Kenwright and Kirkby

by   |   20/12/2021  22 Comments  [Jump to last]

Remember when "Blue Bill" wanted to move Everton FC out of the city?

While the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is under construction, it’s important to remember there were other attempts to build new stadiums in recent times.

Destination Kirkby. Does anybody remember that?

Long before Farhad Moshiri arrived and his deep pockets continued to be used poorly at best, Everton chairman Bill Kenwright claimed he was looking for investment in the club. The question remains: Why did it take so long? You can’t find any evidence of it, but the rumour still persists that part of any deal was that Kenwright would remain the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

More damning to Kenwright’s self-portrayal as “Blue Bill” is the planned move to Kirkby and the ensuing debacle.

For much of 2007, Kenwright pushed and lobbied hard for Everton to build a new stadium in conjunction with a Tesco superstore in Kirkby, located outside of Liverpool City limits.

According to the BBC:

Kenwright came under a barrage of criticism at the December 2007 AGM of shareholders.

Kenwright was accused of murdering the soul of the club. But he insisted he was looking at all the options available to the club, including staying at Goodison Park.

Feelings had been running high for months as Everton entered into discussions with Tesco and the authorities in Kirkby - significantly outside the city boundaries - over a new home for the team.

One of the longest-running Everton sites and one of the best is ToffeeWeb,

A Roger Davis article from August in 2009, deserves a full reading and you can do so by clicking the above link.

This is the third paragraph and it hits home hard.

To get to the truth, you need to dismiss Bill Kenwright’s sugar-coated smokescreen anecdotes that bring a tear to a glass eye. Stories like how he brought Moyes to the club and stood by him are as much bollocks as his tale about standing next to Eddie Cavanagh in the ’66 Cup Final. Of course there will always be the same apologists ready to spring to Kenwright’s defence but let's be honest — the game's up; it’s now no longer just simply embarrassing… enough is enough.

In the second part of the article, Davis says his information came from solicitors, accountants and individuals with an attachment to the club. Davis doesn’t reveal his sources and, to me, a former journalist, it makes a lot of sense. These sources need to be protected and naming them could very well ruin their careers.

According to a post on the Grand Old Team site:

Forever Blue 92 posted the following in response to a question from a Sunderland fan, about Kenwright’s popularity:

Never invested a penny in the club

3 failed ground moves under his tenure

24/7 investment search which was basically Kenwright knocking back any potential buyer who didn't accept him staying on as Chairman (apparently Qatar's investment vehicle that owns PSG were interested in us at one stage)

Selling Rooney and Arteta to pay the banks off

Involving his dodgy mates like Philip Green in the club behind the scenes

If it wasn't for Moyes working miracles on a shoestring sell-to-buy budget every season we would have likely been in League One and crippled with debt.

This was posted on 13 December of this year, a week ago.

Bill Kenwright is a showman, not a football man. He’s an actor and a pretty good one, it seems. He deserves a BAFTA, and an Oscar for how he has managed to fool so many Evertonians with his “I’m a massive Blue” act.

I’m a massive Blue, too. I have been since I was 5, I’m 64 now and I’ve seen ups and downs with our club. But no matter how massive Blue I am, it doesn’t mean I’m qualified to run a massive football club. I did spend a couple of years working for Citibank, but I wouldn’t claim that experience would qualify me.

It’s time to help blow the smoke out of other Blues’ eyes. It’s time to stop treating Kenwright as some kind of benevolent feudal lord of the mano

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Reader Comments (22)

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Brian Wilkinson
1 Posted 31/12/2021 at 00:24:02
Already said enough in previous posts about Inspector Clouseau as our Chairman, will leave it to others, before my blood pressure goes through the roof.
Paul Hewitt
2 Posted 31/12/2021 at 00:27:47
We never went to Kirby, pointless thread. And don't start me on the bill bashers. Moshiri has been a disaster. But you have what you wished for
Stephen Vincent
3 Posted 31/12/2021 at 01:04:08
Paul, #2, surely the point is that Moshiri is not what we wished for, its what Kenwright wished for.
Brian Murray
4 Posted 31/12/2021 at 01:57:15
He’s done us more damage and held us back far more than the heysel ban ever did. Total incompetent curse of a man
Don Alexander
5 Posted 31/12/2021 at 02:02:19
Kenwright has been the archetypal "no comment" wanker to every meaningful question posed of him by committed share-owning fans for decades whilst in his pursuit of a modestly wealthy (by the standard of the majority of Premier League club owners) gullible toss-pot to buy him out, on paper at least.

Just like BoJo he tells endless lies and spouts fantastical commitment whilst still doing the square root of fuck all in achieving his self-promulgated ambition to those gullible minions he purports to serve. Sadly, some still choose to believe in him, and not least Moshiri himself.

It's like a ventriloquist and his doll, except that Moshiri has long since ceased to be the vent, because he's unwittingly now controlled by the preposterous puppet he thought he'd control.

Because it's Crimbo, and in an attempt to amuse, I attach the following to illustrate what I mean;

https://youtu.be/C3Zn3M-WMzM

Unfortunately we are in the hands of no such genius as Ray Alan!

Ian Horan
6 Posted 31/12/2021 at 02:26:33
Kenwright will hang round like an albatross until BMD is completed, then he will push for a stand or some section of the new ground to be named after him!!! After careful consideration and reflection of Kenwrights tenure at Everton the only section that should be named after him is the toilets. BPB has shit and pissed on us for years at least the naming of the toilets after him allows us all to piss on him at least metaphorically speaking!!!!
Jim Lloyd
7 Posted 31/12/2021 at 08:17:10
I think this thread is far from pointless, as the "Brother" is still in picture as the man responsible for the most disastrous period in Everton's long and noble history.

We never went to Kirkby (thank the Gods and the tremendous work by "Keep Everton in our City") we would have been up shit creek without a paddle on a Kirkdale kids raft!

All what's gone on before with this charlatan has been said before and most of it is proven.
He is still, however, the Chairman of the club that we follow. (Ian, you got in before me regarding which part of our future home, if anything, we should have named, to remind us of this man!) Some Blues blame Moshiri for our current situation, I can't agree.

Without Moshiri, even the money that has been mis-spent has been provide by him, the fact that there is a stadium being built has been through his efforts and money. We would still be looking for someone for fulfill Brither Kenwright's dream of providing the money, while he runs the club.

I think that, Moshiri, and more likely Usmanov, have well cottoned on to this charlatan, but doing something about it is another matter. I guess they believe that he is more popular with the supporters than he actually is. I think they are partially going about it by bringing in Benitez to look at all the football side of our club. I also think Ryantsov has provided Moshiri with plenty of information, on what's going on in the Boardroom.

Matt Traynor
8 Posted 31/12/2021 at 12:39:50
Plenty of other scenes in the panto. Remember Chris Samuelson being wheeled out at the AGM? After that went south, and he was asked about it, he laughed it off.

Those accountants and solicitors could also shed light on another oft-speculated aspect of the True Blue Holdings takeover - that the cost was put on the club as a leveraged buyout, given the change in net debt position immediately afterwards with no obvious reason why.

"But he mortgaged his house". "Oh no he didn't". Etc.

Dennis Stevens
9 Posted 31/12/2021 at 12:52:09
I hope Kenwright doesn't expect to see a statue erected in honour of his contribution to the Club when we relocate to our new home by the Mersey, he's more likely to have an effigy burned!
John Keating
10 Posted 31/12/2021 at 13:41:19
A dark time, if not the darkest, in our history
The thought of this charlatan leading us to Kirkby still sends chills after all these years

Kenwright had been caught out many times before DK reared it’s head, however, the lies that came out during this period makes Boris look like Mother Teresa

How Kenwright stayed after the slamming at the inquiry is still unbelievable. How he is still here is incredulous.

The saddest thing personally for me was the incredible amount of animosity shown to those who put themselves out there protecting the Club and assisting in the fight against DK.
I was only a foot soldier and I got pelters, what some of the more outspoken supporters got was a disgrace

Even now we have supporters and posters slagging off those of us who were more vociferous and are still painting Kenwright as the Clubs saviour
Unbelievable

Brian Murray
11 Posted 31/12/2021 at 14:03:56
John. This buffoons is our very own OJ Simpson. Can’t believe he still gets away with murder to this day. Surely no blue still comes out the old chestnut he’s a blue one of us cack. New year new Everton. Grow a pair mosh lad
Barry Rathbone
12 Posted 31/12/2021 at 15:11:14
That's when he lost me.

Chairmen are by and large never good enough for the fans so no surprise he gets pelters but the Kirkby move was a surrender to Liverpool FC. It would have been the final nail in the coffin for half the fanbase and just the maddest most self serving decision that benefitted a handful at the expense of many.

Could see it now regularly playing to a half empty stadium and the RS calling us the "Kenwright Kirkby Klub" but using the acronym!

Shudders

Rob Halligan
13 Posted 31/12/2021 at 15:20:47
There’s bound to be a time capsule somewhere at BMD when it opens. Put a picture of him in that, then in 50 years, open it and let the fans of the next generations see what a real fraudster looks like!
John Keating
14 Posted 31/12/2021 at 15:23:04
Barry
Fortunately it was never going to happen.
However, it should never have got as far as it did.

I really believe had it, or something similar, happened Everton Football Club as it was would not have survived, or at least been as we knew it.

Though we are all Evertonians and it is impossible to stop, there was a split in the fanbase. More than at any time before or after
I don’t know how but I believe many supporters would have just given up, not so much in being an Evertonian, but in financially enabling the Club to continue with Kenwright at the helm.

As so many have said. A not so good actor with an interest in only himself

Tom Bowers
15 Posted 31/12/2021 at 16:32:30
Why the chairman gets it in the neck is beyond me.
Sure he may have his detractors just because he was an entertainer but wasn't Elton John when Watford first re-emerged and that Delia lady at Norwich.

Okay, I know they are considered small clubs and Everton may have deserved better than Kenwright but is it his fault that many talented players have been brought to Goodison and have under performed. Managers pick the teams and plan the strategies but in the end if the players don't put in consistent shifts why blame the chairman.

Dennis Stevens
16 Posted 31/12/2021 at 17:05:08
Is that hook & line or just net you're using, Tom?
Ian Horan
17 Posted 31/12/2021 at 17:09:46
Tom@ 15 with the greatest of respect, Kenwright purchased Everton at a time when the club had no debt, a new Parkend stand and had recently won the F A Cup, I would say that's a very healthy position to start from. He paid 20 mill for the club and claimed he remortgaged his house to buy it, to get a mortgage of 20 million it must be one of the biggest houses and country estate in Hampshire bare in mind this was the mid 90s. Within 18 months the club was 20 to 30 mill in debt.. that is the first red flag to me. The rest of his failings self serving actions and proposals clearly provide why he gets the critism from fans and to my mind it is fully deserved.
Ste Traverse
18 Posted 31/12/2021 at 19:53:31
BK, Dec 2007, live on tv whilst promoting the move to Kirkby, "we have to move as Goodison will soon lose it safety certificate".14 years on and it still hasn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7HQFLkxr2g&t=60s

And to think we have Blues who still blindly back this man despite this obvious lie and all his other many crimes against Everton FC.

Christine Foster
19 Posted 31/12/2021 at 20:29:39
Incredible to think I started writing about Bill Kenwright, Kirkby here on ToffeeWeb some 15 years ago, give or take. He associated and involved the masters of tax evasion and shady deals in running our club ( mistakenly he always believed it was his club) He lied to fans repeatedly about his search for a buyer, lied about the state of Goodison Park, the list was growing daily. He stopped AGMs because he didn't like the questions, he never took a penny from the club he says, but pocketed millions by selling his shares to an investor and staying in effective control. But Kirkby, was based on the greed of a few not on the need of the club, so rightfully the man deserves no respect for his involvement in driving it. He is not fit to be chairman of this club.
Dave Abrahams
20 Posted 31/12/2021 at 20:40:54
A genuine Scouser can spot instantly a bullshitter and Billy Boy reeks of it, a complete and utter phoney when it comes to Everton and football.
Paul Jones
21 Posted 31/12/2021 at 20:43:53
Some maths for the Great Accountant who can't see how much damage BK has done to this club...

kopite = gobshite
kopite + parasite = Kenwright

Mike Hayes
22 Posted 01/01/2022 at 17:15:44
Someone once said – I'm sure it was in here – that there should be a statue to Kenwright. I said only if they put a millstone around its neck for the failure of Kings Dock, Destination Kirby and Walton Hall – then display it in his hall of smoke and mirrors – the twat!

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