ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:BILL KENWRIGHT has laid bare the scale of the financial problems at Everton with a frank admission that their bankers have forced the club to reduce the overdraft and blocked additions to David Moyes's squad.
In a remarkable exchange with representatives of The Blue Union, a coalition of supporters’ groups alarmed at the lack of investment in Everton, the club chairman admitted that proceeds from recent player sales and Bellefield, the former training ground sold for €10.5 million, had been taken by Barclays to reduce debts of €52 million.
Kenwright also reveals that Everton recently sent a document to the bank outlining their need to provide the manager with new players for the new season.
He is now attempting to persuade the bank to allow proceeds from any major sale to go to Moyes rather than reduce the debt. With Phil Jagielka not for sale and no offers for Jack Rodwell, this raises the prospect that Everton might be susceptible to an offer for Mikel Arteta. The Spanish midfielder was a target for Arsenal last summer.
The Everton chairman has refused requests for an interview this summer despite coming under increasing pressure to explain his failure to attract new investment at Goodison Park. He did, however, hold a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with three members of The Blue Union at his London offices last Friday and a transcript was released yesterday.
It is one of acute embarrassment for Everton, who are now considering legal action amid claims The Blue Union broke an agreement not to make the conversation public. Kenwright reveals in it the mounting financial problems that have left Moyes without a net spend on players for three years, contradicts the evidence that Everton’s chief executive, Robert Elstone, gave to a public inquiry and outlines his desperation to sell the club.
One allegation, relayed but not quoted in the transcript, tells of two potential investors – one the head of ICI in east Asia, the other an inventor – being introduced to the Everton chairman by Keith Harris, the head of Seymour Pierce, who believed the pair controlled a hedge fund. They were allowed to conduct due diligence before it was discovered to be a hoax. The so-called head of ICI lived in a one-bedroom flat and the inventor was based in Manchester.
“Look, we’re desperate, I’m desperate,” Kenwright says at one point.
Elstone had told the public inquiry into Everton’s doomed attempt to build a new stadium in Kirkby that Harris was not involved in efforts to sell the club. “Of course Keith Harris is involved,” the theatre impresario admits. “Keith Harris is involved on a daily basis.”
It is confirmation that the bank is calling in its debts, as has occurred at several Premier League clubs this summer such as Blackburn Rovers, however, that demonstrates the extent of the constraints on Moyes and Everton, who have a €29 million overdraft.
Kenwright reveals: “What do you think our squad is valued at for insurance purposes? It’s about £180 million but the banks won’t take that as security. You have to battle with your bank, daily for me. When David started I told him: ‘I’ll make you a promise, I’ve got no money but we’ll move heaven and earth to give you £5 million a year’. On average we give him £5.6 million every year. Nine years that’s £45 million we haven’t got. Add that to the overdraft (and) you can see what trouble we’re in.”
Kenwright said he is the only Premier League chairman not to take a salary or expenses from his club and reveals he has faced “three periods of death threats” during his 12-year reign as majority shareholder.
He also confirms that Harris, Amanda Staveley – who was involved in the tortuous takeover process at Liverpool – the retail magnate Sir Philip Green, several banks and football agents, including Leon Angel, have all engaged in the fruitless search for new investment in Everton.
Guardian Service
