Everton appoint Keith Harris to Board of Directors

Just how many years have passed without much progress? All we'll need is a return of the Ginger One at some point down the line and operation EFC II will be complete!

Not because I don't rate Keith Harris but because its another Kenwright acolyte and I was hoping we would see the back of Kenwright and his regime.

Keith Harris' firm Seymour Pierce on the brink of collapse

Not clear what happened with that... wasn't he the bloke trying to find investors for Kenwright over a period of many, many years?

"In October of 2016, Harris was appointed to the board of Everton FC. At the time of writing it is unknown if Dr Harris will be accompanied by the green duck and orange monkey."

There is no questioning his long pedigree or association with high profile companies and individuals over many years. As in all walks of life, I am sure there have been failures as well as successes.

Putting aside he is a self-declared lifelong Man Utd fan, very instrumental in the Red Knights movement who tried to wrest control from the Glazers a few years ago, let's hope he can bring something concrete to the table that benefits the club and moves us forward.

I see this as further consolidation of Moshiri's position, rather than a Kenwright-inspired appointment as some are suggesting.

Great move!

I have no idea whether this is good news or bad news.

Let's embrace it and hope for the best.

You couldn't make this shit up; this clown advised Billy Liar to sell Rooney, probably got a chop out of that deal...

The only positive I can see is that, if these parasites see Everton as the next big thing, then my prayers of us winning anything may come true.

He has arranged the sale of quite a few clubs. To me, this means that Kenwright never really wanted to sell or later refused to give up his chairmanship as he has with Moshiri.

I have to agree with you! Surely nobody on this site knows much about this man so let's give him time to see how he shapes up?!

The likelihood is he goes about his business in the background and we never hear much about him again! Good luck to him!

I take it all back! Doesn't look great but I'm trying to be more optimistic!

Moshiri is the guy with a proven track record in business and I doubt he will entrust someone else with his money but, like all good businessmen, he will surround himself with knowledgeable people who he can sound out before making the decisions himself.

Harris may have an iffy track record but I have met an awful lot of guys over the years in a similar position but who have great business knowledge and can be of a lot of use to someone like Moshiri. Time will tell, no doubt.

When Moshiri arrived, I believed as did many that he heralded a decisive, well-funded and Kenwright-free regime (though I worried about Bill hanging on). We just got fooled again.

Nothing To Write Home About

He has certainly had some failures or at least been unable to deliver but trying to sell a football club in the last recession could not have been easy and does not mean that the guy has nothing to offer. Our current board did not have a football finance specialist until now and the only reason surely for appointing him is that the stadium is going to happen and they want him on hand to advise.

Football's Mr Fixit

Can we really trust the football men?

Now there's a factual reason to be suspicious.

Harris could have done all his fixing as a paid consultant, why the interest in a job on the board with no financial stake in the business? He is getting paid somehow.

Onwards and upwards. COYBB.

Reminds me of a Spurs fan we just got shot of in February who was a supposed maestro in business but only attended a couple of our matches in 9 years and appeared to contribute nothing whatsoever.

If he's not getting paid, why's he here? Got to be something in it for him, but what?

Cynical yes, but this is football, this is Everton.

He has known Bill Kenwright a long time... doesn't feel right to me. Not happy with this one.

Dave Williams sees mostly good things, and appears to ignore a rather shady resume that looms front and centre for Steve Hogan. How do you process such a range?

Perception being far, far more important than reality, such diversity can only be explained by confirmation bias right across the spectrum as the information we are all basing it on is surely exactly the same?

Patrick has been posting some cracking stuff, and this one paragraph caught my eye:

A ‘growth play' can be made through debt management and, as we know, football clubs tend to be run on debt. Remove historic debt that has to be paid to someone else (here is where administration comes in handy) and add debt that benefits the club (whether this is nominally from owners, unpaid fees for services rendered or from third parties such as ‘passive investors') and you get a kind of repetitive ‘debt on, debt off' manoeuvre. Third party debt can include a mark (to be exploited) or from those wishing to move money into a vehicle for various motives (legal or less than legal). Debt is what the modern football world is built upon as it allows tax-free income streams to occur.

I can't even begin to understand what it means but, having watched the massive manipulations of our debt over the years, AN the minimal / zero company tax paid, I'm sure this has an awful lot to do with explaining exactly how Everton FC Co Ltd is being run.

There might be good reasons not to trust him, but as far as I'm concerned, that isn't one of them.

Remember, we have 'the biggest Evertonian in the world' on our board and if that particular shifty, fat-headed Tom Pepper told me my name was Eugene Ruane, I'd immediately check my birth certificate.

If you want serious investment, then Bankers are a necessary evil, so why not put one on your board and give him some skin in the game?

Good to see someone now on the board with ideas of running a new stadium and Everton seeing the bigger picture, unlike some of the cynical postings on here who cant!

Does Orville now hold the balance of power between Kenwright and the disappointing Iranian?

Despite my initial enthusiasm over the appointment, Patrick Murphy has sowed more than a few doubts. Not much has changed on or off the field. Bill continues to call the shots as the team heads towards mid-table.

Colin Fitz posted a few weeks ago that he felt there could be a power struggle going on behind the scenes at Everton and, after reading post 6, I don't think this latest move fills me with much confidence...

This appointment has Moshiri written all over it and it is a good indication that things are moving at a rapid pace behind the scene.

Keith Harris is at the forefront of raising capital for business development and we will need a lot of capital in the near future.

As I see it, Farhad Moshiri has installed him to start looking for the best ways to move forward on the new stadium, ie, planning, finance, development, naming rights, size etc.

I think it's a positive move – "but only time will tell".

COYB

Even now, after getting a mint out of Everton FC, he's a leech who puts a downer on every aspect of the club each time something good seems to be happening; he is nothing less than a curse on a lot of us supporters.

When Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup, I read somewhere that they built "six new stadiums" and "upgraded" two more, and altogether the cost was only a little bit more than the New Wembley?

He has been playing with the big boys and to do so you have to be able to wheel and deal, duck and dive etc, in order to get the investor to think he is getting a great deal whilst at the same time persuading the vendor to think the same – not easy with this level of businessmen.

I don't think he has been brought in to run the financial side of the club – I think that will stay in Moshiri's control. Bill is influential to a degree, I suspect, but with 49.9% and overall control due to the absentee shareholders, Moshiri will be calling the shots.

I think Harris is on board for the stadium project. Moshiri will not want to pour in £300 m of his own money (or whatever the figure will be) and Harris will be able to help him in finding the cash required. With his experience of Wembley too, I think he is a sensible appointment as an advisor, not as a financial director.

We all like to think we know a lot about football but we don't have a clue how things operate behind the scenes. A mate of mine is Finance Director at a lower division club and the stuff he knows about how football works is mind-boggling. Years ago, I met a much maligned CEO of Everton and he astonished me at his depth of knowledge at how a club operates and the vast amount of red tape involved in some of the simplest matters. He may not have been a great CEO but boy he knew a lot. If any of us (possibly a few exclusions!!) took the role of a CEO for a week at a football club, we would be hopelessly lost. Trying to negotiate a players contract is a complete minefield and how they remain sane with transfer negotiations is a miracle.

I am in danger of losing my thread here – the purpose of my rambling is to try to show that football insiders know so much about the game off the pitch and such knowledge together with a great contact book is invaluable if we are going to go for the stadium and Keith Harris strikes me as having as good a CV as most to add expertise to our board for this purpose.

As a few have said already, we can all theorise but time will tell.

Three points tomorrow please!

I'm not sure what his role concerning the new Wembley was but wasn't that miles over budget and years behind schedule?

Prepare also for more heroic and tearful half-time moments. It's what Bill's Everton does best and I shall be surprised if Dr Keith has been hired to inject any rigour.

He is a nice guy, has a wealth of experience, and has been very successful but apparently went totally off the rails when his son committed suicide.

I don't know whether he has now got over it or whether Bill is giving him a leg up on the road to recovery but the bad part of it for me is that Kenwright still seems to be wielding the power and surrounding himself with allies.

He apparently made £400 million profit for an HSB Investment bank in 1994-99 [source: Wikipedia].

Harris has however had a number of Investment Banker and Director roles from 1994 with several Director roles for several companies still under 'active' status, with several resignations. The roles include Director for Cardiff City Football Club (resigned in 2010 after 2 years); in Wembley National Stadium Ltd (resigned in 2007 after 6 years), according to his corporate roles:

Appointments: Keith Reginald Harris (from Companies House)

A board is a team and they collectively work together on a joint vision and guide the business.

Less of this naive Dallas soap opera talk.

He is a good addition to the team, no more no less. Good experience and we are going to need a rounded team at board level through the development of the new stadium and the growth of the new vision for Everton... just go with the flow!

Without picking over all the links and connections (and I'm sorry – I have not had time to trawl through all the posts and links on here) he comes across as a sort of serial Business Angel-cum-Consultant Executive Director.

He does not seem like a shyster. His track record seems to be mainly successful and one has to understand that he is probably not actually running these businesses he is (or has been) involved with, and will be trusting in the capabilities of the key men in any particular enterprise. He will be bringing his own expertise to our table with the intention of underpinning and adding to our established strengths, and in doing so, he will have taken very serious stock of what he is getting involved in, and his involvement with EFC gives me optimism.

I mean this guy could probably leave work today and never do another stroke in his life, and he will not suffer financially, so I do not concur with any ridiculous ideas that he is in it for a quick earner. He will see some serious potential and with the top end executive structure we seem to be building, Everton, very soon, are likely to be a force to be reckoned with.

This all seems like a well thought-out progressive strategy to me and only time will tell... but seriously, who on here feels like Everton are standing still?

"There is no questioning his long pedigree or association with high profile companies..." – Oh yes there is, he's been involved in some very questionable business deals.

Harris is quite clearly a Kenwright appointment and I'm struggling to see any clear positives that his appointment brings to Everton.

It would be nice to get some understanding and transparency directly from Kenwright but, as that will never happen, my natural reaction is to worry about the future of my beloved club.

You lift my quote when you copy-pasted "There is no questioning his long pedigree or association with high profile companies..." and then put your own spin on it.

To make your point, you cut off my comment mid-sentence and did not include a second clause that immediately followed the first. I continued " ... and individuals over many years. As in all walks of life, I am sure there have been failures as well as successes."

Not mere semantics. The first clause is an accurate one. For more than 2 decades he was employed in various capacities with very big corporations - HSBC, British American Tobacco, Deutsche Bank, was Chairman of the Football League and director of Wembley Stadium, amongst others.

He has worked with extremely high profile business figures, including Kerry Packer, James Goldsmith, Roman Abramovich, Thaksin Shinawatra, Randy Lerner, Mohamed Fayed and now, our own Farhad Moshiri.

THAT is what I meant by his 'unquestionable' long pedigree and association with high profile companies (and individuals over many years ... the bit you cut off).

The second clause CLEARLY states in his career he has probably had successes and failures.

Now would I personally invite some of those names into my home for a cuppa and slice of carrot cake? I don't think so. But there is no denying they are hard-arsed business men who only hire the best.

Overall, I am completely neutral about his appointment because (probably like everyone else in this thread) I have absolutely no idea what his role or remit on the board is.

Yes, I am hopeful that "he can bring something concrete to the table that benefits the club and moves us forward."

I am certainly not ready to praise him as either a new Financial Messiah or condemn him outright as a Kenwright lackey, as you clearly (your description) do.

Unlike you (and others) I see this as further consolidation of Moshiri's position, rather than a Kenwright-inspired appointment.

Just my opinion... errr... like.

"only hire the best"??

Who knew?

Have to add it's a curiosity some folk in here think his signing is a Kenwright one. Kenwright wields no power. Strange the effect he has on some that they think he still has any kind of final say on EFC operations.

Who knew...?

Chuckle-chuckle!

The reason we think he is a Kenwright appointment is that he was originally appointed by Kenwright 10 years ago to sell the club and it is well known fact that the two have been very close since,

In other words, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck.... it is more than likely a duck.

I find it hilarious that Mr copy-n-paste would come on bleating about somebody else giving him a taste of his own.

Learner and Shinawatra only "hire the best"?

Stop it... You're killing me here.

He has now got us in a position where we have a chance to move forward. The appointment of Martinez was not one of his best days but Martinez hoodwinked a lot more people than Kenwright.

Get real, chaps, look round the league and see the mess these foreign owners have got clubs into... millions going out of the game season after season. Mr Kenwright deserves more respect from his fellow supporters – he doesn't deserve some of the nonsense in these threads.

We missed out on Jermaine Lascalles (£3m), Dele Alli (£3m) and Moussa Dembele (£4m) – all players I strongly urged the club to buy at the time they were available. Lascalles is worth £18m today, Dembele £40m and Ali about the same according to the latest press reports. Criminal negligence IMO.

The point I made in repeating that Darren is because it's another of your own trite put downs you frequently use to denigrate posters you (try...) to go to war on. By attempting to claim you don't read their posts, you are saying they and their opinions are unworthy and should be ignored.

The reality, of course, is that you don't actually do this. You continue to rubber-neck and read and respond to posters you summarily dismiss.

One of the many superficial hypocricies and contradictions you display in your own posts.

Another one is repeating the blunt barb of labelling someone with a moniker. For you, I am 'Mr copy and paste.' Again, it is with the intention to deride and devalue the opinion of the other.

Two things here: copy and pasting is a valid and legitimate practice used by just about everybody on TW. And like others, I use it also. If it was truly all I posted, you might have a point, but of course, I don't, do I Darren?

Secondly, if you wish to mock 'copy and pasting' as a legitimate tool when posting on TW, it's probably wise not to employ it yourself, as you frequently do.

Just last week I noted you responded (quite legitimately, I thought) to a poster complaining about some of the rawer ill-mannered name calling posts on here. How did you do so? By a lengthy copy and pasting of said poster's own raw ill-mannered name calling of others.

Errr ... 'dur', Darren.

As for you claim that I am "bleating about somebody else giving (me) a taste of (your) own."

Really? Where?

Darren ole son ... I am far too long in the tooth and far too phlegmatic to get worked up over something if complete strangers try to get a rise out of me in a footy forum.

I'm far more likely to have some fun with it and jest and joust with the other as I do with you. 'Cos you see, for all your angry superior bluster, the inflated ego you present on here is very easily deflated.

"Stop it... You're killing me here..?"

I can only live in hope ...

(Just kiddin' Darren ... 'lad').

Seems to be jobs for the boys... no wonder Koeman says, "Everton are Everton... we are not going to win every game." Perhaps Premier League managers should receive performance-related pay. It says something when the Premier League managers receive far more than the players they manage. On current performance, Klopp likely deserves his salary, according to Liverpool supporters at any rate.

It says something when the Premier League managers receive far more than the players they manage.

A questionable statement if you do the basic maths, John. For example, let's say a decent player wage is £100k a week – that's a cool £5.2M a year – right up there with the top managers. Some players are paid more; most are paid less. The same applies to the managers.

I'm not angry either, You were talking shite, I pointed it out.

You claim that I give other posters "monikers" ... what? If I didn't know better I would think you were telling porkies again... or seeking refuge in numbers... again.

As for copying and pasting.... Na, you didn't see me do it, not even sure I'd know how to on this new fangled thing I post on. The best I can manage is to quote the odd word from the current thread. I leave the trawling back to other threads (sometimes weeks old) and selecting excerpts of what somebody else has said to those who can be arsed.

Anyway

I'm doing what you wanted me to do by responding to childlike attempts to camouflage the shite you spouted on THIS thread.

Shinawatra and Lerner only "hire the best"

Forget the diversionary shite... Talk us through that little gem.

Only if you ignore the near bankruptcies, mounting debt, lack of investment, Desperation Kirkby and the lies and failures.

Kenwright did a fair job at Everton given the conditions that the club and football in general was in but that doesn't make good myth or moaning does it?