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I'm more concerned about Everton....

... to be worried about events across the park.

Yesterday, on another thread here on ToffeeWeb, a poster from the US (Mike Gaynes) claimed he follows Everton's games but didn't see he UK press so knew little of the off-field history and "information" obtained through the press and media. At the moment, the world's sports media appear transfixed by events across the park, which is all very entertaining and an easy story for the media and the general public to follow with its heady mix of the country's popular obsessions of debt, the banks, a sprinkling of xenophobia and a former media idol fallen on hard times. Like most I've even spent a little time following the story but, not surprisingly, like Evertonians everywhere, I?m actually more concerned that my club are, and will probably remain, in a far worse long-term predicament than Liverpool FC are now and will ever be in the foreseeable future.

This summer, having apparently hit rock bottom and being a football club in crisis, Liverpool FC still managed to spend over £20m on new players whilst we ended up signing a no-cost ex-window fitter from the lower leagues to lead our line. Do you honestly believe David Moyes would have accepted this by choice? If that had happened at Liverpool FC, their supporters would have been up in arms and yet apathetically conditioned Evertonians just sit there and meekly accept our current predicament.

Having turned their backs on the idea of "The People's Club", the Board of Directors have now rebranded Everton FC under the banner of Nil Satis Nisi Optimum. Does the current situation reflect or even merit the philosophy of 'Nil Satis Nisi Optimum' to you? Such marketing is at best inappropriate and at worst cynical and derogatory to those enlightened Evertonians who actually do know their history.

As Liverpool slipped into the relegation zone, last week, The Echo front page screamed about LFC hitting rock bottom when not a word was said the previous week when we were actually bottom of the league; perhaps our beloved chairman and our top-of-the-league spin department suddenly giving interviews and issuing press releases to all and sundry had something to do with it. What a pity our prowess in this area couldn't be transferred to similarly manage the financial affairs of the club and subsequently the quality of those Everton players in front of the opposition goal.

It's said that apportioning blame for a problem can be counterproductive yet it is also good practice to identify the root cause of that problem so that a solution can be found. Too many Evertonians are ambivalent when it comes to identifying the root cause of our problem; unlike at other clubs where supporters actually care enough to do something, to get involved, too many Evertonians do nothing and allow this perpetual state of mediocrity to exist.

Our dilemma is apparent: with October 2010 upon us we find ourselves, once again, at the wrong end of the table; already out of one cup, courtesy of a lowly League One club and blatantly unable to address a striker problem that has resulted in less than 20% of our 2010 goals [52] coming from a recognised striker and with little prospect of addressing the abysmal stadium issue save for another alleged effectively free scheme, the small print of which continues to be conveniently avoided.

To my mind, demands for playing 4-4-2 instead of 4-5-1, or a player here instead of there, are too simplistic and undervalue the complexity of the game; I am in no doubt whatsoever that we'll have a run of results and climb the table. This just isn't the problem ? being where we are, in the league, is a symptom, not the cause.

For me, the seeds of our latest predicament were sown a long, long time ago, but, in essence, these seeds began to germinate in May 2009. Cast your minds back to that long journey home following our defeat at the Cup Final; we consoled ourselves that we'd had a reasonable campaign, we'd reached the FA Cup Final, we had the Manager of the Season at the helm and by once again finishing fifth, we were now firmly established as the team leading the pack to break into the top 4. Our stock had never been higher in recent years and, if we were ever going to be sold, if we were ever going to take the next step forward, that was the time. Predictably, as we have become accustomed at Everton, the moment came and went.

Whilst the rest of us travelled home in defeat, the great and the good of Everton FC were celebrating and pressing the flesh at London's Grosvenor House. The chairman was relishing the final flickers of limelight he'd vainly sought over those preceding weeks, further opportunities to gild the lily with ever more outrageous stories... shamelessly, on TalkSport, in the presence of that Parry creature, he was now claiming to have been with Eddie Kavanagh at the '66 final; one wondered if Elvis and Tommy Steele were there in attendance also!

Back on the long journey home, many of us sought solace in the fact that we'd reached the Cup Final with some of our best players missing through injury; thus we'd hoped that the club could take that extra step upon their return the following season. Perhaps David Moyes thought the same, with a few strategic buys and the rub of the Green, that much yearned for trophy would be secured, perhaps even a Champions League place...

In hindsight, for Evertonians going to bed that night it was like going to bed on the Titanic on 14 April 1912, blissfully unaware that their optimism for the future was about to make a change for the worse. Sadly, many remain blissfully unaware.

In the months following this plateau, we learnt that we'd achieved record turnover for the year, our manager naturally told us he needed to increase the squad with bodies, and that Joleon Lescott was not for sale.

Following the abandonment of probing and difficult to stage manage Annual General Meetings by the Board, the CEO told a forum of shareholders that the Board would be open and responsive to any questions and that no question would be out of bounds; moments later the chairman, Bill Kenwright, immaturely refused to answer a question concerning the sale of the club whilst verbally abusing the shareholder for asking a perfectly legitimate question about a business to which he had a financial as well as emotional stake. This shareholder has subsequently relinquished his shareholding in disgust of the chairman and his arrogant attitude and actions towards minor shareholders.

The 2009-10 season began disastrously ? defeat after defeat, an unbelievable injury list to a paper thin squad, the late sale of the "not for sale" Lescott and last minute acquisitions saw a faltering start to the campaign which only later appeared to flourish after an excellent display against Manchester United, the arrival of on-loan winger Landon Donavon, and the emerging development of Marouane Fellaini in a commanding defensive midfield role. The campaign concluded with early exits from all cup competitions and a final league placing of 8th condemned us to a season without European football.

During this close season, most Evertonians realised that the manager urgently needed to address the striker problem and the lack of width on the right following the departure of Donavan. Despite the annual posturing that fools hardly anyone anymore, many Evertonians have long since acclimatised themselves to the business strategy of the Bill Kenwright era, that is of asset disposal in order to fund the business; in other words having to sell to buy, sell to fund wages, sell to compete as best we can. We sell tangible assets, we sell intangible assets; nothing wrong with that occasionally but sadly this is the only strategy that the current board have. The CEO agreed at the public inquiry into Destination Kirkby that such a strategy is not sustainable in the long term. What happens is you either run out of assets to sell... or, as we found out this year, we own assets that people simply don't want to buy for a whole host of reasons.

Almost two months into the current Premier League season, despite playing some decent football, we've only just secured our first win and, with football being all about results, this clearly isn't good enough, so who's to blame? For me, there are only two candidates, the manager or the chairman.

David Moyes became manager in 2002. It's widely acknowledged that Everton, not for the first time in recent history, avoided relegation that season due to his timely appointment ? ironically, the result of a recommendation from outgoing manager Walter Smith. His eight year reign has yet to produce a trophy; his league finishes have been 15th, 7th, 17th, 4th, 11th, 6th, 5th, 5th and 8th; the previous eight years saw Everton finish 16th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 15th, 6th, 15th and 17th.

Highlights of the cup campaigns include a League Cup semi-final and an FA Cup Final that saw Everton lose out to Chelsea on both occasions, whilst lowlights include a litany of heavy and embarrassing defeats in the Premier League, domestic and European cup competitions... coupled with some of the lowest points and goal tallies in the club?s history.

In his time at Everton, David Moyes has been awarded the LMA Manager of the Year accolade on three occasions and has been academically acknowledged as the best-value manager in the Premier League in terms of points obtained against wages paid. Objectively, his record on bringing players in can be best described as mixed (whose isn't?) ? great success with the likes of Cahill, Arteta, Pienaar and Lescott; less so with Beattie, Johnson, Davies and Bilyaletdinov... the less said about Per Krøldrup and Andy van der Meyde, the better.

Bill Kenwright?s appointment to the Board in 1989 coincided with the club's decline from the heyday of the mid 1980s. Mr Kenwright?s performance as a director of Everton Football Club has seen him supportive of the decision to sell Duncan Ferguson and complicit with the precarious financial position the club found itself in under Peter Johnson. Indeed, it is intriguing as to why Mr Kenwright publicly endorsed the proposed recent move to Kirkby whilst just a few years earlier he sought to undermined his then chairman, Peter Johnson, by covertly financing the activities of the Goodison For Everton [GFE] group who were opposed to Johnson's original Kirkby relocation plans.

Following Peter Johnson's demise, once installed as owner, through the now defunct vehicle known as True Blue Holdings (TBH), Bill Kenwright was the person responsible for overseeing the advance spending of the never-to-materialise NTL media money which was wasted on abysmal signings such as Alex Nyarko ? ridiculously recruited on a 5-year contract but with only a 4-year work permit ? after the sale of then club captain Don Hutchison.

The failure to secure the £30M investment from NTL is surprisingly overlooked by most commentators due to the demise of NTL... yet, in a stroke, the advance spending of the money doubled Everton's debt and significantly worsened the already precarious finances of the club. Of course, the implication of this event and the uncertain nature of the finances were easily passed off as being down to the previous chairman, Peter Johnson.

The consequence of the NTL affair paled into insignificance when compared to the mishandling of the Kings Dock opportunity which saw Everton left in an unsuitable and out-dated stadium with (then) record levels of debt and administrators waiting in the wings ? just as they do at Anfield as we speak; events which eventually precipitated the controversial sale at a knock-down price of arguably Everton's greatest talent of the modern era: Wayne Rooney.

Whilst other Premier League clubs, with better foresight, continued (indeed, continue) to invest in their infrastructure, the failure to secure funding for the Kings Dock left Everton in a poor position in relation to their ability to generate increased matchday and, due to the proposed 49% ownership structure, non-matchday revenue streams. The claims to the council that our contribution for the Kings Dock stadium was "ring-fenced", when it wasn't, and Bill Kenwright's refusal to allow Paul Gregg to deliver the financial package which would have secured the iconic waterfront stadium for the club, albeit dispensing with Bill Kenwright as owner, left Everton's board appearing amateurish, unprofessional and untrustworthy in the eyes of many, particularly the officers of the local council.

Post Kings Dock, the increasing debt situation was accompanied by a power struggle between Bill Kenwright and the Gregg family, Paul Gregg having a similar number of shares than Bill Kenwright whilst his wife, Anita, had lent Bill Kenwright the money to secure his shares from Peter Johnson through TBH.

CEOs came and went; one, Trevor Birch ? an insolvency practitioner who infamously lasted just six weeks before leaving ? highlighted the near catastrophic debt situation at the club. The initial solution, in 2002, was to consolidate the debt and take out a then fashionable securitization loan with the Prudential against the stadium and serviced through future ticket revenue over the next 25 years. This didn't remove the level of debt within the club which had by then had reached the disastrous level of 126% of the club's annual turnover! This was only reduced some years later when, following emergency lending from Singer and Friedlander, Wayne Rooney was sold to save the club.

The Greggs eventually took a back seat after Bill Kenwright produced a bogus investor in the shape of Fortress Sports Fund ? their supposed representative, Chris Samuelson (attempting to pass himself off as an Evertonian), delivered a memorable and embarrassing performance at the 2004 AGM. It goes without saying the promised investment from Fortress, as with NTL, failed to materialise; even after Bill Kenwright told all and sundry "the money will be in the bank tomorrow."

After a season where we appeared to be slipping back into our old ways, a former director of the club claims that the board, headed by Bill Kenwright, had concluded a deal to replace Blackburn-bound David Moyes with Celtic's former manager, Martin O'Neill, who is said to have reneged on the deal and a similar one he is alleged to have had with Leeds, at the last minute, and joined Aston Villa.

In October 2006, Paul Gregg purportedly sold his shares to Robert Earl's British Virgin Island registered company BCR Sports, but Paul Gregg has since confirmed he was actually paid for those shares by a certain Sir Phillip Green, a person recently described on Question Time as an individual guilty of tax evasion on an industrial scale. Presumably Anita Gregg was also repaid around this time period. Bill Kenwright claims Philip Green has nothing to do with Everton, that he is merely a friend of his ? and therefore a friend of ours! Another former CEO, Keith Wyness, begged to differ when, following his resignation in 2008, he, through The Times, initially cited concern over interference by Philip Green in business decisions at Everton as the reason he had resigned.

Since 2004, Everton had planned to move to a new state-of-the-art training facility at Finch Farm, Knowsley. This plan came to fruition in the autumn of 2007. The land, having been earlier acquired by Everton from Knowsley Municipal Borough Council (KMBC), was sold to a development company, ROM Capital, from which Everton now rent the purpose-built £8M complex for a figure in excess of £1M a year over a 50-year lease agreement.

The sale of the old training facility at Bellefield was later intended to provide some of the capital required for Destination Kirkby, but an over-ambitious planning application meant that council planning permission was refused and a futile appeal was dismissed by the government. The chairman has since begged the new council to approve the latest, more modest, application as this, he claimed, was meant to provide David Moyes with his summer budget for 2010. At the moment, no approval or sale has been secured for the old Bellefield property, nor did we sell any players of note, so the manager was unable to secure the much needed winger and recognised striker prior to the start of the current season.

Following the demise of the Gregg family connection, Everton embarked on perhaps the darkest hour in its illustrious history ? the quest for Destination Kirkby. In the opinion of many, the current Board, headed by Bill Kenwright, attempted to sell Everton down the river in return for a £52M addition to their balance sheet. The chairman stood by whilst fans and shareholders were misled with promises of £10M a season in funds for the manager, of a world-class stadium facility as part of the development, served by the best transport infrastructure in the north of England; it was claimed to be the "Deal of the Century", a stadium that would be effectively free as Tesco ? according to "director" Robert Earl ? were giving Everton a irrevocable cheque for £52M. Indeed Mr Kenwright even contributed to the scaremongering when in December 2007 he told TV viewers that Goodison Park would soon fail to get a safety certificate ? that was nearly 3 years ago.

In reality, Destination Kirkby was a plan that was officially described as a con by both Liverpool and Sefton councils, a plan that once again left Everton embarrassed when the Government's planning inspector, through the office of the Secretary of State, heavily criticised Everton's inability to provide evidence of their capacity to deliver the £78M required to build the stadium; criticism also directed at Tesco and Knowsley Council for their initial reluctance to reveal where the alleged £52M cross-subsidy was actually coming from until it was finally admitted, by both of them, that it wasn't actual money at all; it turned out to be simply the increase in the land value once planning consent was secured. In other words, just like it was previously described, it was a con; another con perpetrated under Bill Kenwright's chairmanship and documented for all to see.

Armed with the knowledge that the Destination Kirkby application effectively died a death on 4 June 2008 when it was "called in" for review by the government, some enlightened shareholders urgently attempted to curtail Everton's bizarre involvement in this charade by securing an EGM later that year. Whilst the majority, said to be approaching 80%, of those shareholders in attendance at that September EGM voted for Everton to end their association with the application. The Board wouldn't listen and used the voting power of their 26,000 or so shares, and those of a very small minority of sycophantic followers, to inflict a predictable heavy defeat against the resolution.

Just over 12 months later, the action of those enlightened Evertonians, the ones with only the best interests of the club at heart, was endorsed when on the 26 November 2009 the Secretary of State announced the official rejection of the application. Everton were left with nothing; the board had wasted four years and untold many millions of pounds on a ridiculous and undeliverable pipe-dream. Tesco has subsequently submitted an amended planning application and, now unsurprisingly uncontested, will now build something twice the size allowable under local planning regulations. The truth may now just start dawning on the naive as to what Kirkby was all about and they may start to understand that somebody, willingly or obliviously, had been played like a violin.

It's now almost a year since that announcement by the Secretary of State; in that year we've ascertained from the chairman, whilst we were bottom of the league, that four potential owners have approached the club, due diligence procedures had been conducted but, when asked to provide evidence of funding, all the parties disappeared. As usual with Everton, no names have been provided; supporters of Bill Kenwright immediately offer claims of confidentiality agreements being adhered to but surely if they've disappeared, the discussions have been curtailed and they've wasted our money and our time ? why can't their names be revealed?

The chairman now tells us that Everton are now in discussions with yet another three unidentified parties, but another self-publicist, Keith Harris, the person who one minute is then isn't employed by Everton to seek a buyer, claims nobody is interested in Everton at the moment.

Taking into account all these details, my position is clear: your own position may be different and that is your prerogative, but I firmly believe that to move the club forward there's only one course of action that can be taken ? and it doesn't concern the manager playing a more attacking formation or replacing him with anyone who can operate more effectively on a budget that reflects a bottom-of-the-table Premier League club or a mid-table championship outfit.

The other week, I was at Goodison late at night. I was leaving with Tom Hughes and, as we walked along the deserted corridors, we were looking at the team pictures of old. I was pointing out the old players in the squad of 38-39; Tom, as expected, was pointing out the newly erected Leitch stand they were standing before! Passing the boardroom, we laughed at an imaginary imprint of Moyes?s size ten on the door where he had kicked it in asking for money. Of course, there?s no footprint ? that?s not Moyes style, he keeps his counsel on such matters. The next day, after half-time at Fulham, Moyes ran along the touchline in front of the travelling blues to take his seat; all of us stood and applauded him, as the youngsters were singing his name he saluted the crowd and mouthed ?thank-you?.

Based on his track record, my opinion of David Moyes, for what it?s worth, is that he isn?t the best manager in the world and that some of his tactics drive me to distraction, but he?s an honest man attempting to do an honest job. Over the course of a season, he?s most probably the best manager we could get and, considering the meagre resources on offer, he?s most probably better than we deserve at the moment. So, on balance, while he?s here, I support him fully; when he goes, let?s hope we're in the position to attract someone better... but, on reflection, I think that will be a big ask.

After examining the track record of Bill Kenwright, my opinion is he?s a phoney, an actor who regularly watched Liverpool as a kid and someone who cynically overstates his Evertonian credentials to aid his perceived (by him) popularity. His relationship with Philip Green appears to be far more than what he describes and this should be of great concern to all Evertonians. In company law, a shadow director is someone who is not a named director but who directs or controls the company; this is what the Companies Act says about the identification of shadow directors:

"The Companies Act defines a shadow director as a person who instructs other directors what to do and those directors follow his instructions. Individuals who act in this way are deemed to have the same liabilities as properly appointed directors.

A shadow director can be any person, but are usually majority shareholders that threaten to replace them if they do not follow their instructions.

A properly appointed director's responsibility is to the company and not to the shareholders. Directors have an obligation to act in the company's best interests."

In my opinion, Bill Kenwright has repeatedly misled the fans and shareholders alike; his performance of delivering what is required by Everton is abysmal. His apparent mythomania means he can?t be trusted with Everton's future and that leads me to believe that the solution to our current malaise is staring everyone in the face: Bill Kenwright needs to be removed, both as chairman and from the board, along with several of the other passengers within the club.

I find it amazing when a few diehard believers of the PR bullshit we've had to endure, point across the park and proclaim that mess is somehow a measure of the success of Kenwright's tenure; it's analogous to recommending a garage on the basis that, whilst they never actual fix a car, they never make it worse. Has nobody ever realised why we aren?t in even greater debt than we are, those amounts of debt that apologists of the Kenwright circus happily point to at Liverpool and Manchester United??? It?s because we have nothing left to borrow against, British banks won?t lend any more so we scurry off to a South African bank and borrow against not just current revenue streams but streams we won?t even receive for another two years!!

Everton supporters need to start showing some of the passion seen across the park and elsewhere; they should be outraged at their own treatment by this board. Sadly, even when it's blatantly obvious they're being shafted, too many of our fans stand there and do nothing. Quite a few of the shaftees, some tapping merrily away here on ToffeeWeb, even applaud the shafter when it is to the detriment of the club to which they supposedly support. Having read comments and articles posted on this site by characters such as ?Sur Jo? and Richard Dodd, passing themselves off as Evertonians, I have concluded that such folk and opinions have to be a complete wind-up. With specific regards to Richard Dodd, I'm just pleased that society is now sufficiently enlightened enough to allow patient inmates access to computer skills courses!

Removing Bill Kenwright is more easily said than done. Accusations of lying would probably clear most of the boardrooms in the country; accusing him of not fulfilling his fiduciary responsibilities, of not acting in the best interests of the business, a legal requirement under the companies act, is equally subjective. Kirkby, for instance, would have added value to the company balance sheet and even though the attendance levels were laughingly optimistic (don?t forget they had to add six fictitious events to make it look respectable), the board members will simply direct complainants to the figures produced by Deloitte which highlighted an increase of £6M on the contribution currently (2008) received from Goodison.

The question is: how can Bill Kenwright be removed? If the directors were to undergo an annual assessment on their performance, as they are required to do so, how many would be endorsed as proficient? Just look at Bill Kenwright?s track record, it?s absolutely appalling and, as previously stated, many remain convinced that he is responsible for introducing, and being under the command of, a shadow director and has allowed the presence of a nominee director in the shape of Spurs-supporting Robert Earl.

If they could be removed who would you replace them with? Personally, I'm certain you'll all have your opinions on this, the only current member of the board I'd leave in place is Jon Woods ? as big an Evertonian as Bill Kenwright proclaims to be but without the bullshit or the baggage, he?s been a reluctant director but I?d like to think he's decent enough to put some of the recent wrongs right.

I'd make Robert Elstone Managing Director, under the strict instruction that no contact be made with the former members of the board or Philip Green. The current CEO is a sports business professional and in my experience has treated all with honesty and respect. I'd ask John Suenson-Taylor (aka Lord Grantchester), whose disdain for the Kenwright regime is well known, to join the board and a qualified representative from the Shareholders Association to act on behalf of all minority stakeholders, shareholders and fans, to complete the board. And I'd ask the newly formed collective to work towards the sale of the club to an individual or organisation who, without relying on leveraged buyout plans, has the capital resources and the best interests of the club at the heart of their business plan ? not simply someone who is going to hand over the most money for the shares which, in my opinion, is what you'll get with the make-up of the current board who appear to take their instructions from elsewhere.

Bill Kenwright told the shareholders at the 2004 EGM that he did not own shares for profit or involvement. If only for once such words are to be believed, after spending a decade in his fruitless 24/7 search for investment, he should allow other more competent and better qualified individuals to conclude the process that he appears demonstrably unable to complete. The alternative is to simply accept the position we're in, one where we just wait for the next effectively free, "something for nothing" scheme masquerading in place of a cohesive business plan that would actually promote organic growth.

So, Mike Gaynes, there you have it. You see we all understand that in business some things don't go to plan, but on balance the law of averages states you get some things right ? even a broken clock is right twice a day; look at Bill Kenwright's record, that type of performance is impossible. Some people, the type who are unable to face up to the reality of the situation and the media, who haven't the time, inclination or fortitude to ignore the difficulties (they would endure) in exposing the myth of having a good old, holes in my shoes, ex-Boys Pen Toffees supporter at the helm, prefer to ignore the mass of evidence that tells you Bill Kenwright is a liability to our club and needs to go, as soon as possible.

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