Everton CEO says Liverpool's Champions League win is 'fantastic' in business terms for the city

What a patronising joke and an absolute insult to Evertonians everywhere that this stupid statement has been made by someone employed by the club.

It pretty much says everything you need to know about why this club has been held back for so many years when people like this are working for us.

Nothing that Liverpool do should ever be good for the city from an Everton perspective.

Barrett-Baxendale ought to be ashamed of herself for this.

As much as we hate it, it's a fact, and IMO for her to deny it would simply feed those fuckers' assertions of us being bitter and small-minded and that we're a small club.

She has to be diplomatic and she has to be professional, which again IMO has has been, although I'd have a poster of her on my wall if she'd have said "Fuck the lot of them, I'd rather ANYBODY win it than those fuckers."

[The latter part of that last paragraph is meant as a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously. ]

High road, low road. I chose the road less travelled and that has made all the difference.

Class is in short supply these days.

How can anyone associated with Everton agree that when the streets were lined with that shower of Red shite everywhere upon the Cup coming home is good for the city?

I appreciate she needs to be seen as professional but why even mention anything Liverpool related at all, she should just reassure us Blues that we are striving to be amongst the best and aim to be challenging the top 6 this season, no need to bring Liverpool into it.

If anything it just makes people view Liverpool as a city dominated by one club, like Barcelona and Espanyol.

She goes on to say that the city has “two high achieving clubs”

Sorry Denise but what exactly have we achieved in the past 24 years?

I'm going to let someone better at doing it than me point out how poor it is to say "and regardless of how people want to view it, from an Everton point of view it's insulting."

Well, no, on second thoughts, I'll have a little go in case Jay's busy: "it's insulting regardless of how people want to view it."

No it's not. I'm not insulted by it, and I dare say a lot of other Evertonian's won't be either. You're insulted by it, that's all you can say for sure mate.

If the RedShite's equivalent of Denise said "Bramley-Moore Dock stadium will be good for the city", would that be an insult to the RedShite? No, it wouldn't; it would just be that person recognizing a fact.

Oh and Jim, err for some considerable time, this city has been dominated by one club.

You miss the point.

I don't want her to bullshit by saying we are “high achievers”.

We are not high achieving and haven't been for decades.

The city currently has one high achieving club and we know that is Liverpool, but we don't need telling that it's good for the city seeing them celebrate winning major honours.

What DBB could have said is something that would not insult intelligent Everton fans and reassure us that we will attempt in this coming season to challenge the top 6 and that we have been huge “underachievers” for years.

To suggest that this city has two high achieving clubs is poppycock.

The misery of the past 24 years is not exclusive to those who are easily outraged. It's been desperate.

Our achievements cannot be taken away from us because the RedShite have achieved more. We have done the City proud... Just ask those who live in other cities like Newcastle, Bristol, Southampton, Sunderland where they would love to have underachieved on the same scale as us. Try telling a Villa fan that their club hasn't done the City of Birmingham proud.

It's nice to have a history to look back on that nobody can take away from us but, in terms of overall achievement, we are lagging from where we need to be in the modern era.

We can't brush under the carpet that Everton Football Club has never played in the Champions League proper since 1992.

We can't brush under the carpet no trophy on the table since 1995.

We can't pretend that not winning away to our city rivals in a local derby since 1999 is acceptable.

We can't overlook a decade without winning a local derby.

Nice to look back on stuff that happened nearly half-a-century ago now but we are not a high achieving club in the modern era, we haven't even looked like being one.

Moshiri actually hit the nail on the head when he said it's a museum.

Football wasn't invented in 1992 but it certainly feels like – apart from the 95 Cup success – we stopped playing for trophies when 1992 came in.

Any RS fans I know seem to get annoyed when I tell them all this, they must think we should have wanted them to win the Champions League, but the simple fact is, I couldn't give a fucking shit about them. And for me, Denise Barrett-Baxendale should think the same. Concentrate on all things Everton, not giving congratulations to them bastards.

That's just the ploy you adopt to try to make your plight worse than any other Evertonians.

Nobody is looking back either. I was simply pointing out the stupidity of denying achievement because it happened a long time ago. Nobody will deny Armstrong landed on the moon because he hasn't done it again recently. Or that Mike Tyson was a great Champion because he is now a shadow of what he once was

Achievements are forever.

Its easy for us as fans to say "Give them fuckers no credit at all". But DBB is in a position which requires a little more diplomacy. She'd have looked a right fucking Toby if she went down that route. She may have upset you by talking about our "achievements" but she'd have upset an awful lot more if she didn't.

I fucking hate them and everything they represent but if I heard our CEO act in a totally unprofessional way and say some of the sort of things I say about them then I'd be appalled and she'd be an idiot, which she most certainly isn't!

Liverpool winning will increase the overall global fan awareness of the city (can't really argue against that). Whether that's good for Everton or not could be argued both ways. Rising tide lifts all boats or we start to become like your Barca / Espanyol example.

Either way, it's done, we move on. They didn't win the league so it's been almost as long a wait for them as for us for a league title. Crumb of comfort admittedly.

If only we'd bloody try in one of the cups and put the 24-year wait behind us. (And win a derby.)

It's not really relevant whether the CEO congratulates Liverpool or doesn't congratulate them. The only thing relevant is Everton's performances. If we play well and win stuff, then all else will pale into insignificance.

Also, just like with the Hillsborough memorial, our club should always operate with class and dignity. When the success does come back to us, and it will, I'd like to think the other half of the city would operate the same way, and if they don't, it is a reflection on them not us. We'll said, Denise.

As many more informed than me have said, the club's refusal to consider a capacity over 52,000 without ripping up seats for rail standing smells like a huge space-determined limit to me.

Lions led by donkeys.

Our women did well to keep their heads and remain professional.

Good entertainment on a boring afternoon like.

Kenwright's mouthpiece should have kept quiet on this issue and trying to make out that Goodison Pak was landlocked.

So was Anfield till "they" got it unlocked and developed a 60,000-plus stadium which in the 60s was a cowshed.

We need a Levi type as CEO — not some politically correct "safe" inoffensive pair of hands.

"which has two fantastic, high achieving, top-flight football clubs. That's fantastic for the fans"

Could have cut the bullshit and less of the patronising. We are not high achieving and have not achieved anything tangible in the Premier League era since 1995. History can be taken two ways, history pre Premier League era, excellent, but it's also the here and now, and in 27 years that history has been pretty much abject.

I don't mind hearing about what Everton are giving back to the community now and again but she doesn't need to emphasise it every time she interviews. How about giving us some concrete timelines on Bramley-Moore Dock?

The trope of 'it is good for the city' is never anything I have heard about our successes, however great or small. Did anyone proclaim that our Cup Winners' Cup victory was good for the city? If they did, then I don't remember it.

DBB's words remind me of David Brent's comments in The Office when trying to console people fearing redundancy with news of his popularity in a vote by the board of directors. If DBB thinks it will be good for the city, then she is at liberty to percieve it thus, but Evertonians are only interested in Everton, and a representative of the club should be more than sensitive to that fact. After all, why should we congratulate a club that did not have the decency to send us a token of celebration (as every other contemporary Premier League club did) when we reached our landmark 100 seasons in the top flight?

They revel in keeping us in their shadow and, with statements like this from DBB, consolidate our role as their poodle.

We don't need to be congratulating them, however obliquely; we need to be upsetting them on the pitch and off it. Remember; there is no-one they fear more than us.

Is that what she should have said?

Do you perennials never stop whining at every turn? No wonder the RedShite call us bitter.

It was all of 30 seconds before he mentioned the result.

END OF!!!

I see her as the link to us buying the Liver Building and lighting it up Blue. It was funny for 5 minutes and she has a nice swanky office in the city centre now. But what's next?

I see her as the same mentality of Kenwright, with a "small, community-type club" mentality. Get her out!

Once you do that, then come back and explain to me how good the Red Shite winning the Champions League is for us and our city.

I've worked with, and trained, many graduates who believed, and acted, like they knew the fucking lot because they had a degree. Lots of em could list every constituent of a jamjar but couldn't work out how to get the fucking lid off.

It's about being able to do the job and, in all honesty, there's not a great number on here who have a scooby doo about whether she's good at her job or not!

Like many, I would prefer if our CEO kept her mouth shut on the achievements of our neighbours, or indeed other Premier League teams.

However, her quote encapsulates once again what the game is about: money, sponsorship, business.

Winning the Champions League will likely add to the attraction of the City of Liverpool. Here in Kenya, sponsors have been falling over themselves to have endorsements with the local supporters club (newly founded).

There is, however, something that still jars if our CEO is suggesting that our proud club – with amongst the richest competitive traditions in the land – can somehow benefit from the glory of our hated neighbours' success. It is not a bandwagon I would ever want us to be remotely near (never mind on).

This is and will always be a tribal game.

When we start beating them again, everything will change. Until that time, however, new stadium or not, the City-based fans will continue to suffer – and I understand why DBB's comment about “them” would get them wound up.

"Denise, how do you see the Champions League win for Liverpool (well y'know) benefiting the city?" (No mention of us in the question, asked to a person with a high profile business position and from primarily a business perspective with regard to the city of Liverpool.)

Now try'n be grown up lads. Is there any way she could say "I'd really rather not comment on Liverpool's win as I work for Everton and it would upset our support if I did." or anything along those lines?

ANYTHING other than a professional approach recognizing the undeniable good it will do for the city would come across as petty, small-minded, and dare I say BITTER.

It may be a tribal game but that doesn't mean that anyone who works for a club in a professional capacity has to behave as a supporter might.

I'll say again (boring I know) I hate them with a passion, but if our CEO behaved like me when asked a question in a professional capacity, THEN she'd deserve to be sacked.

Jim, Amit, Si, Rob – I share your frustration the RS don't need employees of Everton joining in with the media led love in of the RS.

Perhaps someone at the club should remind her that being an Evertonian is not fantastic at the moment with many of us having to endure crowing RS fans at present.

It might be wiser just to say, "It's not my business to comment on other football clubs - my sole focus is to help create success at Everton." That is her job after all.

I heard about the University Graduate who started a new job. First day was handed a brush and told to brush the floor.

“Do you know I'm a University Graduate?” he says.

“Don't worry, I'll show you how it works “...

Also, as an aside, a friend of mine was involved early on in our stadium project and had meetings with the board. He reckons Denise Barrett-Baxendale was by far the smartest person in the room and he thinks we're lucky to have her.

Contrast that to the turmoil that Liverpool are creating with their move from Melwood their training ground. The local community have been completely ignored by the club, the residents suggested that the world class facilities could have been used by the local community, but their pleas have been rejected. I understand at a meeting of residents the chair said its a pity Liverpool Football club cant show the same class as Everton do in considering the local community.

I'm sure I may have mentioned this before, but a few years back a mate of mine died as a result of motor neurone disease. Not long after he was diagnosed with MND, along with some other mates we organised charity nights to raise money to send him abroad for stem cell treatment. Everton gave us all kinds of things to raffle and auction on the night. After numerous requests to Liverpool, they finally gave us a signed picture of slippy with the Champions League trophy in 2005.

On another occasion, my wife organised A charity night to raise funds for five young children who lost both their parents. Again Everton provided all sorts to raffle. Again, following numerous requests to Liverpool, they finally sent a signed away shirt to raffle

A shirt that was five seasons old!!

Their response when we questioned their refusal to supply items for raffle, "we receive requests like this everyday from all over the world, and cannot deal with every request". This is people on your own doorstep we were talking about, FFS.

Basically, what they mean is they couldn't give a fuck about people in their own city, and would rather deal where the money is, and enhance their global reputation.

So yes, there is absolutely nothing classy about that gobshite of a club.

I know she's not in that league – not many, if any, are... If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons — Churchill.

Really? Who's the other high achieving club then? I only see one and it sure as shit ain't us.

I'm with Jim and Rob (and other like-minded posters) on this – I don't care whether or not it's "good for the City" – it's not good for Evertonians. Similarly, I don't care if the City being invaded by tourists for each of their home games is "good for the City" - I'd rather it didn't happen. For those (e.g. Len#25) who think I'm bitter - I am, but with good reason.

Finally Rob, I was actually at home for the Champions League Final but still don't know or care who scored!

Do you think, if the boot was on the other foot, her counterpart would do the same? Like fuck they would; we wouldn't get a mention. She should have kept her mouth shut.

"Having obtained a doctorate in education from Liverpool John Moores University and worked in the industry for 16 years, Denise initially arrived at the Football Club in January 2010 to develop and lead a transformation strategy for Everton in the Community."

A doctorate in education from JMU? This somehow qualifies her to command a football club in the world's wealthiest league? I have a certificate in first aid from the dak and distant past that ranks alongside her doctorate. Denise did wonders in the community, so what? Read the statement carefully and it's obvious EFC are not exactly boasting about a long list of blue chip companies she's worked for or her demonstrable ability to guide a company such as EFC.

I suspect her biggest asset is that she can gab with best of them and that's why here derrière is warming the CEO's chair.

She must have woke up in a very sunshine like altruistic mood that day.

I was in an airport in Germany recently and went for a stroll around the the shops and I had no problems finding a shirt from the Dark Side amongst Real, Barca, AC, Man Utd shirts etc.

We're being eclipsed by them and she's happy for them and the city? Fuck that.

To talk about Liverpool region-wide business without mentioning a recent huge event that will boost the image of Merseyside internationally would have been... unprofessional and small-minded – some might say jealous.

The way to put this right isn't by trying to pretend it didn't happen, it is by emulating the result ASAP.

It ain't necessarily so.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/308246#1

When the Euro Team League comes along they'll be off without a second thought for us or the other teams left behind. Nah, they are the most self-entitled, self-congratulatory bunch of wankers and worst neighbours anybody could have.

They have lauded the No 6 around like it means they are the greatest ever - hello Real Madrid 13 times are the greatest of all time. The miracle of Anfield when God, The Virgin Mary, Jesus and all the Apostles turned up aka the night they ko'd Barca 4 Nil after being totally out played in Spain is not unique - Roma ko'd Barca after losing 4 v 1 away. I haven't heard Roma fans call it a miracle - have you?

Did they win away in the Group Stage - NO. and I didn't even mention Heysel which appears to have been airbrushed from history.

"Business terms".

Many on this board should seek therapy with a view to removing the Liverpool-inferiority-complex. I don't hate LFC, I love Everton. I look at Liverpool as I do any of the rest of the top 6 yes it's special when we win against them but too many live and die by that. I'd happily never win a derby again if we won trophies and hit the top 4.

I don't feel the vitriol that many harbour here, likely because I don't live there. When I meet Liverpool supporters in Boston (or anywhere else), there is no "red shite" or "bastards".

Turns out Bill Shankly was completely wrong. Football is not bigger than life/death. It's a big entertainment business. Enjoy it for what it is.

I would hope and bet that the majority of Blues do give a rats arse about their city and its people.

It's one of those bland diplomatic offerings often made by a public figure, safe in the knowledge that it can not be measured, will never be proved and is unlikely to be ever be mentioned again.

I can't see what any of them have in common with Denise and her PhD in Education??? /p>

Exactly. It's the city and its people that matter, not her opinions. She's irrelevant.

She is correct. It is fantastic for the city. It is good for us. Think about Man City. Prior to the Arabs coming in, City had less historical success than Sunderland. City were positively impacted by the success of Man Utd. I don't know how you could draw a conclusive view, but I suspect that the success of Man Utd in the Champions League in 2008 helped raise the City's and so Man City's profile enough that the Arabs saw the potential of what they could achieve in that City. I cannot see how Man Utd's success was bad for Man City.

Of course, it is very bad for the long-suffering Man City fans. No doubt about that. Unless you're like my father and patted the enemy on the back and told them well done. I tried that before this latest CL final. I knew they'd win. I told all of them I hoped they'd win. I told the family members my Dad would be behind them too. Afterwards, I told them well done and got no shit back.

In reality, I blocked the game out and avoided it, and resigned myself to the fact they had won and we would hear about it forever more. But it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Maybe, it's people still going out of their way to be nice to me, I don't know. I just knew the old fella embraced the evil reds and it never bothered him. And despite what some of you may think, it did not make him any less of a blue.

So back to the CEO. I think she has been very diplomatic and is factually correct. One thing that was not reported here is that Everton, and presumably her, donated a sum of money equal to the collective pay for a week of the Bolton Wanderers staff. I presume this is the behind-the-scenes people like the tea ladies and so on, but those are the ones who suffer the most and it is a great move by Everton. I hope others follow suit.

I've no idea whether the CEO is good at her job. I have reservations. I also note the reservations of others. I also note that she was not really an Everton fan, despite the publicity to the contrary, and so she doesn't understand the suffering we endure. If the CEO had come from the position some of you seem to want her to come from, then that would have been small-minded and petty and not in line with where Everton want to go. Remember, the CEO has not gone out of the way to publicise this message, it's one comment that has been taken and then amplified to create a talking point.

Like so many Reds she only went the match just the once – a Derby where she must have caused great dismay when her Kopite date saw her turn up in a Royal Blue & White suit! I don't think they ever went out together again.

However, some Blues demonstrate a lack of class with their hate-filled hearts...

We can only hope that they fall from grace and we rise above once again. Be proud to be a Blue – not bitter to be in their shadow.

I went to a Red Shite's funeral last week. They dug a hole 30-feet deep coz, deep down, they're not that fucking bad.

What happened was a fucken disaster for us and should be acknowledged as such. I feel fucken sick just thinking about it and the horrible twats who killed off our chance with our best ever team.

Good for the city? Get fucken real... you live in a deamworld if you even consider that statement in any form.

Link

He won us a cup and built the Park End stand.

So, just to clarify... internationally... and in purely business terms, it's a disaster and bad for the city and businesses that benefit from visitor numbers?

EXACTLY! People seem to be likening this to a gang of labourers talking in a pub on a Friday afternoon – not the Chief Executive Officer of Everton Football Club Co Ltd speaking at Liverpool Business Awards.

I hate Liverpool FC with a passion but how much damage to Everton FC would have been done if she had come out and spouted bile about them — which apparently a lot of people on here think she should have done???

This is a High Finance Business she is representing — not the Slaughtermans Arms pub Sunday League team. Give your heads a wobble.

All billionaires none of them have the qualifications of Denise. My point is, the pieces of paper saying you're clever are not a necessity to be successful. Examples: look at all the ex-Eton, Oxford and Cambridge graduate clowns in positions of power.

My I just remind my fellow Blues that, last season, one of the League Cup Semi-Finalists were Burton Albion...

As we stagnate, them fuckers over the park continue to laugh at us.

Aim to win the easiest fucking trophy there is... and take it from there!

Rant over... sigh.