FollowEverton.com Statement – Why we’ve joined the Blue Union
By Unclassified • Jan 24th, 2012 • Category: News |FollowEverton.com statement: Why we’re backing the Blue Union
FollowEverton.com today announce our affiliation with the Everton fans group “The Blue Union”. As a group of fans we have become disillusioned with our club and cannot sit by and watch it slowly die in the way it is at the moment. We believe Bill Kenwright and the current board have made significant failures in the running of the club, we believe the fans have been lied to on more than one occasion and that if things continue it won’t be long before we’re watching 20 second highlights of our team on the BBC’s “The Football League Show”. We believe the reason we have not been sold is an unreasonably high asking price and that it should be lowered to give us a fighting chance.
Failures of Kenwright and the board:
The King’s Dock: The King’s Dock would have been a fantastic stadium for Everton Football Club, a state-of-the-art 55,000 capacity stadium on the Albert Dock waterfront. Bill Kenwright called it the “best in the world”. He claimed the £30m required for the deal was “ringfenced”. It fell through.
Fortress Sports Fund: In 2004 we were told that an investment grouped called The Fortress Sports Fund were to invest £30m into Everton. We were told the money would be in the bank by Monday. It never arrived.
The Dan Gosling affair: In 2010 the young Everton player was out of contract, the club agreed a new deal with the player but forgot to put in writing, Gosling changed his mind and walked out for free meaning the club lost out on compensation which should have been due because of the player’s age.
Everton place: In 2010 the club proudly announced their plans for a new development to be built at the Park End. It was meant to host a new club shop, a cafe, offices, a museum and hospitality. It was due for completion in 2011 but nothing has happened and it has been shelved. Former Director of Communications Ian Ross blamed “IT issues”, CEO Robert Elstone blamed “insurance problems”. Its turns out Everton didn’t own the land in the first place.
NTL: Under Walter Smith Kenwright thought he’d got a deal with media company NTL worth £27m. Walter Smith was allowed to spend some of the money under the pretence that this would happen. It fell through.
Rooney: Bill Kenwright claimed he’d only sell Wayne Rooney for £50m, he sold him for £27m.
Kirkby: Much money and effort was spent in trying to move Everton Football Club out of the city of Liverpool to Kirkby. We were promised a world class stadium with fantastic public transport, what we would have got was not what we were promised. We were promised an effectively free stadium funded by Tesco, the public enquiry found this to not be true, with the actual cost to Everton being over £70million. Like all of the above, the plan ultimately failed.
AGMs: Everton have now banned AGMs where fans get a chance to ask questions to the board. The club now claim they speak to fans through their “Fans Forum”. Yet the people on this forum are chosen by the club and have discussed hard pressing matters such as whether to play Z Cars before the second half or not.
The finances: This is the real issue. Until Darren Gibson signed for £500,000 (the sort of fee a League One club would expect to pay for a big signing), Everton had not purchased a senior player in 2 and a half years. This is despite the sales of: Mikel Arteta, Jermaine Beckford, Yakubu, James Vaughan, Steven Pienaar , John Ruddy and Lukas Jutkiewicz. Not to mention countless outgoing loans which carry fees, including two season long loans for Joseph Yobo, a few James Vaughan loan moves, a Yakubu loan move and various other youngsters heading to Football League clubs. Add into the equation the fact that we sold Bellefield for £9m. This is quite frankly not acceptable.
Assets: Everton Football Club has few assets. The club’s superb Finch Farm training ground was sold to raise cash and is being leased back at a high rate which will cost the club a lot of money in the long run, a quite frankly idiotic business plan. The only assets the club have left are the 120 year old stadium and an ageing squad of players.
Debt: Despite selling all these players and not paying for new players, our debt has remained stable. Robert Elstone highlights the stability of this debt in his blogs as a good thing. Does this mean we have to keep selling our best players without replacing them to keep the debt stable? If so expect Rodwell or Barkley to go this summer. We cannot continue to sell players without giving David Moyes the proceeds and not expect to get relegated sooner or later.
The sale of the football club
Bill Kenwright has claimed there is no better salesman for Everton than him. But after searching 24/7 for investment for however many years it is now this is quite clearly not true. All we have got close to is selling to a man in a 2 bed flat in Manchester. We keep being told about these “interested parties”, there’s normally 3, we tend to hear about this around the time of protests and nothing ever happens.
Asking price: In an interview with Sky Sports News a few months ago, Keith Harris, appointed to help sell Everton, was asked if £150m would be enough to buy Everton. “You’re not far wrong” was his reply. We find this simply staggering. We have no assets, they’ve all been sold, we have a lot of debt, why on earth would anyone want to pay £150m for a club with no assets and debt? On top of that a new stadium is required, the training ground needs to be bought back, and new players are desperately needed. So it seems plainly obvious why we’ve not been sold. If Kenwright really loved the club he would lower the asking price and give it a chance of being sold, making a profit should not be on the agenda
Lies
We’ve been lied to on a number of occasions and highlight just 2 of these below, this should not be tolerated at all.
Why we think it’s worthwhile publicly backing the Blue Union
We feel that are far too many fans who are uneducated as to the true facts. There are some fans whom will only use the official website for Everton news and are thus being fed spin and propaganda from the club and are believing every word. This was highlighted no more so than in the leaked emails where Robert Elstone sent an email planning a string of interviews with former and current players telling the fans nice things about the board just before the first Blue Union protest, as well as claiming the Liverpool Echo “owe them”. We feel the more websites there are who are publishing the facts of Kenwright’s reign, the more chance there is of Evertonians learning what is actually going on which we feel is important. We think pressure on the chairman and the board needs to be kept up, and if our fans can be united in that pressure then that can only help.
The other side of coin
We hate the fan base being split, but it’s even more frustrating when the arguments from the other side of the debate who are against the Blue Union are so weak and bereft of facts. The most common things said are: “but he’s an Evertonian”, “protesting is for kopites” and “Bill’s trying his best”. The fact that Bill is an Evertonian is irrelevant, we’re all Evertonians but that doesn’t mean we’re fit to run the club. He has been able to get away with murder because he’s one of us, if he wasn’t an Evertonian he’d have been hounded out of town a long time ago. We’ve held off protesting for a while now, but it is at the point now where doing nothing is not option, the club is dying in front of our eyes and we have to try whatever we can to urge Bill Kenwright to forget about making money, and just sell the club for a reasonable price to someone who can take it forward. If Bill is trying his best then quite frankly his best isn’t good enough.
If we continue down this path we will unquestionably be relegated, the message from us is simple: Please Bill, lower your asking price, find the right buyer and get this club sold before it sinks into oblivion. If you love the club, let go.
sadly its all true, it took a while for the penny to drop with me, but it has now, i wonder can we force kenwrights hand to resign on the basis that he is unfit to be the chairman of our club, it happens in business all over the world and i dont see how everton football club is any diferent.
Well I am sure you are sad about taking this path ,as sure as I am ,as my thoughts are different to those above .I don’t disagree with your motives but I am not so sure whether I can agree with your manipulation of the facts ,that doesn’t mean that they are lies but simply that the stress seems to be in different places than if I were to have written the piece
Therefore I believe they do not offer a true reflection
I don’t want to dissect the passage suffice to say that I am not of the same mind,having said that I am in total agreement that it would be fantastic if something could be done ,I fear that the time any benefactor would come out of the cupboards has passed and I think we should get used to the fact ,we can then be pleasantly surprised
I feel that there is a hysteria surrounding the club now and this article will only fuel the press ,whilst apparently falling on deaf ears at board level
Do really believe that as a blue Bill would ensure our demotion by his actions ?
Do you really think he is in it for the money ?
I don’t ,yes there appears to be miss-management but you cannot say they are after the money and then condemn them for losing Gosling’s compensation with the same conviction
The only thing I ask of you is for you consider our club ,not their club ,when you act and start bringing the dirty washing out in public
Forever blue
As a very concerned evertonian based in the park end i find all your points interesting but what would be your solution to our problems if your group held the reins at goodison park
it’s about time we took the protest into the ground, and it’s about time people woke up to the myth that protesting is a kopite thing. we protested over many things inside and outside goodison over the years.
why is it a kopite thing ? because somebody from leeds on wsag who probably goes the game twice a year says so, or some apathetic none match goer on grand old team calls you a melt, it’s time to wake up , the board are killing this club.
well done FollowEverton.com
s.kelly
Behind everything you are doing and will help in any small way I can to get more evertonians on side. I am so sad to see our great club in such a decline.
Brian #4, you say that the above is a manipulation of the facts but don’t go on to say how or why it is. I am totally against the chairman and how he is running our club into the ground and would genuinely like to hear a coherent argument in his defence as I have not yet heard one!
Although I am not convinced of his “24/7” search for investment I cannot deny that he is doing this as there is no evidence to support an argument either way but given the facts above, and they are facts, why do you continue to support Kenwright? I’m not having a dig, I would just like to hear a genuine and honest answer as I cannot see a single reason why he should be in charge of our club!
I like this piece, and will be sending it on to others, but I’d give it more weight if you replaced the word ‘Kenwright’ with ‘the current board of directors’. The entire board is the problem, not just Kenwright. To me, Earl is the chief villain over the past few years.
The worm has turned against Kenwright and he only has himself to blame as the self proclaimed greatest Evertonian who has single handedly turned our once great club into a laughing stock with his litany of lies and deceit. The man has total disregard for anyone including the Blue Union who quite literally have taken him to task on all of the points raised in this article. Whilst the CEO of Liverpool Ian Ayre is busy brokering multi-million pound sponsorship deals we have Elstone covering Bill’s arse at every opportunity in his comical Li style blogs.
Always been a Kenwright backer, not no more, watched that video of the blue union before the tam worth game and it all clicked into place, selling bily for 5m and getting someone in on loan again another 5m for the
Bank
Kenwright out
James Stafford we’ve outlined what we’d do if we were in charge there. Drop the asking price and get the club sold
It is a shame he as done well when he came and to stable to club from johnston, but mr kenwright as dig a hole for himself and as a evertonian I Sick of his lies, and the last 2-3 season the club as gone stale. he can’t keep hiding things away from the fans and the truth will come out and it is time that him and the board to go. intrim board until we can get someone who want to take over and as the club interests too
joemul#7 you say that earl is the main problem, who was it that brought earl/green to the club?
I too agree with the article but like Joemul (7) agree the board of directors are to blame and not Kenwright. I do believe he is a true blue, but you do have to remember he is not majority shareholder so will not set the price (although I do appreciate he could have well done agreed to the price that has been quoted). He takes the brunt from the fans and maybe in no position to change the asking price nor reveal that it is indeed the other board members who have set the price.
I do think we are in trouble and the way we have been playing this season would not be surprised to see us in or by the relegation zone following our next 7 or 8 fixtures. Bily being sold this week is a godsend and I just hope the board spend the money on players rather than loan signings with no funds to sign them long term at the end of the loan deal.
I believe the club missed a trick last summer not offloading high wage playing staff for good money and replacing them with cheaper purchases and maybe cheaper wages. I know there is argument for and against it, but with the current finances, we could have offloaded the players we have along with Jagielka say for £12m and got replacements such as Scott Dann, Seb Larson, Demba Ba. I appreciate the signing on fees and wages, but with what has left the club, the wage bill would still have reduced and the money could start to try resolve the issues we have without dropping numbers to a dangerously low level and reducing the average age
Probably want to ask the Echo to run a story on “how much is the club for sale for” and try and force a price out of the board.
£150m is only rumoured – does it include the debt or not, and probably needs clarification – whats the terms etc etc
then there could be some questions directed at the 3 regarding why do they expect such a return (if this is to be the case)
I’m all for supporting a “whats the price and is it reasonable” protest, but I cant be doing with this Kenwright out propoganda without anything to back it up.
I agree wholeheartedly with most of this, except for the bit about Kenwright holding out to make a profit on his shares.
Call me naive if you like, but I just can’t honestly believe Bill is stupid/greedy enough to think he can sell shares in an organisation that has gone backwards under his tenure for more than him bought them for.
Remembering back to the start of his reign and Bill’s battle to take control from PJ, I seem to recall the words ‘Mortgaged himself to the hilt’ being used to describe the lengths Kenwright went to in order raise the cash needed to buy out PJ. I think this gives us a clue as to the true position at the club today and the real reason that Bill actually can’t sell the club at anything less that the current asking price, for if he does he will face personal, financial ruin, having effectively sold off shares which are underwriting large personal debts for less than those debts have outstanding. Its like you or me buying a car on HP for £10000 and then finding out its a heap of rubbish within weeks, so selling it on for £5000 without telling the HP company you no longer have the asset to underwrite the borrowing.
This would also explain why Kenwright is unable to invest any more of his personal wealth into the business, but does not explain why his co-directors (John Woods and Robert Earl) are sitting on their hands and not coughing up to save THEIR football club from going under.
If we are going to protest, we need to protest against ALL of the directors of the club that have got us into this mess and not just their figurehead.
Who in there right mind would want to buy us? The value is to high, the debt is to big, we dont even own are training ground! Add to that the cost of a new ground 200/300 mil, its not gonna happen. I fear were gonna eventually sell felli, barkley, baines and end up in the championship. Maybe then will a 2 bob buisiness man from the wirral actually make a firm bid 20/30 mil for the club! Really hope am wrong but this is my fear.
‘depressed blue’ wrote: “Who in there right mind would want to buy us? The value is to high” .. Isn’t that Bill Kenwright’s valuation which is too high? In fact, we don’t even know what that valuation is!! A bit more transparency and honesty are two things needed for any successful sale.
Why is it a Kopite thing? Let me count the ways.
Banners
Whining because we’re not winning
Scarves
Collecting money from fellow blues (look forward to seeing your accounts)
The 85m debt nonsense
Claiming to represent the support with less than 2% on your marches
Marches
Slavishly copying McKenna and his meffs
Oh 7m to 12m is a 75% increase you whoppers
To qualify, i don’t think it’s right to say kenwright is not to blame. Saying Kenwright is not SOLELY to blame would be more accurate. At a guess i reckon he regrets getting Earl involved at all.
We should want the entire board out, and focussing solely on Kenwright seems to be letting the others off the hook.
First of all, as a season ticket holder, Thanks again for all all the work you people are doing. The most difficult thing is getting the truth from the media ie pre recorded interviews with Kenwright, Wyness.
I cannot understand why, Granada reports, Northwest tonight and the likes WONT try and get Kenwright and yourselves in a studio, to a live audience. What a great viewing that would be, not only for us Evertonians but for other clubs supporters ie Coventry city.
I now the echo and local radio stations wont budge but have these tv stations been approached?.