Bill Kenwright to exit Everton suggestion made amid MSP delay
The delay in MSP Sports Capital’s impending 25% takeover of Everton suggests chairman Bill Kenwright is finally leaving the club, according to The Esk.
The much-maligned Everton chairman has become a battering ram for fans along with several of the club hierarchy after yet another disappointing Premier League campaign, with chants of “sack the board” following the final-day relegation escape against Bournemouth on Sunday (28 May).
The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday 23 May, that Farhad Moshiri has entered an exclusivity agreement with the US-based investment firm MSP Sports Capital ahead of a 25% takeover, which will leave room for plenty of change at boardroom level should a takeover be completed.
And such change has already gotten underway with Everton announcing that chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale, chief finance and strategy officer Grant Ingles and non-executive director Graeme Sharp have all left their boardroom roles [BBC Sport, 12 June].
And The Esk, taking to their personal Twitter account [14 June] believes that final loose ends at Goodison Park such as Kenwright’s exit and legal issues are causing the takeover delay.
They tweeted: “Let’s think logically about the delay. If any announcement was just about replacement directors there would be no reason for delay, they would just be announced. IMO the delay suggests Kenwright is going, loose ends/legals causing the short delay so far.”
Understandable delay
Everton fans can be forgiven for feeling anxious about the delay in MSP’s 25% takeover, hence Esk’s latest tweet, but there certainly needed to be wholesale changes behind the scenes in order to leave space for the American investment firm to bring in the people they need.
Kenwright’s exit is arguably the more pressing out of all the Everton directors in all honesty, and what Moshiri was planning, trying to keep him on after his colleagues had already left is quite baffling considering much of the Everton fanbase simply have no clue what Kenwright’s role is at the club.
The Toffees have been associated with mediocrity for so long and such change among the hierarchy has long been a significant desire for a number of years now and brought further to a head when Rafael Benitez was controversially given the Everton job and then woefully replaced by Frank Lampard who also proved out of his depth.
Good things come to those who wait and the departures of the above-named directors certainly spell the beginning of a brand new era at Goodison Park which Everton fans should be encouraged by. Let’s hope Moshiri eventually follows them out the exit door also.