Dear Bill

[TX Bill]

Dear Bill Kenwright,

As a man in his late twenties I’ve never known such excitement and hope surrounding this great club before, so much that I felt compelled to write this open letter to you. It hasn’t been an easy ride by all means, you took over from the club when we were in a desperate situation and have shaped the club to be on the cusp of joining the elite.

I have a very vague memory of my first game at Goodison Park. It was a miserable overcast day and we were playing Tottenham. I was misty eyed and in awe of the whole occasion. That was until Les Ferdinand scored twice as Spurs won 2-0. The only lasting memories I have of the occasion are sadness and despair. Those memories are becoming more and more distant now as we stride in to the transfer market with a swagger and made a statement of intent and for the first time in my lIfe time we have the elite clubs worried.

I must say that I think it’s quite unfair that Moshiri, Koeman and Walsh are taking majority of the plaudits for our current situation. It was Bill Kenwright who steered the club through hard times when under Walter Smith, brought in David Moyes when we were desperate and turned us in to regular European place contenders. The sleeping giant was waking up. We are the new kid on the block, we’ve got some boss new clobber, we’ve had 3 cans of Relentless and we’re gonna f*** s*** up.

Sure, Moshiri has pumped money in to the club at a time when we so desperately needed it. If we hadn’t had that injection of cash and Farhad’s ambition and commercial nouse then I fear we would be in a bad place right now. Bill dedicated his life to finding a new majority shareholder and I think he should receive the highest praise for doing so. Moshiri is proving to be a sound choice and coupling his skills with Kenwright’s love and desire for the club to be successful we now have a new stadium in the most perfect location to look forward to. The club is finally making the right moves to break up the elite.

Finally, I would like to pay a special thank you to Bill for bringing Wayne Rooney back to the club. I’m not to embarrassed to admit that I shed a few tears when the announcement was made and I saw his first press conference. The goal he scored in the friendly was reminiscent of the goal he scored against Arsenal which catapulted him to stardom. Our boy is back.

Thanks Bill

Well written.

Kenwright always said he was going to wait for the right investor. He took a hell of a lot of stick for that too with many saying it was his way of not wanting to sell up or relinquish control. Was some of that stick deserved? Yeah, some, after the FSF debacle, Keith Wyness, and the Arteta money, to name just a few issues under his watch.

And you are absolutely right that this club could have easily steered this club into the Championship had he not acted to bring Moyes in when he did.

But here we are, at the end of the day, with what appears to be the right investor and Everton on the upswing.

Onwards and upwards, where Everton belong.

 

[coltefc]

Sorry, don't get me wrong, I like the way you've written it, really well done. But my view is that you are praising a businessman who made a killing on an asset with no investment. He had every right to do so, and if you had praised his business acumen in keeping an asset until it was worth an optimum amount, then sure - but you're not; you're praising him as some sort of benevolent father like figure who we should be thankful for.

He wasn't, and we shouldn't. Because he kept hold of his toy football club for so long, and because of his sheer incompetence in regards to multiple ground moves, we're a decade behind where we could have been.

So yeah, as unpopular as this post will be, I simply disagree with what you posted completely, no matter how well it was written.

I went to the grand old lady on the 14th January 1978 for my 6th birthday as you can guess me and my 3 brothers were supporters of the greatest football club that ever existed,my dad,grandad,great grandad had an love for the blue boys which was never questioned,after all Everton FC flowed through your blood. We beat Villa that day 1-0 and my love has never wavered since.My uncle tommy who was my mums brother supported the other lot and he took me to watch them about 1982-83 when they beat sides 5-0.6-0,but i never batted a eyelid and always asked how the blues had got on.He realised what the blue boys meant to me,as at this time my mum and dad had split,when i told him in no uncertain terms who id be following in the 83-84 season,he realised i werent for turning.Ive been all over the country watching the boys and have enjoyed some of the best and worst days in my life.Ive been lucky enough to watch us win a trophy something i pray for my kids to see and have also been arrested for taking things to far,but one thing that will never waver is my love for the famous EFC.Ive had the pleasure of meeting Bill Kenwright when my my brother Stan was dieing of bowel cancer,and i have to say the man was an absolute gentleman,inviting us to the exec box watching the boys,he never wavered once in his support for our Stan so for that i will always be gratefull,the man to me sums up what he is all about with his support to Bradley Lowery,i will forever be a fan of of bills for supporting our great club and the people that matter most to him COYB.

 

[ilikecheese]

I went to the grand old lady on the 14th January 1978 for my 6th birthday as you can guess me and my 3 brothers were supporters of the greatest football club that ever existed,my dad,grandad,great grandad had an love for the blue boys which was never questioned,after all Everton FC flowed through your blood. We beat Villa that day 1-0 and my love has never wavered since.My uncle tommy who was my mums brother supported the other lot and he took me to watch them about 1982-83 when they beat sides 5-0.6-0,but i never batted a eyelid and always asked how the blues had got on.He realised what the blue boys meant to me,as at this time my mum and dad had split,when i told him in no uncertain terms who id be following in the 83-84 season,he realised i werent for turning.Ive been all over the country watching the boys and have enjoyed some of the best and worst days in my life.Ive been lucky enough to watch us win a trophy something i pray for my kids to see and have also been arrested for taking things to far,but one thing that will never waver is my love for the famous EFC.Ive had the pleasure of meeting Bill Kenwright when my my brother Stan was dieing of bowel cancer,and i have to say the man was an absolute gentleman,inviting us to the exec box watching the boys,he never wavered once in his support for our Stan so for that i will always be gratefull,the man to me sums up what he is all about with his support to Bradley Lowery,i will forever be a fan of of bills for supporting our great club and the people that matter most to him COYB.

Choked me up a little there mate.

Post more!

 

[Westend Blue]

Sorry but Moyes and Moshini doesn't undo 15 years of completely inept ownership. Are people forgetting he ballsed up kings docks already ?

 

[chicoazul]

Think it's fitting that the home end in the new stadium is called "The William Kenwright OBE End" and there's a massive statue that everyone has to bow their head towards as they walk past, or they're kopites.

 

[coltefc]

Choked me up a little there mate.

Post more!

Soz to do that mate but all is true,

Sorry but Moyes and Moshini doesn't undo 15 years of completely inept ownership. Are people forgetting he ballsed up kings docks already ?

I know what you you mean mate but hopefully things are on the way up,did you ever stand up in manutd,derby,boro sunderland,blackburn,west brom,newcastle,plymouth,sheff wed,sheff utd end,t wasnt nice believe me.

 

[toffee-L]

Wow, does this mean that it's finally safe for those of us who clapped him at the match that time can finally emerge from underneath our beds?

 

[Khalekan]

Think it's fitting that the home end in the new stadium is called "The William Kenwright OBE End" and there's a massive statue that everyone has to bow their head towards as they walk past, or they're kopites.

Would it not be more fitting if the stadium was named that, instead of just one end?

And should not the statue be mounted on a golden plinth?

 

[kithnou]

I went to the grand old lady on the 14th January 1978 for my 6th birthday as you can guess me and my 3 brothers were supporters of the greatest football club that ever existed,my dad,grandad,great grandad had an love for the blue boys which was never questioned,after all Everton FC flowed through your blood. We beat Villa that day 1-0 and my love has never wavered since.My uncle tommy who was my mums brother supported the other lot and he took me to watch them about 1982-83 when they beat sides 5-0.6-0,but i never batted a eyelid and always asked how the blues had got on.He realised what the blue boys meant to me,as at this time my mum and dad had split,when i told him in no uncertain terms who id be following in the 83-84 season,he realised i werent for turning.Ive been all over the country watching the boys and have enjoyed some of the best and worst days in my life.Ive been lucky enough to watch us win a trophy something i pray for my kids to see and have also been arrested for taking things to far,but one thing that will never waver is my love for the famous EFC.Ive had the pleasure of meeting Bill Kenwright when my my brother Stan was dieing of bowel cancer,and i have to say the man was an absolute gentleman,inviting us to the exec box watching the boys,he never wavered once in his support for our Stan so for that i will always be gratefull,the man to me sums up what he is all about with his support to Bradley Lowery,i will forever be a fan of of bills for supporting our great club and the people that matter most to him COYB.

Great post mate

 

[McMagic]

I went to the grand old lady on the 14th January 1978 for my 6th birthday as you can guess me and my 3 brothers were supporters of the greatest football club that ever existed,my dad,grandad,great grandad had an love for the blue boys which was never questioned,after all Everton FC flowed through your blood. We beat Villa that day 1-0 and my love has never wavered since.My uncle tommy who was my mums brother supported the other lot and he took me to watch them about 1982-83 when they beat sides 5-0.6-0,but i never batted a eyelid and always asked how the blues had got on.He realised what the blue boys meant to me,as at this time my mum and dad had split,when i told him in no uncertain terms who id be following in the 83-84 season,he realised i werent for turning.Ive been all over the country watching the boys and have enjoyed some of the best and worst days in my life.Ive been lucky enough to watch us win a trophy something i pray for my kids to see and have also been arrested for taking things to far,but one thing that will never waver is my love for the famous EFC.Ive had the pleasure of meeting Bill Kenwright when my my brother Stan was dieing of bowel cancer,and i have to say the man was an absolute gentleman,inviting us to the exec box watching the boys,he never wavered once in his support for our Stan so for that i will always be gratefull,the man to me sums up what he is all about with his support to Bradley Lowery,i will forever be a fan of of bills for supporting our great club and the people that matter most to him COYB.

Lovely letter. Certainly made me feel bad about the man I dislike.

 

[zirc]

I don't want to ruin the tenor of this thread but suffice to say I don't agree. In the past 18 years he's got pretty much everything wrong, the two exceptions being hiring Moyes and getting Moshiri in.

Kings Dock failure
Kirkby fiasco
Went from 20m in assets to 50m debt before the Mosh
Selling Rooney far too cheaply
Dodgy vibrac loans
Not a single penny invested
Failure to sell the club for 16 years while claiming it's been for sale the entire time
Letting Moyes string us along and getting denied compo
Longest trophyless period in history
Utter and complete inability to modernise the club - complete failure to market overseas for example, we had at one point the single best players from the US, South Africa, and Australia and did nothing to capitalise on it.
Horrible commercial deals like Kitbag, Sodexo, Chang etc,
Letting banks dictate to us when we had to sell players
Robert Elstone
Philip Green



People also are quick to say he steered us safely through troubled times, well he didn't, we were accumulating debt at a perilous rate; we effectively got saved by the sky/tv money. If that windfall hadn't come along it's rather likely we'd have gone down or into administration. Thr model he was running wasn't sustainable. At a certain point we didn't buy a first XI player for two years! How is that a steady hand? That's sleeping rough in the footballing world.



For me the best thing you can say about BK is that he was simply incompetent rather than malicious in his mismanagement of the club.

 

[Bob Latchford]

I remember the Mike Walker days.

I bet he doesn't even know who that is.

There was a point in high school, then college, when my mates actually stopped taking the piss out of me after we'd been hammered by, for example Wimbledon at home or knocked out of the Simmod cup by some other no mark. Dark, dark days.

No doubt we all want back to the glory days, but BK definately rescued us from the abyss.

 

[Seathestars]

Beautifully written, and I agree. I couldn't praise Bill high enough but I could never put into words like you did.

Even the great Shakespeare or Dickens would take a bow

 

[Clint Planet]

Points off for switching between first and third person but, other that that, spot on.

 

[Boss_Blue]

Wow, does this mean that it's finally safe for those of us who clapped him at the match that time can finally emerge from underneath our beds?

Fly free, you and all who love Blue Bill.