Easily the most divisive issue of my lifetime as an Evertonian. Plenty of people on both sides who are very passionate about the subject, but very difficult to work out how many. Clearly, we can all agree that 20 years since Dave Watson lifted the FA Cup in front of a sour faced Prince Charles at Wembley is too long. Bill Kenwright has been at the helm for 16 of those years. The vast majority.
Without doubt, the biggest gripe amongst Evertonians when they criticise Kenwright and tell him it’s ‘time to go’ is Everton’s trophy drought. There’s no doubt that there isn’t a single Evertonian- be it Kenwight or you or I, who isn’t gutted about that. I was lucky enough to be there as a kid to watch us win, but twenty year old adults have now known no different than an Everton side not winning a trophy. But the issues of Everton not winning a trophy go far beyond Kenwright and his board.
In the interst of fairness, let me begin this by saying: Bill Kenwright has overseen a club that has made it’s fair share of errors over the 16 years of his ownership, and they deserve acknowledgement in the context of this piece:
Soundbites such as there is “no better salesman for this club” and how the search for investment goes on “24/7” were ill advised and time does not look kindly upon them.
The Kings Dock. Clearly an opportunity of epic proportions that passed us by despite the money being apparently “ring fenced”. Without doubt, a failure beyond compare.
When the move to Kirkby was in the pipeline, the message from Everton was that Goodison would be in danger of not getting safety certificates within ten years. Eight years later and though this might still be the case, those tactics have left a bitter taste in the mouth for some and added to a sense of distrust for the board.
Christopher Samuelson. When Bill Kenwright introduced Christopher Samuelson to an AGM at Goodison as the man behind investment from the Fortress Sports Fund, the room was taken by suprise. Samuelson then introduced himself as a lifelong Evertonian behind a consortium that was willing to invest money at Everton: excellent news. However, all was not as it seemed, as one astute arl blue asked Samuelson who had scored the winner in the 1966 FA Cup Final- the response was a murmured “I don’t know, I was a student in Munich at the time”. Needless to say, Samuelson’s response was met with the cynicism it deserved, many of you reading this won’t have even been born in ’66 but I’m sure lots of you will know who scored the winner that day. Samuelson’s money never materialised despite Kenwright saying “the money will be in the bank in the morning” and we’ve never heard of him since. This was clearly another mistake from Kenwright and one that won’t be forgotten.
Lack of investment. Not only have Kenwright and his board apparently never invested any of their own money into the club (aside from buying their shares), but they have been unsuccessful in attracting substantial outside investment from elsewhere. City got Sheikh Mansour, and Chelsea got Abramovich. We got Robert Earl who, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t been back at Goodison since Rocky himself watched us play out a draw against Reading on a cold January afternoon. Talk about glamour, eh Sly? Some money men have come calling for us, though, of that I’m sure. The now jailed Carson Yeung apparently came knocking before he invested in Birmingham City with money he has since been proven to have laundered in Hong Kong. Of course the right thing to do was not to sell to the likes of him, but despite the 24/7 search for 16 years, the suitable people have not been found according to Kenwright. In defence of Bill, he hasn’t been salaried in his time with the club either, which deserves a mention. For the sake of context, Daniel Levy of Spurs is reported to take home over two million pounds a year- most of the fee we paid Barnsley for John Stones, a lot of money for a club like us that just doesn’t have it.
None of the above makes for pleasent reading, but there is more than meets the eye, or at least, what we’re told to consider, than this simple message:
David Moyes
David Moyes did a superb job for Everton. He took us from a side near the bottom of the table and worked (with Kenwright) to stabalise the club and left us a club that were more likely to be pushing for a European place than worrrying about our run-in when the fixtures were announced. That being said, Moyes’ time at Everton comes with the sizeable caveat that his performance in the cups in his time in charge were terrible. In eleven years with Everton, Moyes had the chance to win twenty two domestic cups. We reached one final in his time. Portsmouth, Cardiff, Stoke, Millwall, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Bolton, and Wigan each reached a final in Moyes’ time at the club. That isn’t anything to do with Kenwright, Woods, Earl or Elstone- that’s Steffan Wessels being played against Oldham at home in the FA Cup and losing, that’s a weakend side playing against Shrewsbury, who would be relegated from the entire football league that year, and losing. That isn’t Kenwright’s fault. The one final we did reach in our time with Moyes, we had lost our three best players down the spine of our side to injury: Jagielka, Arteta and Yakubu- that isn’t Moyes’ fault in this instance, but it certainly isn’t Kenwright’s, either. Had Everton been facing a Chelsea side without Drogba, Lampard and Terry back in 2009 I think we’d have fancied our chances against them. Kenwright didn’t give the team talk at half time when we went on to lose the semi final against Liverpool with Andy Carroll scoring the winner- I’ve never seen a team play so scared. And Moyes had some good sides, he just didn’t get it done in the cups. As far as I’m concerned, Moyes’ manegerial performance in cup competitions leaves a stain on his record with Everton.
We hear lots of criticisms banded about from fan groups, often School of Science and the Blue Union, and I’ll come back to them, but how accurate and relevant are their criticisms really?
Asset stripping. Asset stripping something you hear thrown about, and plenty of players have come and gone in Kenwright’s 16 years at the club. In a piece recently published in the Daily Mirror, Joe Jennings of School of Science revived the dissappointment of selling Wayne Rooney way back in 2004. Jennings quoted Kenwright as having previously said he wouldn’t sell Rooney “not even for fifty million”, only for him to later be sold for considerably less. This smacks as an exercise in cheap point scoring as any Evertonian who was aware of the deal at the time knows Rooney wanted to leave Everton for United, didn’t get along with then manager David Moyes (who would later sue Rooney for comments made about Moyes in his time with Everton), and had no interest in signing a new deal that only had two years left to run by this stage. Perhaps Jennings would rather Kenwright had allowed Rooney to leave for a tribunal fee? Because that wouldn’t have been held against him? Perhaps Jennings would rather Kenwright have negotiated a larger fee when faced with the prospect of selling the best young English player of a generation? Perhaps in that sense, Jennings would rather Kenwright have not had the market dictated Rooney’s worth, or better yet- he has knowledge of a bid that was made for Rooney for more money than United had offered, but Kenwright didn’t take? If you’re reading this, Joe, do let us know?
Whilst on the topic of Joe Jennings and his piece in the Mirror, can I take the opportunity to clear this up: Jennings wrote we are currently ran by “the most unsuccessful board in the club’s history”- this is opinion that has been presented as fact. Had Jennings have said ‘this is the longest period in Everton’s history without a trophy’ then that would be incontrovertible. But, between 1946 and 1960, Everton didn’t finish higher than 10th in the first division, and 3 of those years were spent in the old second division. Those, Joe, are facts, not opinion. We didn’t win a thing in those years, although we did finish as runners up in the second division in 1953/54. Facts, Joe, not opinion. Jennings said the “the theme has been consistent throughout Bill Kenwright’s reign at Everton: failures and broken promises” I think it is more along the lines of ‘disappointment at hitting the glass ceiling and some glaring errors’ but those are my opinions, Joe, these are not facts. Hopefully we’re getting the hang of this now. Pedantic? Probably, but I’ll come back to the School of Science shortly and why I take issue with them.
Everton are accused of not being transparent enough, a criticism I don’t necessarily agree with, but I do think it was a mistake to stop holding the AGMs and does add credence to this criticism. Kenwright had the decency to sit down with members of the Blue Union to discuss candidly in private some of their concerns around the club. Like naughty school kids they recorded the conversation and reported it for absolutely anyone to hear, so I don’t blame Kenwright for being guarded from that point on- any hope of fans discussing sensitive topics (such as his unsuccessful search for investment) with the Chairman will have long gone with this basic violation of trust.
We hear how Everton have ‘no plan’ but how does anyone outside of the club know that? How can that be true to say? Because what club in their right mind would share with anyone their strategic business plan? I’d be more concerned if people did know it.
I’ll leave on a couple of musings, and a couple of facts…
There are issues at Everton, and there have been for years. The commercial departments have been outperformed by their peers. There was an issue of accepting deals to satisfy cash flow rather than long term benefits and this has even been acknowledged by the club in the past. Issues that have long lingered over Everton but precede Kenwright and certainly Elstone, but it’s up to them to fix it: that cannot be understated.
Kenwright should have found a suitable buyer by now, and he has had long enough at the helm now to make that happen. Last year Everton did sag back into the middle of the table pack, and time will tell whether that was a blip, or a true reflection of where we are post- Moyes. The reality is, however, that everyone connected with Everton football club is hungry for a trophy and Bill Kenwright’s time at the club will forever be synonymous with the longest period in our history (to date) without a trophy (this is a fact, Joe), rather than the man who took the reigns and stabalised Everton during a really, really difficult time for the club. Because he did (this is an opinion, Joe).
I do think Kenwright should probably go, 16 years is long enough- although as I spoke about earlier, it is far too simplistic to blame Kenwright, his board and his office employees for the trophy drought. It’s a factor, a big one, but it isn’t that black and white. I don’t, however, support the work of the School of Science in their efforts for change. They aren’t my saviour, nor are they Everton’s.
A look throught their twitter feed will show you their disdain for other peoples opinions when not alligned with their own views. Some really awful abuse. They are divisive with a ‘with us or against us’ type of attitude that has no doubt turned a lot of Evertonians off them and consequently the cause. ‘Billy Liar’ they like to call him, but let me leave you with this…
(I should apologise for the cutting and pasting I’ve done to take peoples names out. I know if anyone wants to find these original tweets it wouldn’t be hard, but I have removed names out of courtesy to others in the conversation and because this was with my personal account which I no longer use to discuss footy. You can click on each pic and enlarge if you’re having difficulty reading it on a mobile)
And the result?
Having never even tweeted the SOS account, nor his personal account before, Staveros of SOS has blocked me. I didn’t even know this account existed until I wondered why I was blocked by it when I stumbled upon it about a year later. Coincidence? Maybe… An incredible coincidence it would be, given SOS involvement with the KenwrightOUT accounts and the EvertonBoardOUT account that Joe Jennings crowed to the Mirror had gotten 2,500 followers in two weeks… It makes you wonder about that now, given the buying of followers for the affiliated KenwrightOUT account. But, this is a guy and an organisation calling for greater transparency and an end to ‘lies’- caught lying and then blocking someone to make the problem go away. Whilst it should be made clear, Kenwright has had enough time now, I won’t be supporting them in their efforts. I wonder how many of you have similar feelings?
You can find me on twitter @evertonmusings– https://twitter.com/EvertonMusings
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