Why have Everton remained unsold when so many other clubs have changed hands?

By David Anderson

Published 11:32 10/10/11

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It's strange how some of life's great mysteries revolve around the colour blue.

Take the fluff in your belly button and why is it always blue when your vest is white?

And Everton, why has no Middle Eastern or Russian billionaire bought them when they would clearly be a great buy?

Off the top of my head, Newcastle, Sunderland (twice), Liverpool (twice), Aston Villa, Wolves, Leicester, West Ham, Birmingham and even Blackburn have changed hands while Everton have remained gathering dust on the shelf.

Why is that?

It can't be the manager as David Moyes has proved year in, year out that he's one of the best in the business.

It can't be the players and Everton's starting XI can compete with anyone on their day, despite losing the likes of Mikel Arteta and Stephen Pienaar.

Everton also have a history and tradition to rival any team in the land and many of the game's icons from Dixie Dean to Wayne Rooney and Tommy Lawton to Alan Ball have worn their famous royal blue.

Bill Kenwright blames the impasse over a new stadium and claims this put off Sheikh Mansour when he was shopping for a Premier League club in 2008.

"Of course you can throw Manchester City at me, but Manchester City had the stadium situation and they had, I believe a lot of lucky manoeuvring going on," he said in a recent interview.

"Had I been in the right place at the right time, which was very important to that deal, then yes [Mansour would have bought Everton]."

But was that really the reason? Given that Sheikh Mansour has invested £1billion in City and is building a new £100million training ground and academy, could he not have solved the stadium problem with his billions?

And look at Liverpool, their stadium problems didn't put off first Tom Hicks and George Gillett buying them and then John W Henry.

Is it something else? Is Kenwright asking too much or is he standing in the way of a potential deal?

It was interesting that the fans' group Keep Everton In Our City, who were opposed to the Kirkby move, held a well-attended meeting in Liverpool on Saturday and they are tired of Kenwright's excuses.

Together with the Blue Union, they feel Kenwright is an obstacle to the sale of Everton and want him to step aside while a new board is convened to sell the club.

Obviously Kenwright disagrees, but while Everton remain in limbo, more supporters may start to support this view.

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