Board no-show at scheduled FAB meeting

My thanks to 10cc for allowing me to borrow the lyrics from I wanna rule the World.

They are worse than a disgusting bunch of parasites and hopefully this is a sign that they are toast.

It also goes to prove that the whole initiative was as many of us suspected, a PR exercise that came back to bite them when they weren't supposed to have teeth.

The FAB have shown they took the initiative seriously, something the club never intended to do, just lip-service.
Meeting with the FAB at the moment would expose the board to more scrutiny and unwanted questions.

The FAB weren't supposed to be as critical of them as they have been. The board attach no importance to them anymore – but then the feeling is mutual.

Given the current rumours about Moshiri's majority shareholding possibly being diluted, then I could forgive board members for not attending the recent meeting.

Also, I could forgive them if they failed to notify in advance that they wouldn't make the meeting, if talks surrounding majority ownership were at an advanced stage.

On the other hand, perhaps, a certain oligarch has the current board on one of his yachts and they are being used as unpaid crew members, to satisfy his every whim?

Tainted, their professional reputations in tatters, the only reason they are still there is to get a final payday. It's going to have to last a long time, about as long as supporters' memories.

They would earn some credit were they to apologise for their disgraceful slanderous lies about an assault against an elderly female! Outrageous to allege such a thing without any evidence or corroboration from any witness.
Clueless and vile.

As Phil McNulty wrote in his BBC article summarising the season, "Everton fans think the board don't deserve them". "And they are right".

Well said, Phil.

It's good the mainstream media now see through the tissue of lies Bullshit Bill has orchestrated.

Headlock on poor Denise,
The Kings Dock Money is Ring-fenced,
Rooney won't be sold on my watch,
Arteta money will be reinvested.

Fuck off, Bill, you theatrical absolute clown. You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

The sooner real change comes, the better. NSNO needs to have a chance of being lived up to again. Give Dyche a proper chance! UTFT.

Fans should never be asked for advice

Football is full of lip service, and I'd definitely sooner listen to sensible Evertonians, rather than nepotistic phoneys sitting in high places pretending that they have got the clubs best interests at heart.

I'm just glad they've finally been found out.

Many times we are right though, and there's often a 50-50 split. So there are always plenty correct :-)

Trouble is fans are like magpies attracted by shiny baubles the baubles being headlines. A crap way of making judgement.

Most of our managerial appointments have been reasonably well received bar Allardyce and he was chased despite being the only one with any measure of success!!

Be like putting lunatics in charge of the asylum

I'm hoping the seven-year programme of how not to do or perceive things will now show a positive effect. An era of cold reality for all begins. At least we're here in the top flight for it.

Since Everton decided to go with a director of football, I'm certain we have had a more of these Jesse Linguard types than any other football club?

They might have been welcomed by the fans, but it definitely wasn't the fans who advocated or signed them.

I do admire your persistence but not every wrong can be laid at the door of Kenwright &co.

Unquestionably he ushered in the "no ambition" era, a grim enough crime itself, but the recent descent to oblivion is down to the ex Arsenal balloons - Mosh and Usi.

He cannot change the board's direction but by going along with it is now equally tainted. All he had to do was resign back in 2022 and he would have been a hero for life.

I think when a human being allows himself to be bought by any cynical bastard, then he is always going to suffer the consequences one day.

Sharp may well have joined the board with good intentions and for the right reasons but, when he never responded to the open letter from the fans offering him an olive branch, he unfortunately nailed his colours to his nepotistic boss and has tarnished his absolutely fantastic playing legacy.

It's very sad, and although I will still celebrate some of his brilliant goals in exactly the same way, I no longer look at Graeme Sharp the man with any particular fondness.

It was never stated that the Kings Dock money was ring-fenced.

What Kenwright said was that, if he managed to raise the money (he didn't), it would be ring-fenced for the stadium and not buying players.

I also assume that the Arteta money was put back into the club accounts. Perhaps you could correct this misconception of mine with proof that it wasn't used for the club but something else?

Not sure I blame fans for stuff they haven't done.

I'd be interested in an example?

I see you have changed your stance on a couple of other threads, Barry, but for someone who is apathetic, you do spend a lot of time trying to defend people who I consider indefensible.

I know you love Everton, so maybe next season I can get you a ticket for one of our games, and we can discuss things verbally instead of in print, because you do come across like a bailiff at times, and I've talked quite a few of these people around in my time!!

Seriously, though, I hate it when everyone is tarnished with the same brush and have always believed that, for every fool, there is also a knowledgeable fan. This is the reason I don't just blame Bill Kenwright for everything.

Even clever people got kidded by William Kenwright's shiny baubles, Barry, but because it's indisputable that he split the fan base then I don't believe every fan was attracted by the deceitful magpie.

Going off the subject, the most telling thing I heard last season was when Sean Dyche said the first thing he noticed about the players was how incredibly high they were after a victory, and how they were on the floor after every defeat.

"It might be alright for supporters to be like this," said Dyche, "but the players and staff have got to be calmer and a lot more professional, and can't act just like fans."

I'm sure we would have similar feelings if we spoke verbally, Barry, and you only have to see how much going to the game has invigorated your good mate, Martin, so it'd be great if I could meet you both together for a game at Goodison next season!!

This obsession with history does nothing for the club moving forward. We need change, not a reliance on history.

As Mourinho said midweek to a reporter, "history isn't playing". I agree with him.

At the 2004 AGM, Bill Kenwright introduced a certain Mr Samuelson of the Fortress Sports Fund as his proof that the money for the Kings Dock (㿊M) was "ring-fenced" from them.

Kenwright had already been offered the 㿊M from the Greggs in exchange for more power and influence and control over non-football activities at Kings Dock,which he declined as he chose Samuelson, whose activities came to light much later in an Al Jazeera documentary, "The Men Who Sell Football".

It was probably used as an alternative to giving up control to the Greggs, who sold up shortly after the AGM, if I remember correctly.

Point being he was offered the money by the Greggs but chose not to, but the "ring-fenced funds" comments pertained to Fortress Sports Fund – which was where he claimed the money was coming from.

If we are to go forward, we have to get rid of the reasons for our failures. Over time, truth is lost, people forget, your backside gets bitten again… and then you remember!

He's played the king and lived his dream. If he helped to destroy the dreams of thousands of Evertonians, at least him and the chosen nepotistic few have had some good times.

I actually hate my persistence if I'm being honest because I think it makes me sound very boring but I can't help myself with regards Kenwright. I have always considered Everton FC to be great and don't believe a man like William should have ever been given the chance to change our narrative.

I remember at the time we were 㿃 million overdrawn at Barclay's and they were getting a bit worried and wanted it reduced.

Hence Arteta being so desperate to leave that he put in a transfer request 5 minutes before the transfer window shut, despite Arsenal showing an interest in him from the beginning.

And hence the meme "Where's the Arteta money, Bill?" As it was never reinvested into the Club. I think the same thing has happened to the Gordon money.

As for the ring-fenced money, it seems Christine #35 answered that one.

One could ask Mourhino how many trophies and honours he's won. Perhaps he'd say, "It doesn't matter."

It's about both.

People still call for Moyes to return – if that isn't accepting mediocrity I don't know what is. The time go dispute that notion was under the decade of no trophies and collapse in big games.

People are sounding off now because of a genuine threat of relegation nothing more. Mid-table would have been met with the usual excuses and shrug of the shoulders.

Tony Abrahams,

I've not changed my tune at all. I have repeated often enough the genuine issue with Kenwright and Co. That I take issue with supposition as fact that the present demise is majorly down to Kenwright rather than the mad Iranian is not contradictory in the least – it's simply being objective and fair.

I will still get you a ticket though Barry, because you are an Evertonian (I think!) but I will just have to ask the fella six seats down the aisle to let you sit in his seat for the 90 minutes!

Seriously - good for you - for sticking up for Kenwright, Barry, but please remember what you wrote earlier in this thread about Bill Kenwright, because once you have got no ambition you are absolutely finished in my book, No wonder Everton have become a non entity, for which you blame the wrong man, IMO.

I've just had one of my edible cannabis sweets Barry, so I've just swapped your objective and fair - to hilariously funny, and naive. Not that I believe you're naive in the slightest!

Being fair and objective with everyone is a basic tenet of civilised behaviour, surely?

I repeat there are things he has done which he should be held accountable for but the present dalliance with oblivion is not one. That started with the Russian rogue and Iranian idiot to not see this is beyond odd given the evidence

What evidence can you give that this present brush with oblivion started with kenwright rather than Moshiri. Aside from he sold him his shares of course

We wouldn't have needed his money if we had been well run, wouldn't have needed the manager roundabout if we were well run, nor been in the crosshairs of the Premier League either.

Point being Moshiri was a vehicle first and foremost for Kenwright. He was looking for an investor, not a new owner, got one in Moshiri, but had to let go of the ownership to do it.

But the saving grace for Kenwright was he was still the person running the club… and he got the money – almost a win-win.

The wheels came off the trolley when Moshiri saw the idiot going through his money without a care in the world; he decided he could do better and dabbled – with the consequences we have today.

Neither is completely to blame. Moshiri compounded the problems which wouldn't have been there in the first place if it was not for Kenwright.

There is a rosy illusion that life before Moshiri was okay… it was a treadmill to bankruptcy as we had sold everything that wasn't nailed down and living on a British Virgin Island credit card provided by messers Green and Earl.

He put his money where his mouth was, only to have that money squandered.

He was obviously sold a story of a well run sleeping giant just needing a big influx of cash to reawaken.

He seems to have realised, too late, that it's smoke and mirrors.

I actually feel sorry for him.

Just think of the King's Dock proposal, Man City's success, and the sale of all our assets… and then reflect on where we might have been but for Kenwright.

What I said was absolutely correct, his "ring fenced" response was to a question from a Journalist who asked, "How can we know that you won't spend this money on players?"

Kenwright's response was that, if the money was obtained, it would be ring-fenced to do the ground deal. Kenwright turned the loan down, as he was absolutely entitled to as owner ,and was absolutely correct because of the reverse mortgage nature of the offered loan.

The money could never have been ring-fenced because it was never remotely enough to do the deal. Proof please of what you claim and I mean proof.

"Kenwright lost Kings Dock" — absolute Evertonian myth, he never had it to lose and it was never going to happen anyway.

Whatever the criticisms of the Kenwright in isolation era (and there are many) we never indulged the managerial treadmill, introduced the DOF farago and escaped relegation by the skin of our teeth. Simply irrefutable.

Nobody thinks it was rosey pre Moshiri but it certainly wasn't as disastrous as it is now and Moshiri returning to sort out Kenwright wasting his money is pure fantasy.

Jay 50

That's the point no one knows.

People might like to think they have powers of clairvoyancy but at the risk of going out on a limb I'm going to suggest they haven't.

Samuelson of Fortress Sports was there at the AGM but there is no reference to Kings Dock being discussed at the meeting (see TW, ToffeeWeb - The Club - 2004 AGM).

Not sure about your timing either as Kings Dock was dead by the end of 2002, not the end of 2004 when the AGM was held.

When Kenwright gave his "ring-fenced" quote, he had not received the formal offer from Gregg which he flatly turned down and absolutely correctly.

There is not a shred of proof that the money went to the banks other than completely legally via the accounts as loan repayments. If the club repay debt by selling players then that is their business surely.

The club stated clearly that the money didn't go straight to the banks. What does “Never reinvested in the club actually mean?” It went into the club accounts.

Christine did give me an answer which I've responded to. I stand by what I said.

Stop being a coward and show your face, Bill.

Full accountability and censure may well be difficult to achieve in our labyrinthine legal system that the mega-wealthy rely on to escape ANY vestige of accountability or, worse, censure, but rational experienced observers, with their plethora of "worldliness", know the plumb truth. And that's nearly all Everton fans.

We cannot be conned any longer! Buyer beware!!

I mean, Kenwright picked Everton up for buttons, held on skilfully for 25 years. and sells for what 㿊M in his bank account.

Don't get me wrong that's a lot of money, but if I was selling a Premier League club, I'd probably want a tad more than 㿊M.

And Moshiri also picked Everton up for a song, and when he sells, he'll have still managed to not make a profit. What a pair of bellends.

Whilst it is not a situation to book an open-topped bus ride, it is surely worthy of some sort of acknowledgement.

Unless I am mistaken, there has been no acknowledgement from the board or owner of our great escape (again!).

Whilst there has been considerable discord between our fanbase and those in charge, I find it extremely disrespectful to not even mention what has happened and to applaud the players and manager for getting them out of the immediate shit.

It was already an untenable position, but they have made no attempts whatsoever to communicate with the fanbase and explain the situation.

When I look at any news since the last game, it was like we have been relegated already. Just mentions of players leaving and not consolidating loan deals.

No good news. No news at all. Just go, the lot of you, and give us our club back.

However, I do seem to remember around the Fortress time the infamous quote (to a journalist I think) "The money will be in the bank on Monday morning" which of course it never was.

You are quite right too that it was Kenwright's choice to accept or reject any offers made to the club, but one has to question his reasoning, his decision making and his comments.

Like so many times over the past 20 years, Martin, we have crossed swords over Kenwright, I think you and I agree that his tenure has been littered with incompetence, deceit and self-interest.

I have contested for those 20 years of that and it's truely sad that he is still at the club. I for one won't cheer when he goes, we just try to pick up the pieces and clear the mess.

That's the facts; definitely not a True Blue.

I completely agree with most of the issues that you've ever raised about him, Christine, so my apologies if this doesn't come across. The only thing is that I believe that if we're going to make statements then they must be factual or have a very strong chance of correctness. I defend only that.

I will accept that Kenwright really messed up on Kings Dock in that Everton never had the funds to make it happen even at the incorrectly low figure of 㿊M. Everton were broke and couldn't afford a new ground. There is far more about the issues that I don't know too.

When a club like Everton hasn't won anything for 28 years, then surely they have already been in oblivion for a very long time?

I think I understand your point but I have to nit-pick a little on some of the details.

Firstly, Kenwright never wholly owned the club. His biggest slice of the pie was 25.8% of the shares between roughly 2011 and 2015. If he paid anything at all for those shares, it may have been around ٦M back in 1999. Or it may have been nothing.

He sold a 13% stake to Moshiri in 2016 for around 㿃M. Not a bad rate of return — whichever way you look at it.

And as for the other 'bellend'? — Isn't he building us a fantastic new stadium? Yea... what a fucking bellend.

Then he sells another wedge to Moshiri in 2018: a 7.2% stake for 㾸½M. That valued the club back then at around 𧵧M. Not quite the bad piece of business you proclaim…

He still has 1,750 shares, worth at least ٣M if you value the club currently at 𧹈M, which I think is low, but let's add all those together: 㿔M at a minimum… probably more.

What did you call him? A bellend??? For walking off with potentially 㿔M+ in cash thanks to Everton FC Co Ltd???

Lots of other good reasons to call him a bellend, but this makes him look like a brilliant financial carpet-bagger who has raped our club for his own huge personal gain.

And as for the other bellend? He's only building us a fantastic iconic new stadium down on the banks of the Royal Blue Mersey. Yeah… what a fucking bellend.

Is mid-table existence without a sniff of silverware oblivion or mediocrity? (Before people have another turn, let me be clear – I don't want, nor am I defending either.)

Personally, I think the previous existence was mediocre and the billionaire era is the creator of this brink of oblivion naughtiness.

We have minimal footballing assets to sell due to ludicrous recruitment amid lord knows what coming down the line from the Moshiri and Usmanov shenanigans.

The revolving door managerial policy and failed DoF farago introduced by the madmen has led us back to apparent penury and last-minute relegation escapes.

Then there is the mad "cart before the horse" hubris of building a new stadium before sorting the team. It's affecting us right now with the foreseeable future looking no better unless bought out by big money.

Now, maybe not having a pot to piss in with ongoing monstrous new build debt and every chance of another relegation battle which may yet see us drop like a stone through the divisions isn't the brink of oblivion. But it's a tad more serious than mediocrity to me.

I've just had a lovely chocolate fudge cake – yummy!

I knew when I wrote that that he only had a controlling interest, but wasn't sure on the figures. I knew he made tens of millions from a controlling share in a Premier League club.

Yes I stand by my contention that he will look back and think to himself 'I could have got a lot more for my stake if I had handled things better'.

You say yourself that valuing the club currently at 𧹈M is on the low side, yet our chap sold his controlling interest for a tenth of that price.

I reckon he tosses and turns every night about how he couldn't bring this in on his own. The council were going to loan us the money at 1% interest over 50 years, he'll be thinking he could have done that himself with just a bit more luck and chutzpah (just my contention of course).

On your second point, about Moshiri 'building us a fantastic new stadium'. We will have to see, won't we. I the club is worth 𧹈M now and he's going to stick an 𧿘M stadium on top, he needs to find a buyer who's going to give him ٟ.2bn for Everton. And that's him making a big loss on all his daft transfers. I don't know about you, but I think that is highly unlikely to happen.

So, Moshiri is then left with effectively handing over the stadium or a big share of it, gratis. Again, an unlikely scenario in my view. A much more likely scenario is that we don't actually get to own the stadium, but that it's put on a long lease from him to us. At a killer rent.

We'll see.

Doublethink; The acceptance of (apparently) contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time,

It may be a measure of the state we're in that some days I can go 'Triplethink' with large portions of your 3 posts.

We were in debt to the tune of God knows how many £M's, again all done on Kenwright's watch – a vast contrast to the healthy state of the club, financially, when Kenwright bought the club.

And yet Kevin @ (61) says Kenwright held on skilfully to Everton FC for 25 years. I'd say he held onto the club by hook or by crook. He certainly went to a few dodgy characters for advice on how to get financial aid when the banks wouldn't entertain him.

Mr Moshiri paid off all the debts and left Chairman Bill in charge and here we are back where we started 6 years ago except with a brand new state-of-the-art ground nearly completed thanks to Mr Moshiri.

But nobody knows where the club is going, who is running the club and what the next step is, especially the manager, his coaches and us the fans – the people who kept the club going these last few dark months when the upstairs people left the club to its own devices.

Kenwright's behaviour over this last 6 months (never mind the previous 20+ years) sums up his total contempt for EFC and its fans.

His only true love is himself. Moshiri's only fault was trusting Bill with his investment.

I'm from a humble, but honest background.

But I am honest. And I am an Evertonian.

Cowards.

My reference to him 'hanging on skilfully' was his ability to hold onto control of an asset worth a hundred times his wealth for so long. it was not meant to be a compliment on his stewardship of Everton.

Thanks for reading my post @68. Not sure you quite understood it, as you don't seem particularly dissuaded from your original claims @61 — just throwing in different words.

"Controlling interest" is a bit deceptive. 25.8% of the shares is not really "controlling" unless you have your buddies owning the rest of a majority of shares, so you can't be outvoted. So be it, but your claim was that Kenwright had sold the whole club for 㿊M. Not so.

Also, he's sold his shares at different times over the last 7 years, when the value of the club was a lot less than even the 𧹈M figure I used. So comparing his 㿔M carpet-bagging to that number is plain wrong.

And him sadly being a proven savvy investor who has cashed in significantly, I would humbly suggest that the last thing he worries about when contemplating his ill-gotten riches is: "I could have got a lot more for my stake if I had handled things better."

But you keep on believing your nonsense. As the saying goes, "You can lead a donkey to water…"

Haha! well, we will have to agree to disagree. I do share your frustration though when people just won't listen to reason! do any of us ever really change our mind on things? If it does happen it takes years.

I'm just beginning the process of acknowledging I may have called the Iraq War wrong.

My main reason for replying was to make sure that for anybody who didn't know how Kenwright had manipulated the club for his own advantage were aware that Kenwright loved himself, how did you put it, a hundred times more than he loved Everton.

I like a lot of scallywags but not those who use people close to them, that's classed as taking a fuckin' liberty, just 'not on'.

Oh dear… what have we become?

I can't see Everton winning the league again, and as we always get Old Trafford or Anfield in the FA Cup, no trophy whatsoever.

For Everton to even qualify for the Champions League we would need a full Saudi takeover.

Kenwright never did have the skills required to make us a top club so he was happy with mediocrity as long as he stayed in power. He has become a very wealthy man at the cost of our club's demise and I firmly believe that he also still thinks the club needs him. He's a total narcissist.

Whatever deal he made with Moshiri when he allowed him to take over is probably what's cost us more than anything because Moshiri has had plenty of reason to have sacked him but instead tried to run the club himself which has proved disastrous.

There must have been a clause in there somewhere or he knows some dirty business or else Moshiri with Usmanov in his ear would not have allowed him to waste so much money.

I have a strong feeling it's all coming to an end for Bullshit Bill now but, at the same time, I am an Evertonian so we've had years and years of letdowns which always leave that doubt in the back of our minds that we will get it done.

Up to 2016 - yes.

After that, we upped the ante to "reckless/disastrous".

Now the Moshiri & Usmanov shambles has us praying Dyche returns us to 2016 levels to avoid the ignominy of playing the first game at the new stadium in the Championship.

That's what we've become.

Nothing to add except for deepest apologies to Mr Rob H for thinking you were Martin at the pub meet-up last game of season. :-)

Your last paragraph is a horrible truth. "Sport".

I was told quite a few years ago by a close friend who was a neighbour and friend with Keith Harris that Kenwright had a clause in the sale documents that he would stay on as chairman.

How that transpired to the ultimate "investment" and sale of shares to Moshiri, I don't know… but I know Harris had said it was difficult to find a buyer because of that clause.

He also said when he resigned from the board that Everton was the most dysfunctional board he had ever worked with.

I remember Man Utd winning the treble and Man City dropping into the third tier of English football 24 years ago, but after just beating their neighbours in the FA Cup Final on Saturday, imagine being a City fan going to the Champions League Final on Saturday with a chance of doing the illustrious treble themselves?

I will never give in and I will always believe that Everton will one day become great again, but first things first – let's get rid of the nepotistic board and the curse.

I think what has put Man City in position for that treble is the very thing to which Joe alludes.

I hope we win something again, and one day we will. When we do, it will be on the back of (more) big money, or it will be a rare "shock".

The cold realities of the cash.

"I wonder what Everton FC were worth when Mr Moshiri stepped in to buy them?"

There is a fairly simple answer to this one, Dave. It's based on Farhad Moshiri buying his famous 'minority' 49.9% stake, namely 17,465 shares, mostly from Kenwright, Woods and Earl for a published sum of around 䀃M.

In round numbers, that put a value on each share of ٣,000 and a value for the whole club of 35,000 times that figure, or 𧵧M.

I'd been tracking what I thought was the club value for years – since Kenwright's True Blue Holdings takeover at the end of 1999 – mainly based on a perceived share price of around ٟ,500 in the years up to 2016.

That gives a considerably lower club total worth (around 㿞M), but if true, the money Moshiri paid Bill and the others, you could argue, represented an incredible windfall – again rather negating Kevin's strange claim that Kenwright could have gotten more for his shares at the time – the fact is he made an absolute killing… in more ways than one as he just about killed the club as a result!

This excludes Moshiri paying off the debts back in 2016 – I believe he did this through zero-interest loans which were then converted to equity (ie, new shares issued in February 2021 and January 2022).

I think it's fair to say the last 10 years have seen a massive rise in the value of Premier League clubs, including Everton. And the current value in no way represents the incredible level of investment in the new stadium as an asset.

It probably won't until the stadium is finished but – despite all the fear-mongering about it being hived off – my understanding is that it remains firm as a club asset that belongs to Everton FC Co Ltd.

I imagine if it was to be hived off, there would have to be a sale and leaseback agreement, much like Finch Farm was back in the day. But there has been no suggestion of this from any reliable source, to my knowledge.

Imagine your thoughts in 12 months time if we have yet another last game do or die farago. I reckon a mediocre 1-0 win will do you just fine.

I just read an old article that says Kenwright sold to Moshiri in 2016 on the understanding he could remain at the club and that he turned other potential investors away because they refused to guarantee him this and believes that Everton would simply sink without him there.

No Bill, Moshiri would have simply brought in expert people, who know about running the business end of matters.

Years ago I could invest through my company Sharesave scheme. I spent 5 years saving 𧶲 per month = so 㾻,000 and the shares could be bought at the price when I first started saving. Say that was ١ - so I got 5,000 shares. By the time I had finished savings, the share price had risen to 㾸 so I got 㿨,000 back.

You complaint about our current Chairman would imply that what I did was wrong. I should not have made money by investing in the business. It is immoral that Bill should buy into the club (when Agent Johnson was kicked out) and he should not have made any profit.

I presume your argument is that he should have donated any profit when selling to Moshiri back to the club to fund player purchases or improve the stadium in the same way I should have given the profit back to the company to use for the marketing budget or a Christmas bonus to the staff.

That eternal conundrum of a football club. The supporters think it is theirs but it is owned by others. Very different from all other commercial businesses.

It's classic capitalism in the literal sense of using money to make money. I don't have a problem with that per se – although judging by the open political posturing from many on here, they would struggle with this from a moral stance.

In the specific case of Kenwright's investment in EFC through True Blue Holdings, there is the haunting question about whether he actually had the ~٦M to invest originally.

Did he borrow this from friends... the Greggs? Philip Green? Did he remortgage his home ('only' worth ٠-3M at the time, as I recall)? Or did he leverage the money out of the club itself, as was speculated quite strongly at the time or subsequently.

I would have a very real concern about this last one, if true. And there are certain things about the accounts at that time that strike me as weird but got a free pass from the auditors. Consider this:

a) In the 2000 accounts (for FY 1999-2000), there is an item 'Cost of Sales', showing a loss of 㿂,312,719 in the Proft & Loss Account.

b) Now if you go to the corresponding spot in the 2001 accounts (which always compare current numbers with the previous year), that Cost of Sales number shown for 2000 has now magically jumped to a loss of 㿊,708,725.

The difference in these numbers – an increase in the loss of ٦,396,006 – is very similar to the amount Kenwright apparently invested in True Blue Holdings, which later converted to full Everton Shares when TBH was dissolved.

Can it really be that easy to tweak the numbers post-audit and show such a radical change? I'm no accountant and probably shouldn't dabble in such mysterious things... but it does make you wonder...

My more serious concern is with Kenwright holding on to power, and with his CEO sidekick, the highly respected and all-round wonderful person who is Denise Barrett-Baxendale, as Chairman and CEO respectively, they have ruled the roost and overseen from positions of absolute power within EFC Co Ltd the precipitous demolition of the club as an ongoing concern and as a competitive member of the Premier League.

All the while, Kenwright is at least 㿔M the richer – and he still hasn't finished yet. That is really sickening.

Michael #95 "a) In the 2000 accounts (for FY 1999-2000), there is an item 'Cost of Sales', showing a loss of 㿂,312,719 in the Proft & Loss Account.

b) Now if you go to the corresponding spot in the 2001 accounts (which always compare current numbers with the previous year), that Cost of Sales number shown for 2000 has now magically jumped to a loss of 㿊,708,725.

The difference is these numbers – an increase in the loss of ٦,396,006 – is very similar to the amount Kenwright apparently invested in True Blue Holdings,"

I'm no accountant so would be interested to hear some specialist views on this. Like you, I'm curious, to say the least.

Anyone laundering money is a criminal, but anyone who can get the banks to lend them enough money to buy on the never-never, whilst slowly running that business down, and changing the narrative towards survival, is a financial whizz kid.

The Glazers at Man Utd, spring to mind, whilst Hicks and Gillette lost out – partly due to the efforts of Liverpudlians who turned on their lenders – and partly due because they didn't have the necessary finances to continue with their plan.

When all things are considered, I believe Bill Kenwright has had it very easy, especially when you think about the thousands of good people that he's kidded along the way.

Changes to opening balances happen albeit not frequently.

Without going into detail the format that accounts should follow is prescribed by government. Occasionally changes are made to the format.

When this happens organisations are normally required to amend opening balance (previous years) figures to reflect the new format so that the figures between the two years are comparable on a "like for like" basis.

Most audit firms begin any audit of accounts by confirming that there has been no change to the closing balances from the previous year. If there have been changes the revised opening balance figures are also audited to confirm their accuracy.

I'd be very certain that the change in the opening balances for the year in question arose from a change in how organisations were required to present their accounts for the year in question.

Clear as mud probably but if you need me to clarify anything...I can try.

Same auditors.

Also there's actually a note in the accounts explaining the reason for the change in the opening balances. Clubs had been issued with revised guidance on how to handle the write-off of transfer fees in respect of incoming players.

Of course, it's always possible that Blue Bill took advantage of that timely change to hide his financial skull-duggery.

What a waste of time!