Column 1984 Andy Casey 29/07/2007 20comments | Jump to last In George Orwell?s book 1984 the official language used by the omnipotent government agency was known as ?doublespeak?. ?The Ministry Of Defense? was actually the arm of the government that plotted out attacks, freedom meant slavery, etc etc. The frightening aspect of Orwell?s brilliant work is that the use of such hollowed-out language is so prominent today. George Bush?s ?War On Terror? for example, is actually a war on freedom and democracy. ?Doublespeak? is the technique used to ?pull the wool over people?s eyes?. It is used strictly for deceptive purposes and its goal is to confuse and divide an unsuspecting public. Listening to what Keith Wyness and his draconian henchmen have been saying recently in the media would have George Orwell rolling in his grave. The soothsaying by Wyness and company, however, has had the desired effect on the Everton support. A decent season last year has been completely erased from our memory (another symptom of doublespeak in 1984 was the eventual loss of memory) and Wyness now has a fractured and confused support base to exploit in order to (and I really want you to read this next sentence and digest its content) move Everton Football Club out of Liverpool. Such a proposition is completely unacceptable. Wyness says, ?staying at Goodison Park is not an option?. Why not? We?ve been there for a century and it?s been just fine. Again, the Orwellian use of language is quite bold. The thought that staying in Liverpool or at Goodison Park is not an option is ludicrous. Let me spell it out for you again and I want you to really think about what Keith Wyness is telling you: Everton Football Club has no choice but to leave, not only its famous stadium, but the actual city in which it was founded and has prospered in for over a century. Are you fucking kidding me? The good news, however, is that Keith Wyness knows that there are other options. Hence the reason for his damage limitation ploy of a ?vote? that is so doctored and misleading it would make George Bush and Dick Cheney blush. It?s not just Wyness who is taking part in the propagation and manipulation game: as ToffeeWeb has pointed out, the official Everton website claims, ?Everton?s proposed stadium relocation to Kirkby has been welcomed by residents of the town?. We all know it hasn?t. The people of Kirkby do not want EFC in their town, fans of Everton do not want Everton to move out of Liverpool, and yet we are faced with the stark reality that Wyness and company are going to lie their way to Kirkby, forcing through a move that no one wants except him, the Board, and Tesco. The history of the club, the fans, and residents of Kirkby can all go to hell as far as he is concerned. The sheer contempt he is showing for the club and its history can only be masked by his clever use of Orwellian language. ?The Deal of Century? is actually the Scam of the Century. It is an effort on all fronts to push through a move that the majority of Evertonians do not want. In order to sell out to corporate interests, namely Tesco, they are wiping their arses with the history of the club and spitting on the fans and residents of Kirkby. "There is no plan B?. Yes there is: stay at Goodison. Simple. Wyness says there is no plan B because there is a plan B, there?s even a plan C and D. Wyness wants us to think there isn?t a plan B so he can placate his corporate masters at Tesco. Living in the US for 20 years, let me be the first to warn you: beware of the corporation, especially in sports. Corporations are legally bound to make a profit no matter what the cost. The cost, in this particular case, is Everton Football Club and its place in the city of Liverpool. For us to accept such a proposition is just not on. Everton?s history and place in Liverpool will be erased so Tesco can use Everton and the world wide allure of the Premier League to advertise its company. I urge all Evertonians to stay unified on this very important issue: we need to show Wyness that we, the fans, will make the decision regarding the future of our team ? not Tesco. Beware of Wyness and his relationship with Tesco and other corporate sponsors, his euphemistic manipulation of truth, and his belief that there is no other option but to move. I smell a rat and I think most of us do. Reader Comments 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 Barry Bragg 1 Posted 29/07/2007 at 17:48:54 Report abuse If you are wondering why we can’t stay at GP any longer have a look at 2006-07 Financial Review from Joe Beardwood. The trading figures are frightrning and we are slowly dissappearing under a sea of debt. This cannot be maintained if we want to progress. We need to move. Sean Dylan 2 Posted 29/07/2007 at 17:46:47 Report abuse Andy,This is one of the finest articles i’ve read on toffeeweb- thanks and well done mate. My fear however is that folk like you make up the minority of our beloved clubs’ support and the shiny plastic stadium will be enough of tempt those less aware of their history towards leaving the very city that this club BELONGS in!Lets not let the bastards grind us down...VOTE NO! Sean Dylan 3 Posted 29/07/2007 at 17:57:15 Report abuse And Barry,You’re dead right...unless Goodison can’t be sufficiently re-developed (and soon), then we will need to move- but this doesn’t necessarily have to be to Kirkby now does it? Lets see what else is on the table first hey... the old adage of ’only fools’ and all that’.Moreover, i trust the Goodison bricks that have stood for over a century far more than i do Bill & Keith...if anything has to be done soon, lets think of getting shut of them Gavin Ramejkis 4 Posted 29/07/2007 at 18:20:20 Report abuse It’s well written and made me think even more about the damned if we do or damned if we don’t scenario BK and his lapdog KW have got us into but the manipulation and scaremongering and way it’s being handled leave BK in the position to blame the fans if we don’t move and they fail to find investment to slowly redevelop GP or blame the fans if we move and we are left with crippling debt and the fabled 18,000 fans and corporates don’t turn up.The only source of income the club can guarantee is bums on seats if the team are successful and penny pinching and cutting corners and the squad don’t lend themselves to this, it seems like BK has ran out of ideas if he had any beyond achieving his daydream of owning the club.In all this silence I’d love Dicky Dodd’s view as the most pro BK follower as BK is keeping well away and before I hear he is on holiday FFS this is THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IN THE CURRENT HISTORY OF THE CLUB. Lee 5 Posted 29/07/2007 at 18:33:44 Report abuse "?Everton?s proposed stadium relocation to Kirkby has been welcomed by residents of the town?. We all know it hasn?t."In fact, quite a few people are OK with the idea. The planned regeneration sounds interesting and the only concern is the anti-social element which will be addressed in follow-up plans if the stadium progressed a stage. On the whole, the regeneration of Kirkby town centre excites residents. Of course, there are those who don’t want it here and will make their voices heard in the press or through media outlets, but speaking as someone who lives in Kirkby, I haven’t heard much local objection to the plans based on "I don’t want the town regenerated or changed". The only - and I mean only - complaint is from Evertonians who live in Kirkby that don’t want to leave Goodison Park. And that isn’t on the basis of rejecting the planned regeneration.Overall, nobody in Kirkby knows enough about the proposed idea other than a few diagrams sketched on the Kirkby Challenge and hear’say through the club and media. Nobody in this town has made up their minds firmly one way or the other unless staunchly against Everton moving at all. Patazzuri 6 Posted 29/07/2007 at 17:58:10 Report abuse I have been observing the arguments about whether to move to a new stadium or not. I think there are good points being made on both sides. I am not a season ticket holder nor an Evertonia member more through circumstance than desire. I have watched Everton since 1961 when I was 11 years old. I have seen the glory days and the days of despair. The drama of the 1966 Cup Final and the Wimbledon game. The Kendall years both good and bad. I have seen Goodison Park go from arguably the best stadium in the country to no more than second-rate. Whenever I do get the chance to go the game, it is always a lottery where I will end up. Because I don't live near the ground I have to buy my ticket online so have no choice which seat I can aquire. I must say on most occasions I get a seat where I cannot see the entire pitch so have to rely on the screens to see what's going on. So in my view a brand new stadium with no obstructed views would be welcome. I have lived in various locations throughout the UK: London, Runcorn, Netherley and now on the Wirral. Me and a friend walked to Goodison from the dingle during the eight week bus strike in liverpool during the early sixties One time in the pouring rain both to and from the game. I have followed Everton away from home also Mainly in the sixties and seventies and in 1969-70 season went to every league game home and away. I have had lean spells when I never went at all. But as soon as that stadium comes into sight a lump comes to my throat and all the memories come floating back. If I had a vote I do not know which way I would go. What I do know is that I am passionate about this club and I ask you this. When you get your ballot paper and the pen is wavering in your hand, please remember this vote is about the future of Everton Football Club ? not because you drink in this pub with all your mates or the ground is just down the road or Bill Kenwright this or Wyness that or David Moyes the other. Please think, then think again. And cast your vote. And whether it's Goodison or Kirkby, let's all get on with what we all love doing best: following the Blues. See you all at the Wigan game. Dan Masters 7 Posted 29/07/2007 at 19:05:48 Report abuse If it’s really the ’Deal of the Century’ then Bill & Keith would surely be expected to happily tell us about all the options they looked at ( or were proposed by others ) that are not the ’Deal of the Century’. Chances are that they haven’t actually looked properly at any other alternatives judging by the lack of information given about the whole subject. Bill would be in the media every day, but he’s vanished. Guess this proves that either he’s not really sure himself or he knows it’s a half baked solution designed to keep him in charge.We should seriously consider No, not just because it’s not a very good design and out of the way, but because it might force them to allow in investment which is clearly needed. Pete 8 Posted 29/07/2007 at 19:08:27 Report abuse eh, yes.. we’ve been on Goodison for a century, but the game and the world have evolved and we need to do it as well. And unfortunately if we need to evolve and stay afloat we need a new stadium. And the only good offer is the Kirkby one. The big problem is that we’re not prospering in the city anymore. With the only exception of Kings Dock (which we lost due to Kens disability to raise the cash) the LCC have only given us horrible locations for a stadium. We ASKED for the same location as Pool, before they decided to move, and got turned down.It’s not the "shiny new stadium" that draws me to the Kirkby proposal.. well.. in a way it is, since we need a new stadium that can render us more revenue and a chance to still compete at the highest lvl. Oh, I don’t say that we’ll drop out of the PL in 3 years unless we move.. but we will most likely loose our momentum forward if we can’t build on it.Lets say we do give LCC more time to give us some good location and a good deal. The first thing that will happen is that we’re going to loose this option. They don’t NEED us, they invite us there since the owner is a fan and wants to help the club.The second is that we’ll most likely have to wait a few years for a good offer from the LCC. If you don’t belive it.. when was it we had the Kings Dock plan and how many reasonable plans have come from LCC since then? third: During those years we will stagnate, loose ground to our competitors and no big investor is going to want to support us if the first thing the club need is a new stadium.These last summers I’ve been on the forum and heard fans moan about not having the funds to go after some players.. no funds to take a chance on a promising expensive youngster and so on. Now we have this chance to actually be able to increase that fund and many of the same persons starts to moan again.. this time because they have to walk a bit further and across the invisible scary line to reach the stadium.When you vote you should vote at what’s best for the club at it’s current precidament.. not what’s best for you. Noone has said we need to stay in Kirkby for the rest of time. We’re not doing a Wimbledon here and move to another town way out in nowhere. tommy gibbons 9 Posted 29/07/2007 at 19:21:52 Report abuse 1984! thought i was about to read about the FA Cup win... but no, it was just another load of crap written by another doom merchant..Why oh why can’t people realise that if we stay at GP nobody is going to invest in us, because investment is what we need to keep the club alive! So the club has been mismanaged since the early 70’s and the current board are no exception, however they have managed to attract one of the biggest names/brands/companies in the UK (Tesco) and get them to build a stadium for a measly £15m appx outlay for the club.. To do this tells me that we’re doing something right at board level, also...do you think Tesco would want to align themselves with Everton if they thought we where a crap brand, only attracting small gates to a ’white elephant’ of a stadium... of course the wouldn’t, therefore you can only conclude that they have confidence in the board/brand that is EFC... Tesco do not back losers!! Gavin Ramejkis 10 Posted 29/07/2007 at 20:39:34 Report abuse Tommy stop spouting utter shite, Tesco are not sponsoring the club or giving us fuck all for free, the stadium is part of a sweetener to Knowsley Borough Council to embellish the redevelopment of Kirkby town centre, are you honestly saying Sir Terry Leahy has ultimate control over the cash and shareholders at Tesco to direct funds towards saving Everton? Don’t be so naive, the deal is for Tesco to pave the way for the scheme to dangle a carrot of extra income and job creation and ease planning permission, don’t forget Tesco is being slated globally for it’s encroachment onto countless plots of land to dominate the global supermarket brand in competition with Walmart, the deal may also provide them with the footprint for their proposed Liverpool supermarket they have proposed as part of Project Jennifer the regeneration of Great Homer Street and the surrounding area. If you think Sir Terry had this much intent for Everton why not direct an even larger block of Tesco cash and buy the club out? He answers to the shareholders of Tesco, not Everton and not his own football supporting preference.Out of interest track down any tescopoly.org articles or articles about opposition to their sites such as Ilkley or how their underhand dealings in Ballards Lane, Finchley to name just two. vin bleu 11 Posted 29/07/2007 at 20:38:59 Report abuse Tommy, I’m inclined to agree with you. A very poor article. It smacks of someone not being able to come to terms with reality. Yet another emotional rendition of sentiment and nostalgia. These two imposters unfornately do not pay the wages of premiership footballers in 2007. We cannot re-develope Goodison - we can’t afford it. Why can’t you understand that simple truth? We need to move four miles to get a free stadium. That too isn’t a difficult concept. Do you suggest we should only move back to the district of Everton? That’s where we started. That’s the logic you propose. If not - where do you draw the line? Let’s move on and prosper and create some history for the EFC fans of the future. If required - I’m sure some of them won’t want to move from Kirkby for sentimental reasons. Fools. tommy gibbons 12 Posted 29/07/2007 at 21:39:03 Report abuse So Gavin, whats your point? substitue Tesco for any other large company (in fact any company) and you’d find underhand deals,deceit etc etc, don’t forget to include councils, governments, churches etc.. the point is, we all know Tesco are using us, but for an outlay of appx£15m for a brand new stadium I wish we’d been used more often! I don’t care what Tesco have done elsewhere and for what reason, but tell me this, have they killed anyone, have they done anything any other supermarket wouldn’t? It’s a corporate world in case you haven’t noticed, money talks and we ain’t got any!! By the way which company would you have align with us? Gavin Ramejkis 13 Posted 29/07/2007 at 22:34:37 Report abuse My point Tommy is that the argument of Tesco are lending us a hand is bollocks as is the free stadium, the figures given by KW have changed every time he opens his mouth and seeing the debt the club already has I don’t trust either BK or KW to deliver. I don’t give a rats arse about the colour of someone’s money it seems that honour is left to the "Bill is keeping Everton safe from all those dodgy millionaire/billionaire investors" brigade.I’d have Arabs or Americans over BK in a heartbeat given his track record of 24/7 and other bullshit. Pete 14 Posted 29/07/2007 at 23:29:45 Report abuse In the articles I’ve seen the number have seem fairly constant actually.. but a lot of figures have swirled around.What I’ve read is this: We get a stadium worth about £150M for a price of £75M since TESCO will give it to a company doing a lot of their work and therfore get it cheap. Of those £75M we have to come up with £50M, the rest will TESCO stand for. Of those £50M Wyness believes we will get about £10-15M when we sell Goodison (this hurts, but whereever we move we have to sell the stadium), and about £20-25M for selling the name of the new arena. Leaving us to come up with about £10-20M. We lost Kings Dock because we couldn’t raise the money needed, this time we can, so lets not have another big opportunity go to waste.For a new stadium that isn’t much. I can never see LCC give us that good a deal, unless they offer to sell us Pools stadium when they’ve moved. Would that be prefered? tommy gibbons 15 Posted 30/07/2007 at 01:06:09 Report abuse Gavin, nobody says Tesco are helping us out, theyalongwith Knowsley and Everton are in a tripartite business arrangement which suits them all.. We are on a winner because we get a stadium for the price of a decent striker, we have the chance of then either aasking Tesco to invest more..ala the yanks with the RS, ambrovith with Chelski, th Glazers with the Mancs, the Thai guy with City etc..or if they’re not interested it at least gives us a chance to sell ourselves like te other big clubs.. Onwards and upwards..1984?..no, it’s 1892 and time to move again! Brian Williams 16 Posted 30/07/2007 at 06:18:13 Report abuse Andy! Although I applaud your obvious love of the club there’s a single thread of your (and a lot of other "no’s") outlook that seriously disturbs me. It’s the constant refferal to our "history". We can’t live on past glories. We can’t spend the team of the 80’s accolade on new development. This predeliction with looking to the past is the main reason we’re in the state we’re in i.e the board being stuck in the past at the helm of the Mersey millionaires.... We’re NOT the Mersey millionaires, we’re not THE club on Merseyside. Jesus if anybody can’t see it, or can’t say it..I’m going to because it dosen’t lessen my love for the club or bring into question my loyalty. Liverpool are in a different league to us financially and therefore in almost every other apsect. It’s a sad, and heartbreaking fact..but it IS a fact. They’ve moved forward WE haven’t. History doesn’t buy new players, history doesn’t pay the bills. I want an alternative to Kirby I really do, but I ask the "no’s" not to vote that way because of our great history for Gods sake. EWAN BLAIR 17 Posted 30/07/2007 at 12:55:36 Report abuse YOU HAVE DONE ME PROUD MY SON. john 18 Posted 30/07/2007 at 14:28:54 Report abuse "euphemistic manipulation of the truth" neatly summs up this article Paul M 19 Posted 30/07/2007 at 21:49:21 Report abuse Andy. Do you by any chance live in the mountains,with a large amount of tinned food stored in the cellar ?......Thought so. Andy 20 Posted 31/07/2007 at 03:30:49 Report abuse So, I think alot of the responses to my article may have just reaffirmed alot of my fears. We, as a fan base, seem fractured and at odds with one another. The notion of leaving Liverpool was not a contentious issue until the powers that be brought it to the forefront of our minds. Some of the fearmongering by Wyness and friends, "if we don’t leave Goodison we will not be able to compete in the Premier League" has frightened alot of us into thinking we need a new stadium or that we need to leave Liverpool. I don’t think this is the case. Most revenue from the Premiership comes from television rights. An extra few thousand bums in seats every other week is not going to change the trajectory, or lack thereof, of the club. My fear, and main reason for writing this article, is that Everton move to Kirky, sell all our naming rights and ownership of the stadium to Tesco and we will slowly begin to lose our identity as a football club. Our history and standing in the city of Liverpool will be dissappated and vacuumed up by corporate interests. Also, for those of you out there that think that Tesco is just going to front money to build a brand new state of the art stadium and not seek anything in return you’re sorely mistaken. Tesco WILL front the money, but will then play the role of a credit card company and hijack most of the income generated from ticket sales and corporate sponsorship at a high interest rate. That’s how corporations work. In response to the people that have accused me of basking in nostalgia and ’not being able to deal with reality, namely you Vin Bleu, what the hell is wrong with appreciating and respecting history? And, how is doing such a thing not being able to deal with reality? Why do we feel the need that we have to move? That is what I want people to question. So far, I have not heard any argument relative to what I have written. You have just regurgitated what Wyness has said. Think for yourselves people and make up your own mind. And Paul M, no, I do not live in the woods. I live in a city and I don’t have a cellar but you nailed me about the canned food. -Andy © ToffeeWeb