How can Bill Kenwright be such a bad chairman when he has transformed Everton?

By David Maddock

Published 13:59 17/11/09

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I have to admit to some weary dismay at the reaction to this column last week . 

Usually, I enjoy the debate, and even criticism of my articles - of which there is much, usually strident - but the sheer cynicism I encountered when discussing the tenure of Bill Kenwright at Everton was simply depressing.

You'd have thought that fans of the club would appreciate some support in what has been a difficult start to the season. But no. Mention that Everton have the best team, best squad and best manager since the glory years of the 1980s, and you get shouted down for apparently taking a bung.

If Everton have been managed so badly, then why have they qualified for Europe consistently over the past five years? If they are managed so badly, then why have they broken their transfer record consistently over the past five years?

This is said not to gloss over the facts, but merely to highlight that all is not doom and gloom at Goodison. Of course there are problems at the club. Of course there have been mistakes, and of course I didn't go into the details, because - put simply - that wasn't the point of the article.

The point was this. It is easy to criticise, it is easy to say where a football club should be, and who should be owning it. It is harder, much harder, to get the right people. Just look at Liverpool.

There were wild celebrations when the current owners won control of Anfield, after it was revealed that the rival investors, DIC, had a blueprint to simply grow the value of the club over the next eight years and sell on, at a hugely inflated profit. 

There was genuine horror at the thought of Middle East investors making a quick buck out of Liverpool, and the Americans were seen as saviours. Now the same people doing the celebrating back then are taking to the streets to demand that the club is sold.....to DIC.

I'd love to know where these benevolent billionaires are hiding, that are going to pour their money into Everton as an act of charity. And I'd love to know what is good enough for those Everton fans who want to drive Kenwright out of the city? Arab billions? There's always Manchester City.

The club has big debts, but in comparison to most Premier League rivals, they are sustainable. The likes of Portsmouth and West Ham would love to be in Everton's position, not to mention Newcastle or Leeds. Or dare I say it, Liverpool.

Kenwright is no saint, but there are worse owners. Much worse. He is an Everton fan, a real fan, and that is no bad thing. He is not a guy sitting at a desk half way round the world plotting business graphs and looking at profit charts, waiting for his pay day on an investment he has no knowledge of or feel for.

And a chairman who has presided over sustained success, taking a debt-ridden (and it was debt-ridden under Peter Johnson) club from a perennial relegation battle and transforming them into a consistent top six side is not the worse chairman you can have.  

In the process, he has hired a manager who is already amongst the top five in the Premier League, and top 20 in Europe, a manager who has the potential to rival the very best there has ever been. And he has kept that manager at Goodison Park for the best part of a decade, and counting. 

And that manager has been backed to the extent that he has built an exciting squad, which has real strength in depth, and real talent. A squad that - when everyone is fit - is good enough to threaten the top four, and challenge for European honours.

And that final sentence, that was the point of my article.

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright deserves praise, not abuse from radio show callers  

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