I just wish he'd bugger off into the sunset, 'my Everton' my arse : he's been an utter failure, and why he thinks his utterances carry any weight after his stewardship beggars belief
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...iticism-of-marco-silva-is-unhelpful-ft6kgnwtd
PREMIER LEAGUE | PAUL JOYCE
january 9 2019, 12:00pm, the times
Bill Kenwright regains influence at Everton but owner’s criticism of Marco Silva is unhelpful
paul joyce, northern football correspondent
Bill Kenwright has been brought back into the fold to help with the running of Everton after a period in which the chairman found himself marginalised.
Kenwright was pushed onto the periphery this time last year when Sam Allardyce, as manager, and Steve Walsh, as director of football, were overseeing transfers and Everton appeared to be moving in a new direction under Farhad Moshiri, the owner, and directors Keith Harris and Sasha Ryazantsev.
There were persistent rumours at the end of last season that Kenwright would be removed as chairman. But in a question-and-answer session at the club’s general meeting yesterday, Kenwright indicated that his role has reverted to type and that he is working closely with the new director of football, Marcel Brands.
“It has come back to where it was,” said Kenwright. “It wasn’t the same until Marcel came. I have a really close relationship with Marcel where we talk non-stop and we consult on most things. He doesn’t consult on everything but he is terrific to work with. Very straight and very down the line.
“I talk to Denise [Barrett-Baxendale, Everton’s chief executive] many times every day and I talk to Farhad more than anyone.
“I have always said what I want to be is the guy who looks after what Everton means to the fans and that is what I have only ever wanted to do. That is the job I will continue to do. Look after my Everton, which is now Farhad’s Everton.”
Kenwright persuaded Moshiri to buy a 49.9 per cent stake in Everton three years ago next month, in an attempt to re-establish the club among England’s elite. Moshiri’s shareholding has since been upped to 68.6 per cent with an agreement to increase it to 77.2 per cent no later than July.
Kenwright, a theatre impresario, bought Everton in 1999 and it is likely that his acumen in the transfer market, and his contacts within English football, are assisting Brands, who was appointed to the club’s board at the meeting at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall.
His re-involvement was a nugget of information during a gathering where Brands and Barrett-Baxendale were regularly praised, but Marco Silva, the manager, was told he had the club’s “total support” by Moshiri before being informed that Everton’s position of 11th in the league table
was “not good enough.”
Such a public commentary was unfair on Silva, who was appointed last summer, and unhelpful to the Portuguese as he seeks to improve a run of one victory in eight Premier League matches.
Everton is in the midst of a long-term project and the hierarchy has to be able to withstand some turbulence as Silva and Brands attempt to tackle problems Moshiri said had been caused by “back luck and poor judgment.”
“The difficulty we have experienced is that we lost three of our best players: [John] Stones, [Ross] Barkley and Romelu [Lukaku],” said Moshiri. “They were young players on low wages.
“For us to lose Stones, you get £45 million but he was on very low wages. To replace him with a defender of that quality you need to pay him £200,000-a-week.
“We didn’t do that but in replacing these three players we had to spend a lot of money and pay high wages. That is the difficulty — like for like.
“To replace Romelu — we sold him for £75 million and he was on £70,000-a-week — you would have to pay £130 million and £250,000-a-week. That is the challenge.
“It is why football experts of Marcel’s calibre are needed. To comply with Financial Fair Play you need to go for younger players on lower wages. You may need to pay big fees but you have to keep the wages down.
“We’ve had bad luck, poor judgment, but I feel the business we did in the summer shows we are in the right direction but it has been difficult.”
The reality remains that 18 months after Lukaku’s departure to Manchester United, Everton have still not replaced him and that is stalling progress.
Brands indicated there would not be high-profile signings this month with a striking solution pursued in the summer market.
Other questions that remained outstanding from the meeting include how Everton intend to keep ticket prices affordable should they move to a new 52,000 seater stadium, which will be financed primarily by borrowings of £350 million.
