Everton scapegoat wrong man as Newcastle United ownership slammed by Oliver Holt
Everton fans should be thankful Bill Kenwright didn’t sell the soul of the club in the same way Newcastle United did, according to columnist Oliver Holt.
Kenwright died last week at the age of 78 after being on the board at Goodison Park from 1989 all the way until his death.
However, the latter stages of Kenwright’s time with the Blues was fraught with protests that led to him being unable to attend matches.
Holt believes Everton fans made a scapegoat out of the club’s late chairman, adding the supporters are lucky he never did anything that led to what happened at Newcastle United with Saudi Arabia effectively owning the Tyneside club.
Writing for the Scottish Daily Mail on Tuesday (31 October, page 64), Holt said: “It was a great grief to him that he could not bring the kid of success to Everton he and the fans craved. No one gives him credit for it but it was his triumph that he kept the club in the Premier League when plenty of other big clubs fells by the wayside and down the divisions.
“He preserved Everton’s soul, too. Maybe some supporters would rather the club had sold that soul, like Newcastle United, to a nation state. Everton have not done that and, for all their troubles, there is a worth to that which has untold value.
“It is hard not to feel angry about the way he was treated by supporters but that is the way football is now. It is not about Everton supporters, either. They are hardly alone in meeting out that kind of treatment. They have a right to protest, too. It is just that, with Bill, it was hard to escape the conclusion they were looking for a scapegoat and they picked the wrong man.”
Kenwright – Everton legend?
It’s fair to say that the latter spell of Kenwright’s time on the Everton board didn’t go anywhere near as he would have hoped it too.
Ultimately, he tried his best to steer the club in the right direction but reports have suggested over the years that Farhad Moshiri always looked to overrule him and do what he wanted to do despite having a lot less experience in the sport.
If Kenwright called the shots at Goodison over the last five years, would there be planes flying over Goodison calling for him to be axed from the board? Or would there be a statue being built of him at the new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium?
There’s an argument to say that Kenwright maybe outstayed his welcome on the club’s board too but ultimately, this is a man who lived and breathed Everton Football Club and would never do any harm to it.
He genuinely felt that it was better for him to stay on than to leave.
We’ll never know if that was the right approach or not but we will always be thankful for what Kenwright did for Evertonians.
In other Everton news, a “very alarming” update has emerged on the 777 takeover.