Setanta;
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright has revealed that former Toffee Wayne Rooney ‘cried down the phone’ when pleading with the 62-year-old to allow him to leave the club.
Rooney completed his switch to Manchester United in the summer of 2004 for a fee in the region of £25 million and has not looked back since arriving at Old Trafford, but Kenwright has made a stark revelation by explaining the desperation of the England international to leave Merseyside.
“I had phone calls and death threats and people saying that Rooney didn’t want to leave the club,” explained Kenwright in the Liverpool Daily Post.
“At the same time I’ve got Rooney – who is a smashing lad – on the phone to me crying and saying: ‘Please, I’ve got to leave Liverpool’.
People were claiming I was lying but David Moyes and I had 15 meetings to try and keep Rooney. I’ve worked 15, 16 hours a day and I’ve never understood this thing called breakdown – but you can when you get in some of these situations.
“I was never in a position where I couldn’t take it but it did get close.”
Whilst that may be a harrowing image for some, Kenwright is currently focusing his concentration on the second leg of Everton’s Carling Cup semi-final tie with Chelsea which takes place at Goodison Park on Wednesday.
Moyes’ side will endeavour to overturn their 2-1 first leg deficit, and Kenwright admits he is feeling butterflies before the big game.
“If we beat Chelsea and get to the Carling Cup final at Wembley, it will be the biggest thing ever in my life. Bigger than any award, bigger than any first night,” he said.
“If I am sitting in that box at Wembley on February 24, my heart will be bursting out of my chest. I am scared stiff just thinking about it.”
Kenwright also explained the reasons behind his decision to take over the club back in 1999, not least his lifelong support.
“I bought into it because I thought it was a football club that needed help. It needed a sort of spiritual help,” he said.
“We went through bad times – we had a police cordon around the directors’ box and I was told I could come to the game in an armoured car.”
Manager Moyes is out of contract at the end of next season and Kenwright is understandably keen to tie up a deal to keep the Scot at the club.
“People talk about stability but it’s not that – it’s the fact that David Moyes is the best,” he said.
“The thing about David is he is a winner. When he sat on my sofa when we first met at 1am, he mentioned the word ‘win’ 17 times in 50 seconds.
“And I knew within three minutes that he was our man. I wouldn’t be surprised if he creates an Alex Ferguson-type dynasty.
“I know two things about him. I know he is totally committed to Everton and I know he wants to win and he doesn’t feel he has done that yet. But what he has done is extraordinary.”