The Long Dark - Thirty Years of Hurt

[COYBL25]

Two words. "Bill" and "Kenwright."

Everything else leads back to Bill.

This.

Close thread.

 

[EFCPaul]

The club has a losing, just-happy-to-be-liked mentality and it's been this way for decades. It was instilled by Kenwright, embraced by Moyes (then and now), adopted by many supporters and undoubtedly seeps into most players and the staff. It has dragged down numerous managers who meant well for all their own faults.

Will take a long time to remove, it if it's even possible at this point (we have to keep hope). Despite it all we've survived and hopefully have come through the other side now. Finally owned by people who seem sensible and determined to suceed. The rest has to take care of itself.

 

[JordanianEmbassy]

Y

Didn’t Johnson build the park end ?

I think he had to, wasn't the old stand pretty much condemned after the Taylor report?
And then as someone else has already pointed out, it was built with a grant and no additional investment. If we'd built something as big as the Holte End there we'd have had an extra 7 or 8 thousand seats.

 

[Ferguson1878]

I'm not sure that's quite comparable, is it? After Taylor, Old Trafford seated 44,000. They built their own new stand, which seated 25,000. Then, a few years later, they added tiers to two other stands, taking the capacity up to 65,000. A few years after that, they filled in the corners, taking it up to 75,000. He failed in his attempts to move to a new stadium, and the gap between us and the other members of the "Big 5" grew into a chasm.

Mate I’m no fan of Johnson believe me but what other team improver there stadium like that ? Arsenal were still at Highbury liverpool were still playin a 40 odd thousand stadium Utd have always been different animal , least Johnson has a go kanchelskis etc

 

[Daytripper]

Two words. "Bill" and "Kenwright."

Everything else leads back to Bill.

Who enabled him? They are all just as bad mate.

 

[Lapeno77]

By all means blame Kenwright, but I'm nearly 100% sure he didn't arrange the above nor orchestrate the round of applause when his face appeared on the big screen.

There are a sizeable number of happy clappers amongst the fan base who have helped to keep us down.

 

[TrachyBlue]

View attachment 351974

By all means blame Kenwright, but I'm nearly 100% sure he didn't arrange the above nor orchestrate the round of applause when his face appeared on the big screen.

There are a sizeable number of happy clappers amongst the fan base who have helped to keep us down.

Yes, and quite a few are on this forum.

 

[ToffeeTim]

We are not very good to start with. And then very often we try to win cup ties without our best players

And failure has become accepted and part of parcel of the club. Any time we achieve something even mediocre its spun as success, when really it only looks good because we have had some awful periods.

 

[mahermi1]

Absolute rubbish as per, think of his boss, Moyes worked miracles with the money he had too spend.

 

[Neiler]

The Moshiri years were the most damaging to the club IMO - when he took over we were in Europe a fair bit and place were the best young players could go and develop - there was a model in place even within the limits that Kenwright had. I never had an issue with Kenwright because he never promised to do anything more then he did in terms of investment and selling on and relatively speaking he and Moyes did the business in those limits over his time as owner.

The club became toxic under Moshiri, anything good was pulled down, costs increased beyond our means, the clubs reputation went into the toilet and the club almost went to the wall, via cozing up to the likes of 777, Textor etc and becoming the laughing joke of the footballing workd through points deductions.

The club now is recovery the impact of the Moshiri years is still damaging, last summer id say we got our 5th choice in a lot of positions - many still look at the club as at worse toxic and best beneath them. We have a job to do to still incrementally improve that.

 

[Drico]

The day he passed I felt two things:

1. Sadness for his family at losing what appeared to be a genuinely good and nice husband and father.

2. Delight at a self-serving, fake Evertonian finally being removed from our club about two decades too late.

It was always clear he wasn't going up live of his free will. His death confirmed that.

At the end of the day, he was a man - and an Evertonian. I think he was an appalling custodian and did us semi-permanent damage. I knew he would die in the role. That was largely his identity. I had very mixed emotions on that day. He was gone, but the damage was done. He could have been - and was, to some - a really good PR man for this club. He was the only man to ask to speak on behalf of this club at public events. He was passionate, sentimental, and emotional. But he destroyed this club because it was so wrapped up in his identify that he couldn't bare to let it go and thrive without him. So he strangled it. Not because he wanted to, but because he hadn't the means to compete or the willingless to let somebody else who did take control. Killed us.

 

[mahermi1]

Under Kenright, we were top half in 11 out of his 16 seasons. Under Moshiri, we were top half in 3 of his 9 seasons. What's more, under Kenright, we beat Moshiri's best season (7th) 6 times.

Heck, under Peter Johnson, we might have won the cup, but we "averaged" 14th in the league. So, before and after the Kenright era, we had a lot of expenditure with very worse results on the pitch than during the parsimonious times under Kenright.

Just a bit of perspective.

That was largely due to David Moyes astute performance in the transfer markets on a miniscule budget provided by whatever the club could find " down the sofa". I would say 99.9% down to David Moyes, yes he has his detractors, I can be one from time to time, but that average Bruce was largely down to him in spite of Bill Kenwright, remember Bill wanted Gary Megson, the outgoing Walter Smith advised David Moyes.

 

[Drico]

I trace our decline back to the late 1980s. Guess who joined the board in 1989?

 

[msb]

Oh lovely, another thread to bash our players and manager. And re-hash all the bile and invective over the long dead Bill Kenwright.

Just what is needed on this forum.

 

[Drico]

That was largely due to David Moyes astute performance in the transfer markets on a miniscule budget provided by whatever the club could find " down the sofa". I would say 99.9% down to David Moyes, yes he has his detractors, I can be one from time to time, but that average Bruce was largely down to him in spite of Bill Kenwright, remember Bill wanted Gary Megson, the outgoing Walter Smith advised David Moyes.

Yup. Moyes was the best thing ever to happen to Kenwright. He became his shield. They had a symbiotic relationship, each one protecting the other. Kenwright was blessed to have Moyes. He was keen enough, hungry enough, and good enough to get the most out of close to nothing for a decade. Moyes was only exposed when he had turned "close to nothing" into "something" and couldn't drag that over the line in key cup games. But that took a decade - and that bought Kenwright all the time he needed. It's no surprise his fiefdom started to crumble when Moyes went. Even then he couldn't sever the bond when Moshiri came in - clearly under agreement that Blue Bill remained in situ.

Everything flows back to Kewnright. Until his acoloytes and the remaining vestiges of his influence are purged at this club, we will forever remain plucky underdogs seeking out good times.