Bill Kenwright obituary: Everton chairman's 'sporting love story with an unhappy ending'

25th Oct 2023 | Source: BBC

Bill Kenwright had been on the board at Everton since 1989

Bill Kenwright, who has died aged 78, was the lifelong Everton fan who made the journey from Goodison Park's infamous 'Boys' Pen' to the boardroom as chairman and owner of the club.

His passion for Everton was unquestionable but it was a sporting love story with an unhappy ending as the club plunged into footballing and financial crisis under the ownership of Farhad Moshiri, with Kenwright remaining as chairman in his latter years.

Even those of us who have been critical of his time at Goodison Park could never dispute that, along with the theatre and those closest to him, Everton was a great love of Kenwright's life. He was desperate for Everton to regain their place among the Premier League elite.

As an influential and highly successful West End impresario, Kenwright loved a good tale with a dash of romance, but his ambitions that his time as Everton chairman would write the perfect storyline with a first trophy since the FA Cup win in 1995 never materialised.

In an open letter to fans last season, the hurt that Kenwright and his then fellow board members felt at being unable to attend games at Goodison Park since January - citing security concerns - was clear. It was also an indication of how he had become an increasingly divisive figure among supporters throughout the course of his chairmanship.

Journey to the boardroom

Kenwright was labelled 'The Romantic Evertonian' by close friend and retail magnate Sir Philip Green - a football relationship that began, as he was always happy to reveal, with a journey to Goodison Park on the handlebars of his uncle's bicycle.

He found a hero in Everton's buccaneering striker Dave Hickson who, Kenwright stated, "made me dare to dream".

When Kenwright assumed heartthrob status in the 1960s as the Coronation Street character Gordon Clegg, he was often seen in the directors' box and was overjoyed to be asked to join Everton's board in 1989.

Kenwright made his first attempt to buy Everton in September 1993 following the death of the great Merseyside philanthropist and businessman Sir John Moores, who had owned the club since the 1960s.

He led a five-man consortium but eventually stepped aside for the more affluent former Tranmere Rovers chairman Peter Johnson, a selfless move Kenwright believed would be of more long-term benefit.

Everton won that FA Cup under Johnson in 1995, still the club's last trophy, but when his reign descended into chaos, with fan idol Duncan Ferguson sold to Newcastle United without manager Walter Smith's knowledge in November 1998, Kenwright moved again.

He concluded a deal late on Christmas Eve 1999 with a successful £20m bid to buy a 68% majority share from Johnson.

Kenwright reinstated Sir Philip Carter, who had overseen Everton's mid-1980s glory years, as chairman and formed a close relationship with Smith - but the period was marked by financial difficulties in the post-Johnson era as they struggled to rebuild.

Bill Kenwright with Wayne Rooney, a fellow Evertonian who he had watched come through the ranks

'Six of the worst words in the English language'

With his theatrical background, Kenwright was never short of a colourful quote, such as one given to this journalist when I interviewed him for the BBC following Nick Barmby's controversial move from Everton to Liverpool.

Kenwright was personally wounded as he had written to England manager Kevin Keegan pressing the midfielder's claims, only for the player to then stall over a new contract before asking to move to Anfield.

He told me: "He had used six of the worst words in the English language as far as Everton fans are concerned. He has said: 'I want to play for Liverpool'."

Shortly after the conversation, Kenwright rang back, worried he had been over-emotional using such a colourful phrase and it may be seen as provocative. However, he quickly agreed it was exactly what Everton supporters, feeling betrayed by Barmby, would be saying themselves.

Kenwright would always fight his corner passionately when he felt he had been wronged.

He sent me a lengthy, very angry letter accusing me of making life difficult for him in contract negotiations when I wrote a piece for the Liverpool Echo suggesting young defender Michael Ball had every right to demand a deal as lucrative as the one he had just handed to veteran striker Kevin Campbell.

We spoke. He listened to my side of the argument with great respect and I listened to his - but what had previously been a cordial relationship never recovered.

Bill Kenwright with Roberto Martinez after he was announced as manager in 2013

Kenwright and the managers

It was with a heavy heart that Kenwright sacked Smith, who had fought against long financial odds with expertise and wonderful good humour, in March 2002, leading to the stability and progress of the David Moyes era.

Their close partnership lasted 11 years, with Everton reaching the Champions League qualifying stage in 2005, despite selling brilliant teenager Wayne Rooney to Manchester United for £27m the year before.

Moyes has always been lavish in heartfelt praise for the support he received from Kenwright, the chairman equally grateful for the Scot's work at the club without vast transfer funds at his disposal.

Kenwright was fiercely loyal to his manager, as he was to so many in his life, and certainly the feeling was mutual when it came to Moyes.

Kenwright's heart was never far from his sleeve, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson revealing a tearful Everton chairman phoned his mother while they were negotiating the deal for the prodigy Rooney to move to Old Trafford.

When Moyes left for Manchester United in 2013, Kenwright turned to Wigan Athletic's FA Cup-winning manager Roberto Martinez - but after an outstanding first season in which Everton finished fifth, it all started to turn sour for club and chairman.

Troubled times off the field

Kenwright was often accused by fans of missing the opportunity to move Everton forward by failing to find a benefactor to increase the club's financial firepower to a level nearer to their rivals.

He was always insistent he was looking "24/7" for that elusive billionaire. He simply could not locate the right buyer.

Kenwright finally found Farhad Moshiri only for, with bitter irony, the club's fortunes to slide into sharp decline despite in excess of £500m being lavished on the squad under a succession of managers.

Attempts to move Everton away from Goodison Park also failed to come to fruition until the final years of Kenwright's tenure, with the new stadium currently being built at Bramley Moore Dock.

In April 2003, Everton could not come up with a reported £30m share for a state-of-the-art £155m stadium in the spectacular setting of King's Dock on the Mersey waterfront.

A second attempt ended in bitterness in November 2009 when a proposed £400m development, which would have included the construction of a retail park and a 50,000-seater stadium, was rejected by the government because of concerns about its impact on the local community.

Amid all the financial chaos of Moshiri's reign, with Kenwright as chairman throughout, one positive is the sight of that magnificent new Everton home emerging on the banks of the Mersey.

In February 2016, Moshiri bought a 49.9% stake but instead of heralding the long-awaited new era of riches and success, Everton entered a period of instability and managerial churn with a ruinous boardroom policy which, sadly for Kenwright and his many admirers within the game, meant his time at the club concluded amid rancour.

Martinez was sacked, as was his successor Ronald Koeman before the same fate befell Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Rafael Benitez and Frank Lampard. The coup of capturing legendary Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti was cut short when he returned to Real Madrid.

Off the field, Kenwright won widespread acclaim from all on Merseyside for an emotion-charged speech at the Hillsborough Memorial Service at Anfield in 2013.

Speaking in front of The Kop, addressing the campaign for justice fought by the loved ones of those who died at Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, Kenwright said: "They picked on the wrong city - and the picked on the wrong mums."

Kenwright always longed to be reunited with Moyes but the cards never fell. The closest they came to a reunion was when Moyes effectively had the Everton manager's job once more until Ancelotti suddenly became available after his sacking by Napoli in December 2019 and Moshiri made a move for what he always wanted - namely his 'Hollywood' manager.

Kenwright never saw current incumbent Sean Dyche take charge of a home game because he was appointed shortly after he and the rest of Everton's board announced they would not be attending matches at Goodison Park.

He had been suffering from ill health for some time, with Everton announcing on 12 October that a cancerous tumour had been removed from his liver. He then had to spend "a prolonged period in an intensive care unit" following complications.

The statement said Kenwright, had "worked hard" alongside Moshiri "right up until the day of the procedure" to help facilitate a proposed takeover by American investment fund 777 Partners, who had agreed a deal for the owner's 94% stake in Everton.

It would have been Kenwright's dearest wish for his own health and Everton's parlous situation to stabilise to allow him to return to his beloved Goodison Park. Sadly, it was not to be.