Is the apparent football "Mr Fix it" who Blue Bill has asked to help him find a buyer for the club he referred to him at the EGM heres a peice from the Echo:
THE name may have conjured up images of Orville and Cuddles, but the Keith Harris to whom Bill Kenwright referred this week may well hold the key to Everton’s future.
While the rules on the pitch are, to some extent, still the same, the game of football that we grew up to know has been altering at pace for many years. But Monday’s events in Manchester have changed things for ever.
Sport has almost become secondary and politics and money, as opposed to players and matches, are the aspects which now have supporters talking. Many conversations centre around who will buy who, rather than which team will snap up that player.
Given the events they have watched unfolding close to home, it is little wonder Evertonians have grown exasperated that – to borrow a phrase from Kenwright – a Sheikh, a Russian or an American has not felt compelled to make a takeover bid.
After all, since 2005, Manchester United have had the Glazer family, Liverpool ‘welcomed’ Tom Hicks and George Gillet into Anfield, while Manchester City have had Thaksin Shinawatra and now Abu Dhabi United Group perform buy-outs.
It is with good reason, then, that Blues have been tearing their hair out, and things probably reached a low on Monday evening when the only news they were reading about was the arrival of Carlo Nash when City were bidding for Robinho.
Fortunately, the arrival of Marouane Fellaini in a club transfer record deal assuaged the anger of supporters and, once the players reconvene from international duty, it surely won’t be long before Everton start to climb the table again.
But if – as acting chief executive Robert Elstone put it at Wednesday night’s EGM – Everton are going to stop “punching above their weight” and be able to find comfort in their financial situation, an investor, or Kirkby, is the only option.
With Kirkby so maligned, many are hoping that a Sheikh, Russian or American will come calling soon – not least Kenwright, who has clearly grown particularly weary of the flak to which he is subjected each transfer window – and that is where Harris comes in.
Harris, 55, is a former financial adviser to Manchester United and has worked on virtually every major takeover deal or financial restructuring in British football. He accepted the position of non-executive director at Cardiff City last month.
A financial entrepreneur, he was chairman of the investment bank, Seymour Pierce, and also chairman of the Football League and was heavily involved in the deals that saw Roman Abramovich buy Chelsea in 2003 and Randy Lerner’s purchase of Aston Villa.
What Evertonians – Kenwright included – would give for someone as wealthy as Abramovich or Lerner to come in now, as the EGM proved that things cannot keep going on the way they have been.
Kenwright has begged, stolen and borrowed to give David Moyes the players to assist Everton’s march up the table, but it is likely there will come a point in the future when the banks say ‘enough is enough’.
Throw into the equation that there will be at least eight teams paying better wages than Everton with the ability to outmuscle them regarding transfer fees, and it becomes even more apparent that a rich benefactor - or Kirkby - will help Everton keep pace with their rivals.
“I want you to have everything you want, which is a billionaire… I want every one of you to have that,” Kenwright told shareholders during an impassioned speech.
“It was nothing to do with a chairman who wants money. That was a chairman who wants to fulfil a promise to this football club. That’s all I want. I so want every one of you to have your billionaire. It’s not me and I apologise it’s not me.”
With some help from Harris, then, maybe it won’t be long before that billionaire comes along.
Will this see a change in the level of intent the club has to actively seek a new investor/owner?
THE name may have conjured up images of Orville and Cuddles, but the Keith Harris to whom Bill Kenwright referred this week may well hold the key to Everton’s future.
While the rules on the pitch are, to some extent, still the same, the game of football that we grew up to know has been altering at pace for many years. But Monday’s events in Manchester have changed things for ever.
Sport has almost become secondary and politics and money, as opposed to players and matches, are the aspects which now have supporters talking. Many conversations centre around who will buy who, rather than which team will snap up that player.
Given the events they have watched unfolding close to home, it is little wonder Evertonians have grown exasperated that – to borrow a phrase from Kenwright – a Sheikh, a Russian or an American has not felt compelled to make a takeover bid.
After all, since 2005, Manchester United have had the Glazer family, Liverpool ‘welcomed’ Tom Hicks and George Gillet into Anfield, while Manchester City have had Thaksin Shinawatra and now Abu Dhabi United Group perform buy-outs.
It is with good reason, then, that Blues have been tearing their hair out, and things probably reached a low on Monday evening when the only news they were reading about was the arrival of Carlo Nash when City were bidding for Robinho.
Fortunately, the arrival of Marouane Fellaini in a club transfer record deal assuaged the anger of supporters and, once the players reconvene from international duty, it surely won’t be long before Everton start to climb the table again.
But if – as acting chief executive Robert Elstone put it at Wednesday night’s EGM – Everton are going to stop “punching above their weight” and be able to find comfort in their financial situation, an investor, or Kirkby, is the only option.
With Kirkby so maligned, many are hoping that a Sheikh, Russian or American will come calling soon – not least Kenwright, who has clearly grown particularly weary of the flak to which he is subjected each transfer window – and that is where Harris comes in.
Harris, 55, is a former financial adviser to Manchester United and has worked on virtually every major takeover deal or financial restructuring in British football. He accepted the position of non-executive director at Cardiff City last month.
A financial entrepreneur, he was chairman of the investment bank, Seymour Pierce, and also chairman of the Football League and was heavily involved in the deals that saw Roman Abramovich buy Chelsea in 2003 and Randy Lerner’s purchase of Aston Villa.
What Evertonians – Kenwright included – would give for someone as wealthy as Abramovich or Lerner to come in now, as the EGM proved that things cannot keep going on the way they have been.
Kenwright has begged, stolen and borrowed to give David Moyes the players to assist Everton’s march up the table, but it is likely there will come a point in the future when the banks say ‘enough is enough’.
Throw into the equation that there will be at least eight teams paying better wages than Everton with the ability to outmuscle them regarding transfer fees, and it becomes even more apparent that a rich benefactor - or Kirkby - will help Everton keep pace with their rivals.
“I want you to have everything you want, which is a billionaire… I want every one of you to have that,” Kenwright told shareholders during an impassioned speech.
“It was nothing to do with a chairman who wants money. That was a chairman who wants to fulfil a promise to this football club. That’s all I want. I so want every one of you to have your billionaire. It’s not me and I apologise it’s not me.”
With some help from Harris, then, maybe it won’t be long before that billionaire comes along.
Will this see a change in the level of intent the club has to actively seek a new investor/owner?
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