Home » Fan Articles »
Put the megaphones down, we’re not an attractive investment
There seems to be rumblings on-line at the moment around Everton, there is an organised social media campaign, aimed at lobbying local and national journalists.
‘The Peoples Group’ would like them to start asking the awkward questions which need answering around the ownership of Everton Football Club. They would like Kenwright, Woods, Earl or even Elstone to answer a truckload of questions they have around the mismanagement of the club.
I don’t get it.
What I do get is a tangible sense of discord between fans of the same team. There seems to have been a line drawn somewhere (probably on the internet), where you either want Bill Kenwright’s head on a stick, yesterday, or actually, you think he’s ok really, and he’s doing just about the best job he can given the cards we’ve been dealt. Or guess what, maybe somewhere a bit grey and in between the two, it’s possible readers!
We’re not here now due to gross mismanagement of the club. We’re here now through a mixture of bad timing, naivety and whisper it quietly frugal fiscal management in tough times.
The club is arguably holding its own in one of the most gargantuan, bloated, monified sports leagues in the world. For example, some Premier League clubs (i.e. United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea) are now snapping at the headteachers heels, wetting their shorts and crying because City have arranged a sponsorship mega-deal with Etihad (owned by their Sheik and that) to by pass UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.
Did anybody honestly think multi billionaires wouldn’t find a murky little loophole somewhere to force their gold plated phalices through? No, me neither, and good luck to them for rubbing the others spoilt little greedy faces in it.
Bill Kenwright certainly has his faults, by Christ don’t we all. But how many reasoned, well meaning Everton supporters would have the gall to stand in front of him and question his efforts for trying his utmost to take this club forward, or possibly even just captain it through choppy times? Not many.
Do people still believe the guy has an agenda to ”keep hold of his train set’’? I mean honestly, show me one supposed billionaire who has shown a genuine interest in financing the supremely hard working and gifted David Moyes and his wanton lust for a few more Bilyaletdinovs.
The reaction this summer to another eerily quiet close season on the transfer front (which every last one of surely knew was coming), just smacks of an impatient new age football fan being unhappy he or she hasn’t got a new signing to go and joust with Bill from accounts about whilst perusing the fantasy football player values together. It’s got genuinely nothing to do with Nil Satis Nisi Optimum or The Peoples Club either, two of the biggest and most pathetic sticks, nay cabers, ever wielded and smuggishly swung about the place to beat the club and its regime with. Just do one.
I’m not happy we seem to be stuck where we are. I’m not happy with the inertia mid table stability brings to your footballing supporting soul. I’m not happy with football teams concentrating building their brands and fan-bases in Asia. It stinks. But these are the times we live in. We’ve missed the boat. United and in particular Liverpool with their millions of well maketeered fans, gleefully clinging on to every self aggrandising piece of branding that comes out of their oily PR offices just isn’t for me. Neither is signing Jordan Henderson for 20 million sheets as it happens.
We’re just not that attractive to potential investors anymore, the ones with the know how who could make a clear and positive difference anyway. Is it our house, our noisy neighbours, our mortgage rates being sky high? I think we know it’s probably those three and a few more. We are closer to the Carson Yeungs and The Venki Chickenheads taking over than we are to Arab Royal families. But would you happily swap Blackburn or Birminghams ethos on how to move forward for ours? I know I wouldn’t.
I don’t think there is a road laden with gold ahead unfortunately. There just may be the odd silver cobblestone jutting out along the way though. Let’s put the megaphones and smartphones down eh, zigzag down it together, bladdered, arm in arm, tripping over it and doing it the way it should be done. The only way we’ve ever known.
Up those glorious Toffemen! 2011-2012 awaits.
Juice_Terry
www.juiceterryjournolism.blogspot.com
Leave a Comment
Loading ...
20 Comments
What’s wrong with a share issue then?
If it’s not about control why not raise money this way?
An absolutely brilliant article. I agree with every word, we steady and reasonable supporters know there is no pot of gold and if there was there would be a price to pay. Loss of our identity and so on. Bill and Moysey have worked miracles in the last eight years, my biggest fear is that the most important person in the club will eventually get so frustrated with the restraints he works under and set off for pastures knew. We continue to punch above our financial weight and play an attractive brand of football in doing it, long may Moysey reign, one day someone may hand us a few shekals. ‘It’s a great old team to support’.
Pete Randall, now of St. Ives
So it isn’t gross mismanagement to fail to deliver the £30 million you said you had ring fenced for the King’s Dock stadium; to fail to get the NTL investment by prolonging negotiations; to fail to deliver destination Kirkby because you didn’t do your homework on the regional planning laws in relation to retail development; to fail to have a plan b other than to sell every tangible asset; to deny minor shareholders the right to question the direction the board are taking in selling every asset; to fail in a 24/7 search for investment; to fail to keep debt manageable by more than quadrupling it. If this was any other business this board would have been run out of town long ago, but still people like you bury your head in the sand and say we have the “gall” to question Bill Kenwright. To right we have the RIGHT to question him. As match going fans we contribute £20 million per year to the club while he puts nothing in. Only in football would somebody have the nerve to question loyal customers.
Many of your points are valid, but they answer questions only a minority of Evertonians are asking.
Most of the pressure groups formed don’t believe ‘Bill is holding onto his train set’.Why would he? We know he isn’t making money out of it.
They aren’t being inpatient either – this is the 4th summer in succession where we have had to sell-to-buy; not the ideal situation for a club that wants to move forward. If anything we are among the most patient fans in the league!
The frustration shown this summer is a culmination not only of the past 4 turgid summer transfer windows but the repeated failure before that. We have given the board more than enough chances and until a myriad questions are answered by them(including what some of them actually do to help the club), these fans pressure groups will continue to doubt their ability to remain in control of Everton and call for change.
if kenwright wasnt a blue the fans would have had him out years ago.
what’s wrong with Asia football fan-bases?
think global and you will see what will happen in next 10 years
if you building the fan today.
How much we got from change beer?
How much red shit go from Standard Charter Bank?
in next 10 years we still be the same spot how about other teams
who’s concentrating in outside UK market?
Brilliant article.
Sadly the only voices that tend to be heard are the loudest – not the majority.
Empty vessels make the most noise, and it’s noticable that all the deriders have no tangible alternative to put, and just whinge. They seem to believe that we have the right to the billionaire investors that are breaking down our doors and the board are ignoring the moneymen.
Kenwright et al do not have money to invest but even if they did – why should they risk their cash with not suggestion of support from those who clamour for it?
Our fans are not great spenders.
Our ground is not a great marketing tool, and partnership for a new one was the only option we had in this area – we can’t afford to build on our own.
So the KEIOC idiots have put paid to that and now expect investment to be conjoured up from nowhere?
Grow up, and shut up. Allow the people who HAVE invested in the club rather than just kiss a badge, to do their job.
They may not be the best, but until YOU come up with an alternative, they’re all we have.
I find it hilarious that everybody who has somekind of agenda against Kenwright claim that they are in the majority. Just like everybody who claimed they never wanted Kirkby, were in the majority. Fact is, a vote was taken, you werent, at least not the majority within the season ticket holding fraternity. The reason you have the feeling that you are such a great force is that you are on here, and other sites of note, shouting your displeasure. Those who are, lets say, more forgiving, as happy is taking it too far, have no need or compunction to come out arguing with other Evertonians. I have heard much spoke recently about Kenwright not answering questions, avoiding the issue. Well, if you listen carefully, he has answered probably about 75% of those questions, but if it is not the answer you like, you call him a liar. It’s the equivalent of a schoolchild sticking his fingers in his ears. Lalalalalalala. Its a quite ridiculous way to act in all fairness. Pressure groups are great, but you have to go about it the right way. I can’t help but think that a lot of these are just forums for virtual backslapping. On another note, Evertonians 4 Change, those ‘protest scarfs’ are an abomination, an absolute discrace. How anybody can think it is ok to wear those is unbelievable. I know that you got the idea from United, which incidentally made no difference whatsoever, but theirs was a protest by harking back to their initial existence, a simple form of, remember where we came from and what we stand for. What you have done is deface the motto of our great club. Get protest shirts instead, Black with a Scarlet Sash.
My Dad said about 5 years ago that Kenwright was not the man for the job…I believed him then and I still do today. The way Evertonians are treated by him and so called board is a disgrace.
Surely there must be something done about them because when they’re all gone it will be us the fans who are still there paying our money.
What’s wrong with a share issue? Or is it about control?
Bob, Bill has not invested 1 penny in the club. The fans invest 20m season after season.
Even Bill admits this.
Chris, how many of the questions pointed out by drunkenf above has Bill answered.None.
Get your heads out of your arses.
well put jimmy
The lines in the sand!!! We are with out doubt punching above our weight and with the resources at our disposal you must ask what more can be done. Like most who have valid opinions I have supported Everton since I can remember and that is over 38 years and they are very dear to heart. Poor Bill Kenwright is he the right man for the job? he could have been if the playing field stayed level. There is so much money swilling around football that most clubs have whored out there traditions and history to mindless investors who take the clubs they bought to another level but sell their souls. The fans have become corporate with the true fans being edged out with endless ticket price rises and the cost of going to a game getting unrealistic.
What if we got a super rich sugar daddy? Chelsea and Man city are reliant on single investment and if that investment goes so do they. Look at clubs like west ham and portsmouth overpaid players poor investment and the spirilling effect that had on both clubs when the investment slowed down. There can only be four tops teams as the investment would require a return that could only come with playing champions league football, once a team loses that income the whole structure becomes untenable. We need investment but i would hate to see us selling our soul to the finacial devil who would one day come for the debt owed. we have a great manager and a good team but sadly i think the board have for a while not been as up front as they should be and should address the supporters of the club (who are the REAL owners) with more respect and honesty. I think the supporters have been very understanding and very supportive and the board have lost their trust. It is time for a change at the top and if the board had any real respect for the club they would acknowledge and address this. Football is a game of ups and downs and played much better with hindsight – so looking back over last season if we had started as we finished and looked at games that we squandered i honestly think that we could have finished 5th and gained Europa league, is that good enough? yes i think so given our circumstances. What I would like to see is some sensible investment with a new board and pushing for champions league but keeping hold of our traditions and honouring our history and its those two things that when you take football in its current status make us stand out head and shoulders above every other team in the premier league
Juice Terry, you mug!
Read the many articles illustrating the board’s horrendous failings since 2001. Smaller clubs would’ve crumbled completely. We are lucky EFC is just stagnating and not totally obliterated by the lies, fuckups, and more lies served by our “loyal” chairman.
Why do the kenwright backers believe it is the fans responsibility to come up with a ‘billionaire’? It is the sellers responsibility to find a buyer not the fans!!! I personally do not mind if hes not a billionaire as long as he can clear the debt and run a football club. Neither of which kenwrights board have been able to do for 11 years. No debt = transfer funds
A well reasoned article – not the sensationalism that you normally read.
I think Kenwright is doing a decent enough job and I don’t see many billionaire investers forming an orderly queue. I certainly don’t want to sell to the first idiot who comes along offering the world yet having an empty bank account. Seen it too many times. That pantomime across the park are not who I want to aspire to become.
I wonder how many of these ‘fans’ ever either go to the matches or invest any money in the club themselves as the silent majority of fans I see every other week at Goodison like being a grand old team and not a soap opera.
P.
Steve, I do not believe that it is the protest groups responsibility to find a buyer/investor, or anything for that matter. It is the sole responsibility of the board, or a board appointed individual/group.
However, i do believe that the protest groups think that they have all the answers, but as we are talking about answers to questions, what makes our club attractive to anybody looking to dip their fingers in the Premiership pie? We have an old stadium, without the surrounding area to expand, or build extra facilities (park end development here is an issue, but being in the construction business myself, I realise that a large percentage of projects don’t get past the early development stages, with as many reasons as failures). We do not have a massive merchandising income (this could be improved upon, but the way forward for this board is, security first, it wasn’t working when we marketed ourselves, so we went to JJB, Kitbag then offered another, more lucrative opportunity, due to the deals nature, this money can be budgeted at the beginning of each financial year). All I can see is, in the current climate, the board are trying to lay down solid foundations to build up on again when the time is right. Kenwright may not be here when that time is right, who knows, but it may be possible that a club with regular annual results is more attractive to a buyer than one with budgets ran on an educated guess. The days of Billionaires has, in my view, passed, non more will come in with the FFP rules, what we need and other clubs need to press forward, is solid business minded individuals, a plan to increase profits and revenue. I do not believe we will have a quick fix, not sure anybody will any more. The board have not pushed us forward with drive and ideas, but they have dedicated a lot of time to not allowing us to slip backwards. In my mind, they have their priorities right at the right time.
Everybody takes the piss that Kenwrights main interests outside of Everton are Entertainment, West End Billy and the likes. But if you think about it, during times of ecomomic downturn, entertainment is one of the first to get hit, it reacts to the smallest fluctuations of financial availability. He has been in the business and survived for years, he has experience, more than most, of what the country, and more importantly the premiership are going through. He is by no means perfect, not even close, and I would love to see moneybags walk through the door in a Golden suit dropping Fifties to his adoring public. But he wont.
What a piss poor article. You’re not Dave Prentice are you?
We may be not an attractive investment because BK and his cronies have run us into the ground!
He’s has years to get it right off the field but has failed us time and time again. He should have been chased out the club when he delibratley pulled the plug on Kings Dock because he was going to lose contol of the club. Imagine were we could be now had we got that world class arena?
As for the frankly laughable ‘how many Everton supporters would have the gall to stand in front of BK and question him’, well loads actually did,until the rat banned AGMs and EGMs in 2008 because Mr Ego can’t be arsed listening to fans.
Bob.
Why are KEIOC to blame for the move to Kirkby being thrown out by the government? Bet you don’t have the balls to answer that.
Why not put the blame were it belongs, ie on the club. They were warned nearly 3 years before it was eventually rejected that Destination Kirkby broke all kinds of planning regulations and would be thrown out. And they choose to arrogantly ignore this advice.
Would any of the Bill Backers be happy if he retains ‘control’ and we end up in the lower leagues? Don’t worry we obviously won’t get relegated because our best players are happy not to be able to earn more than 75k. David Moyes is happy not to be able to strengthen his squad without weakening it first. Don’t worry that many championship sides spend more than us year on year to gain that 100m prize of premier league status. It’ll never happen…
We as loyal fans put our faith in the ability of the board to manage this club. I don’t think anyone can harp on about selling to the first person that comes along. We had Paul Gregg who I believe has more money than Kenwright turned away. According to BK there have been many people who have enquired about the club who have been turned away. It is not my job to find a solution to the failings of the NHS, I use my vote in elections to choose who I feel best suited to do that job. It is ignorant to think that I as a loyal supporter for 30years should have to find an alternative to the poor owner we currently have. It is not my job to find the money to give to David Moyes to spend. It is my job to point out that if we earn 20m from attendance sales and according to Mr Ross ‘every penny has gone back into the team’ and I dont remember seeing 20m worth of assets being added to the team this year. It’s simply not my job as a supporter to do this, that is why we have a board. If nobody on that board feels there is a problem then quite simply we will be playing in the lower reaches of football in no time, pitting our wits against Accrington Stanley!!!
Oh my goodness look at what we have become. I could understand this article if we were talking about an English minnow that had sneaked into top flight, in fact I would accept that we were lucky to be where we are. However we are talking about one of the giant of English football and those who suggest that this is where we are and that’s as good as it gets obviously don’t have a clue about Evertton FC. What are we going to do when our older players have reached the end of their careers, sell them on for millions??? Oh wait I know we will use all these amazing youngsters that we have coming through the ranks, the ones that never get to play in the first team. Wake up people and see things for what they are, stop being Kenwrights puppets and speak for the club, not for the men that run it!