Season › 2012-13 › News

KEIOC: A Question of Trust

Lyndon Lloyd , 6 January, 6comments  |  Jump to most recent
KEOIC call on Bill Kenwright to earn the trust he asks of Evertonians and back David Moyes in the transfer market this month. Below is the first part of the article from KEIOC, about 'Trust' during the Kenwright era:
There's an old saying, “never trust a man who asks you to trust him”, and, as with many an old saying, it's founded on bitter experience. In his chairman's report Bill Kenwright audaciously talks about trust on no less that eleven occasions; it makes us wonder if Bill Kenwright understands that trust is reciprocal, that trust has to be earned and that, over the past 13 years, far too many have come to believe in another old saying, “You couldn't trust him as far as you could throw him.”

What is trust? Integrity, strength, belief? Yes, all of those things, all of those things that Evertonians are seeing on the pitch but not off it, because after years of being misled, mistrust between fan and the management of the club has sadly, yet predictably, prevailed.

This latest plea for trust forms part of the 2012 accounts; trust us, they're appalling. Record operating losses, record debt, reduced turnover, £5m alone lost in gate receipts since 2008, non-existent EBITDA, the list is endless and the reading is as uncomfortable as listening to the well rehearsed excuses.

Everton's losses are only limited through receipts received from the disposals of assets, our assets; £24m in 2010, £14m in 2011 and £23m in 2012. They say the truth hurts; well trust us, this is the truth and these figures are hurting the club, are contributing to our stagnation and our seventeen year trophy free zone, another unwanted record of the Kenwright era.

We hope that in the Emperor's world of new clothes that Bill Kenwright exists in, someone will develop the testicular fortitude to forward this to him so that he can better understand what the Evertonians he likes to think he identifies with are thinking.

Change a single letter and trust becomes truth; give us one and you'll earn the other Bill, give us neither and you'll be remembered as the worst chairman in the history of Everton Football Club, worse than Johnson, worse than Houlding who split the club due to his pursuance of personal greed.

Eleven times you've talked about trust, here's another eleven occasions we've trusted you that you're telling the truth….
  • We trusted you that it was you who put everything on the line to save the club from Johnson;
  • We trusted you over the corporate governance of the club, that Sir Philip Green was just your friend;
  • We trusted you that Christopher Samuelson and Fortress Sports Fund were the saviours of the club;
  • We trusted you when you said you wouldn't sell Wayne Rooney even for £50m
  • We trusted you to deliver the fabulous Kings Dock Stadium;
  • We trusted you that our new investor was good for the club but all he brought was Rocky;
  • We trusted you that Tesco were giving us £52m towards the cost of a new stadium;
  • We trusted you when you told us Goodison would soon fail its safety certificate;
  • We trusted you when you said Keith Harris was working to sell the club;
  • We trusted you when you said that you were putting 50% of the money advanced to you by Deutsche Bank against future ticket sales of your shows into Everton;
  • We trusted you when you said no more loans, we can't afford them, the day after you borrowed from Vibrac.

Everton suffer from the all talk and no action syndrome. Bill, you can give us a story about the boy's pen or being with Cavanagh as he ran on the pitch in '66 at the drop of a hat, there's no one better at playing the bon vivant or the raconteur, you're the best front man in the business bar none; but talk is cheap, asked to take some action, give us some investment to push us on and the silence isn't golden, it's deafening.

Whilst other clubs forge ahead commercially we're stifled by a series of partnerships necessitated by the total lack of any form of investment by any member of the board for almost twenty years; a situation which manifestly makes the club unattractive to prospective owners and only serves to perpetuate Everton's plight.

Around the ground you'll see banners proclaiming trust for David Moyes; you'll never see one referring to you in that manner. The fans genuinely trust Moyes; if you want to earn that trust sell some shares, sell your soul, do whatever it takes but trust in Moyes to deliver the European gravy train which will coincide with the new broadcast deal and give Everton a better chance of joining the elite of the premiership. It's January, we know what he's asked you for, he must have targets, it's time to put your trust to the test, not through a Leeds style gamble but through bringing forward guaranteed income to assist our manager.

The ball is firmly in your court Bill, time to stop the talking, put up or shut up; cometh the hour, cometh the man.
[The second part of the article at KEIOC is about a completely different subject: the appointment of Sir Terry Leahy as an ambassador for Everton in the Community.]

» Read the full article at Keeping Everton In Our City

Reader Comments (6)

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


Danny Broderick
1 Posted 06/01/2013 at 22:07:55
Fantastic piece. I can't see the board doing anything about it, assuming they see a copy, but at least it asks questions of them. Roll on the day when we are rid of the lot of them - Earl, Green, Grantchester and Kenwright. Parasites and freeloaders all of them.
Karl Masters
2 Posted 06/01/2013 at 22:18:39
If the rumour that Grantchester won't put any money in because he doesn't trust Bill is true, nothing more really needs to be said......
Paul Jamieson
3 Posted 06/01/2013 at 23:32:07
Maybe someone should ask Lord Granchester?
Adam Fenlon
4 Posted 07/01/2013 at 00:52:09
I'm not entirely convinced BK was "trusted" during many of those examples to be honest – with the possible exception of the first one.
Tony J Williams
5 Posted 07/01/2013 at 12:04:04
What's the saying, fool me once, shame on you...etc

If you "trusted" him after the first couple, then you are a nutter!

Colin Fitzpatrick
6 Posted 07/01/2013 at 12:05:37
Adam, KEIOC are being deliberately facetious in speaking metaphorically to Bill Kenwright. Like you, probably based on that old “fool me once” idiom, I believe many have never trusted him, but sadly, even today, particularly in the media, many still fall for the stories – look at the writer in the Express telling its readers that Bill puts every penny he has into Everton to support Moyes. Never forget what Goebbels said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.” Most won’t have heard a lot of those stories; even the so-called investigative journalists can’t understand what’s going on at Everton, it's easier to write about Bill, the blue.

I used to get really offended at these stories, or to be more accurate, these lies, as they’re put out to deliberately mislead and ultimately when you tell somebody a lie, what you’re really saying is, “you’re stupid enough to believe this.” These days I just ignore both them and the people who tell them, because I know I’m better than them, I know I don’t mislead my fellow Evertonians; what you see is what you get, trust me!

Year after year, I think there can be nobody left who will attempt to defend Bill’s style; does he not understand that what he sees as harmless stories are at best actually offensive to many for a variety of different reasons – or at worst the tip of something far more sinister?

That portraying himself as the ultimate blue – going to Goodison on his Uncle Cyril’s handlebars to watch the Cannonball Kid from the Boys Pen with holes in his shoes – is a million miles away from the reality of the middle-class Liobian from the leafy suburbs of Mossley Hill whose father owned a building company. You see, the reality isn’t anywhere near as good as the tale woven by Bill who, in local parlance, is a bit of a Tom Pepper; a person who is normally tolerated and ignored... except with Bill it’s different; he has his hands on Everton.

The harsh reality is that the business of football isn’t about romance; it’s about results, both on the pitch and off it. Don’t confuse form with results; our results on the pitch reveal that we haven’t won anything since ’95 – and as for the results off the pitch, Joe Beardwood tells you everything you need to know.

Can you trust Joe? Notice he isn’t asking you to trust him, he isn’t trying to get you to listen to him by telling you that he's in a better position to comment and understand Everton's accounts than most due to the fact that he’s ran a couple of companies that makes Everton look like a corner shop (which he has, btw).

So you can either believe an IT guy from the Rugby League or you can believe those who tell you the facts as they really are. Neither is going to contribute to getting us through to the 4th round though so best just enjoy that particular bit of romance whilst you can.

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

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 Talking Points submissions across the site.


About these ads