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Thoughts from the Editor

Blue Bill is still the Hero
30 August 2004

Wayne Rooney: Sold months ago

As far as Blue Bill is concerned, it really is Mission Accomplished.  He has succeeded in offloading the greatest prospect ever to graduate through the ranks of Everton's Youth Academy, the greatest footballing talent that current long-suffering fans have ever seen, the ultimate product of the ultimate dream as a local kid, playing for your team and becoming heralded as a world star... and it all ends tomorrow.  And what sort of reaction is there from the vast majority of Evertonians? 

• Anger at such a shocking loss? No.
• Acceptance and apathy for the Club's successful spin? Yes
• Revilement of the lad as a fat greedy bastard?  Yes

So the transition from idol to pariah is complete.

No matter which side of the Rooney debate you sit on, whether He's a Judas Manc Lover, or "The Truth", there is one irrefutable constant, and that is that Bill Kenwright has been involved at Boardroom level, throughout the most spectacular decline of our great club.  He was involved during the Johnson years, and yes he eventually bought Johnson out, which was admirable, though ultimately foolhardy, because the only readies he cobbled together went straight to Johnson, so there was no slush fund to rebuild the squad.

He expected to sign a media deal as every club was doing it at the time and this would solved the squad investment issue that he and TBH hadn't addressed. On the basis of this expected windfall, he bought back Ferguson. When the media money never materialised through his, the board of directors and the incumbent CEO's cock up the debt inherited by TBH (approx 15 - 20 million) started to increase.

When the debt reached approx 27 million the answer was to borrow money (Bear Stearns deal) which gave us 30 million secured against future season ticket sales, with repayments of around 2.4 million which if I'm not mistaken this years repayment is about due (I think it is September) for 25 years, with early payment penalties to boot. This effectively wiped out our over draft with the Co-op bank, and was supposed to finance the academy. (This has since been denied by Carter & Kenwright at the last AGM. Ask Frank he was the one who asked the question to the board.) At about the same time we sold Jeffers (8 Mill) Ball (6 Mill only about 3 Mill up front and still awaiting the final repayment) and Dunne (3 Mill) So lets say we received £14 Mill.

We then changed banks (I think twice as I'm sure we were with the Allied Irish before Barclays). Because of our poor credit history we could only have an overdraft facility of 5 Million. Over the next couple of years we went about squandering all the money we had from the re-financing and the sale of homegrown talent (deja vu anyone???) on players signed by Smith prior to him being sacked and the aborted Kings Dock. We currently are above our overdraft limit approx 7 million I believe, hence the bank not allowing us to spend money on player purchases thus far. So the current debt is £35 - £37 Million around £20 Million MORE than before TBH took control, and what do we have to show for it???

The only line open to Kenwright is to sell assets and who is our most saleable??? So with the help of Mr Stretford, we are now on the verge of selling WR.

I've only highlighted the financial cock ups so far, we could talk about the Kings Dock fiasco, and many more, but I think that is enough to highlight Kenwrights (and the other members of TBH) incompetence.

And you ask why the vitriol towards good old true blue Bill???

Michael Kenrick

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