Football News: Sometimes It Is Better The Devil You Know

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Everton fans are split on Bill Kenwright, with a lot of them moaning at him as the club has not been sold, blaming him for not having the money needed to invest and take the club forward to the next level. While I can understand their frustration to being so close to the top four and just failing to force their way into that exclusive group on a regular basis, it seems unfair to be on Bill Kenwright's case for that.

There seems to be a misconception about Blue Bill, that he is the owner of Everton, in a similar way to Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, but without the billions of Russian oil dollars to invest in the team. That it is him that is refusing to sell up to the next oil billionaire looking for a Premier League toy to play with.

It is just not true, Kenwright is the chairman, he is the largest shareholder with 25%, but that still leaves three quarters of the club out of his control. With immensely wealthy men such as Robert Earl and Lord Grantchester owning significant stakes, Everton should have no issue raising investment for a stadium, but yet they are still in Goodison Park, even though it desperately needs to be revamped or replaced.

The time is now for those Everton shareholders to put their money where their mouth is and invest in the club, as Kenwright has done to stabilise it and rebuild it from the depths it was in when he took over. I often wonder if people forget how much he did back then, following the disastrous tenure of Peter Johnson, just to keep Everton in the top flight.

The second largest shareholder, Robert Earl, with 23.27%, has been entirely conspicious by his absence, not even bothering to go to watch Everton at Goodison Park. In fact the only Everton game he seems to take in each season is the one at White Hart Lane, when the Toffees face his beloved Tottenham Hotspur.

The only thing that the Planet Hollywood founder has done for the blue half of Merseyside is convinced Sylvester Stallone to attend a game, which has obviously made a major difference. Well it has led to local Everton-supporting boxer Tony Bellew winning a role in the latest Rocky film anyway.

Then there is Grantchester, who seems to be unwilling to invest in the club under any circumstance, though is happy to see rumours circulate blaming a fallout with Kenwright for that. Shame that he never showed any signs of investing in the club before that, or it might well have been believable!

Earl and Grantchester's sole interest in the Toffeemen seems to have stemmed from the possibility of making a profit from moving to a new stadium, whereas Bill Kenwright, I think even his biggest critics accept, loves the club and wants the best for it. So why would anyone want him out, to replace him with another owner that could just be a disaster, Peter Johnson like, for the club?

Written by Tris Burke June 15 2015 07:54:30