do hope you have enough to buy a drink for yourself before you parted with your hard-earned. Don't go chasing the £10 by gambling even more on some other bet, or you'll be in debtors prison and you won't be able to keep us up to date with all things blue and Freshy.

All I know is, is that some of the younger players are made up he's gone as he didn't even talk to them anymore. He liked to be surrounded by his favourites and untouchables.

We were still in with a chance of a top4 until the final straight to fair play to Moyes. Having said that 11 years is an awfully long time and if you want stability get a wife and have a couple of kids. Your life won't be going anyway for a while yet.

New manager, new romance, will we go up or will we crash I don't want to know the future that's the whole point of living. Exciting times ahead. COYB.

Danny #679 - with you 99% (but without your first line).

Bob - I don't doubt what you say is a version given to you - but if there is one thing that always seemed to be a certainty to me is that the squad had a great team spirit. Just how this could have been engendered if Moyes was a despot is beyond me. Ok, he wasn't 'touchy, feely' and 'a laugh a minute' kind of guy and was no doubt a disciplinarian - but that's what these over pampered millionaires need (to my mind).

If it's correct about Elstone then it sounds as if he'd be no great loss.

Whether you loved or loathed Moyes - he's history now.

FFS - let's get behind the new bloke whoever it is - as he's got one hell of a challenge to keep TW contributor's happy (and apparently sod all funds to compete with).

I said last week about what a certain Legend who works at the club said to a well known Evertonian at a function, he never spoke to Sheedyvor the big fella and never attended the youth games they took charge of, they never got on at all, he also said deal with Utd was done a good while back.

Fascinating stuff, but I'd like this 'Deepthroat,' character to provide us with more compelling examples if I'm to completely believe it.

I will be interested to learn why the 'old boys' came back to work for somebody who was universally unpopular, and why, if as is thought likely, he takes the upper echelons of his coaching staff with him, they would follow such a pariah.

On matters of substance, the two things (article. comment) seem to be dealing with different things. The former with the standing of Moyes within the club, then second with the internal culture of the club. If the description of the latter is correct - that morale is down and management more authoritarian - that is sad, though not unusual in large organisations today. With respect to Moyes, as others have observed, the 'he has frequently lost the whole dressing room' line seems utterly inconsistent with any other evidence we have. Dissent and dislike from players and professionals normally emerges one way or another about managers. Moyes has been at Everton for over 10 years and nothing of that sort has ever emerged.

It seems to me that dissent concerning the culture of the club and dissent about Moyes is in danger of being confused and conflated in this mixture of reportage, speculation and gossip. By the way, if the employees are really so afraid to register any dissent I'm slightly surprised that they were willing to openly cheer the departure of the 'despot'.

Bosses who win popularity contests with their staff usually arent doing much of a job....

Unsubstantiated tittle tattle is what this is. It falls below the usual standards I've come to expect of ToffeeWeb. Are the fl

Who gives a flying fuck if he was liked or not? It's points on the board that counts.

For a manager who was tactically inept and constantly losing the dressing room, he did ok.

He's gone now, now he is the oribble mancs boss, move on and lets talk about the possible new fella.

By the way, any thread that includes a "my uncles's cousin's dog walker's best friends mate" shite holds no sway with me.......(unless I am writing it, then it's Gospel)

Maybe these internal staff didn't like the high standards and hard work that Moyes set at the club?

Maybe they would prefer the dark days when everything was easy and no one was cracking the whip?

As someone says above "Bosses who win popularity contests with staff usually aren't doing much of a job....."

As for Elstone I think he's out of his depth and spends more time arguing with Evertonians than doing his job, very unprofessional !

Will be surprised if he's around much longer after the badge cock up!

Gingers have souls, Kevin!

I see there's a move to express disappointment in Elstone.
So there should be !
What exactly has our CEO brought to the Club ??
Well maybe the RS supporting cast off from the RS ! Unbelievable.
The publicity surrounding this no mark is only going to increase in the coming days and regardless our name will be brought into it.
I can't believe that we can do some things so well - Hillsborough support etc - and on the other hand make such arseholes of ourselves !
Elstone has to go !!!!

So your source says it will be stubbs - If that was the case i'd probably pack in watching footie altogether !! no offence to stubbs great bloke but we are talking about running everton not tranmere !!

I used to have a source. My sister used to work for Everton in Goodison Park and she said everybody loved BK there. She said RE was OK but never really seen him.

This proves nothing other than I used to have a source at Everton with an opinion. I can't believe this post was allowed to go up and be discussed on, especially considering the message on TW last week or so about people pretending to have real information.

Why does any of this matter anymore??? He's gone, but to be fair I noticed a change in Moyes attitude, but could you blame him? It was probably frustration, we were so close, I mean a couple of times we flirted with the top four and, with just a bit more strength in depth, we could've pulled it off... the 2009 FA Cup Final for one — we were never going to win, having Arteta and Jagielka out.

I did think he was too negative at times, but he did move the club forward. As for what happens behind the scenes, that doesn't concern me: what happens on the pitch does.... Well, obviously the lack of investment in the team, but not 'the tea lady doesn't get on with the cleaner' rubbish.

Don't listen to the nutters Bob. This piece is very intersting, but it does highlight an interesting contradiction.

Many fans have pointed out what are seen as corporate failures on behalf of the club's management team and directors, but the workng environment that you have described above sounds like that of a typical modern commercial organisation.

The hoo-haa surrounding the badge isn't too dissimilar to this. The club acted like the cut-throat commercial entity that many fans seem to yearn for. They clearly got it wrong as they alienated many customers/fans in the process, but the original idea of modernising the badge makes commercial sense.

Anthony (949) - "...but the original idea of modernising the badge makes commercial sense"

Really?

Why?

Remember - NOBODY was calling for it.

Never saw a TW thread 'We need to change our crest', never heard one (blue) mate say the same.

In fact a week ago, our crest may have been the one Everton-related subject we all (or at least 91% of us) agreed on

Conclusion - the whole thing was 100% unnecessary

And that we have a board prepared to ignore 'leave well alone' and/or 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', should be a huge concern.

This made me laugh, Joe Bibb 647

"I once stood in front of David Moyes and in a clam and respectful manner criticised some of the things he had done / not done. He sat there cold eyed and never said a word Arrogance personified."

I have the image of you scuttling up to him and launching into your 'polite critique', him looking at you and realising that you were not Sir Alex, Jose Mourinho or even Hawwy but infact only Joe Bibb.

I would call that patience personified.

I admire those that stick to the principal of 'If you don't have anything nice to say say nothing'

But I don't like people who don't respond to a cheery 'Hello' of the morning, and I'm certainly not the type to discount something a mysterious/anonymous bloke on the internet says a mate/relative/dog told him once.

Davey Moyes' attitude eh, what a quandary. I feel caught between two stools on this one.

Numerous players, past and present, have gone out of their way to comment on the team spirit that has existed at Everton, with Moyes even having the new lads sing at a Karaoke night in order to break the ice and with no need to join in a pathetic huddle like the RS do. What, are they all lying? Cahill, Arteta, Jags? All of them? Lying? Somehow I tend to believe what these players have said rather than hearsay, regardless of how accurate the poster believes it to be.

Eugene

"the original idea of modernising the badge makes commercial sense"

What Anthony meant was "it would be much easier to reproduce the cartoon image on the products of the sweatshops, thereby reducing expenses and increasing profits for our "partners" Nike/Kitbag"

Get with the comm-speak programme, old boy - oh, and hands {above} the desk, please Ruane

So what have we learnt from his? That Moyes 'lost the dressing room' and that he no longer greeted the cleaners/stewards/office staff with a cheery hello. Stu ning news.

Rather than believe the hype perhaps he should just rely on the facts....won FUCK ALL in 11...yes ELEVEN.... years !!

I worked in the promotions and ticket office for a few years and the general consensus was that Moyes was a arrogant ignorant prick who wouldn't even let on to anybody.

Sure plenty of people at Man U were delighted when Fergie left.Why? Because he was completely ruthless if he felt you werent delivering or were disruptive. Moyes obviously modelled his style on Fergie but lacked a number of key elements, namely 38 trophies.

Mark Dunford,

I have a friend who works in the media.He cleans the khasi's at Radio City.
As "someone who works in the media" what is your job?

John Gee, read the report from 'Army Of One' - a feller it appears who was involved in booking him.

http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=428626.15;imode

I really thought there was going to be a mini riot that night and as one of my mates was with his missus, we wisely decided to get off before the end.

Johny Rotten's line "Ever had the feeling you've been ripped off?" was never more apt.

This post has some clout doesn't it?

Colin Potter - 095 - I worked in the promotions and ticket office for a few years and the general consensus was that Moyes was a arrogant ignorant prick who wouldn't even let on to anybody.

I mean, potentially, EFC could deny that Col worked there, if they cared or if they run thier board/bored eyes over our threads..

No reason to believe that he did not.

No reason to believe that his view of the 'general consensus' is wrong, although, who knows, our Col might be a jaundiced fully signed up MOB member (I think not).

Paul Lally 636, I like the way you cleared a few points up for people. My question to you is though, despite the Neviller being the model-pro and one of Moyes main boys, do you think in the eight years he was working under Dour Dave there was never a disagreement of some kind? I've worked/lived/played footy with best mates and sometimes it's come close to fisticuffs.

I would place a fair sized wager none of the staff cheered as loud as I did.

Or me Paul...

Don't think anyone cheered as loud as you Ross...

Ross Barclay might have done David!!

Let's hope the new boss gives him more game time, he can't have "great potential" for ever, time to deliver methinks

We know who was crying, a lot....

I don't disbelieve Bob Davies. It might be that he has an axe (knife) to grind but it just seems to be an interesting insight on how the lower paid staff saw a change in Moyes. Whether it's true or not, none of us will know for certain unless the individual(s) got on here and spoke up. thus guaranteeing to lose their jobs. But I don't see the need to decry a feller for writing a post about what his relative has told him. There's no need to decry him for that.

What is more interesting to me is that Elstone is reputed to have been working for a long time on a new badge. There are a few comments about him (as he's still here and nominally in charge) that are more pertinent now, than what Moyes was or wasn't like. This indicates what a fair number of posters are saying — that our CEO is not cutting the mustard. What worries me is the reaction by Kenwright (well at least I think it's him who's put the apology up).

If he did't know what was going on with the "tarting up of the badge, why on earth didn't he? He is supposed to be the guardian of the club, its (horrible word) Brand, its traditions and to think he wasn't aware of the impending change to a toytown badge is appalling.

If he is allowing Elstone to bugger about with our club's crest, then it's his final choice of manager that I'd be frightened about.

As somebody who knows several people at the club, let me counter this with "that's utter bollocks". Moyes was HUGELY popular with the staff. I know one employee who had a Mourinho/Materazzi style tearful farewell with Moyes – she still says he was the nicest man she's met in football and had time for everybody. Two others I know at the club - in different departments – have similar stories and both say Moyes took the time to say goodbye to everybody, wish them well and thank them for their contribution.

Certainly not accusing YOU of lying Bob, but your story doesn't chime at all with the stories I've heard from long-standing employees at the club. I wonder if your particular source had an axe to grind?

Paul Foster (470) - " I know one employee who had a Mourinho/Materazzi style tearful farewell with Moyes - she still says he was the nicest man she's met in football and had time for everybody"

I'm sure that's the case.

However despite Kenwright's ability to become moist-eyed at the mention of Moyes, the boys pen, Hickson, Uncle Joe, the kop, etc etc etc, I think 'she' is a little impertinent.