EVERTON POWER GAME: WHAT IF GRANTCHESTER CAME BACK?
By
Mickey Blue Eyes.

He’s never really been away of course. The last time I looked he still owned about 2,800 shares in Everton Football Club though he isn’t on the board of directors. Independent shareholders own about 5,600 shares out of a total 35,000. Thus the combination of non board-owned shares of 8,400 represents less than a mere twenty five percent. Since the board of directors own the other seventy five percent it can be seen any minor shares dealings have to be carried out with a sense of reality. In a voting sense, directors Philip Carter and Keith Tamlin are unimportant except for nuisance value.

Tiresome rumours persist Grantchester has had preliminary talks with Bill Kenwright about taking a more active role on the board and in financing the club. I have no idea if the rumours are correct or not, so let’s speculate.

What if he came back and basically took charge of the situation? Would it make any real difference? Is he anything more than a rich dilettante with no motivation or talent for restoring our fortunes? If his intentions and his abilities are any good why hasn’t he simply bought the club out of his extensive personal wealth? After all, the combined wealth of the current board of directors hardly scratches the surface of the financial power available to him.

Valuations are always a matter of opinion since it involves your personal notion of worth. Therefore the valuation of Everton Football Club will come down to precisely how much someone wants to buy it. The most bandied about figure is about £30 million plus debts. Your guess of its accuracy is as good as anyone else’s. Example: recently, Ken Bates, long term footy spiv and ex-Chelsea, now says they paid far too much for Joe Cole and Scott Parker. Of course they wouldn’t be the first to have such a charge leveled against them. It has been a constant factor since the adoption of professionalism in the game. Every time the record transfer fee escalates we get the same sort of talk.

The first thing to get clear is that mere injection of lots of cash guarantees nothing, nor does all the tedious stuff about “running the club better,” however much we need both. There are plenty of examples to show why. Those who understand this won’t need to see it repeated here. Those who don’t understand it had better get off their backsides and apply some rational thinking instead of adding to the poisoned personalized muck of The Melledrew Tendency. If people hate the present board of directors or any of the individuals thereon then it would be nice if they could keep such claptrap to their private toilet. The rest of us have no time for that nonsense.

I can only speak for myself when I say I don’t hate the current board or anyone on it. I doubt if anyone except Paul (no football interest or knowledge) Gregg is making any money out of the situation. Even then I guess he’s making a marginal profits figure out of design consultants fees paid for the Kings Dock project by re-use of design data. Which, if true, amounts to peanuts. In fact if anything at all is being squeezed out of the finances by True Blue Holdings (Paul/Anita Gregg, Bill Kenwright and his companies, Jon Woods and his company, and Arthur Abercromby) then it can only be in the alleged area of long term acquisition being paid for by the club itself. That is, us fans. Which – if the allegation is correct – leaves TBH in the position of making sure they aren’t left with a pup to sell. It isn’t in their own financial interests since they initially paid millions to acquire the club in the first place. More likely most of them have simply fallen for the banality of power. There’s nothing at all unusual in this. Long ago Bertrand Russell taught us power was the real motivator of human existence, not money, not sex, not politics. Beware those who claim altruism as their only motivation. Don’t believe them.

A perfect example of this was the purchase and sale of Celtic Football Club by Fergus McCann. As Celtic fan Sean Hammill recently illustrated, McCann made it clear he wasn’t buying in because he wanted a personal plaything. He said he wanted to make money by the time he left. But in return he promised Celtic would have a better stadium and a better team and the fans would have the chance to own the majority of the club. He delivered on his promises and made millions when he left. In the current socioeconomic climate only a wealthy man could carry out such an exercise. Task completed, promises honoured. Since he left, the situation has deteriorated into a shareholders undignified scramble for dividends and/or profits. If Celtic fans are not careful they could lose all their gains in the horrible anarchy of profits-chasing with no other benefit promised or even conceived.

If fans are brutally honest with themselves there is little or no chance of any real change in the way football clubs are owned or administered in the immediate future, not until they themselves get better organized and determined. By “administered” I don’t mean whether the club shop is open on Christmas Eve or whether we sell more designer goods or any of the associated bricabrac or whether the accounts are neater or even whether we buy more shares or not. That is the kind of technical expertise which can always be hired in. I mean the way we look after the game, the way we ensure there is something TRULY worth having for the future, the way we provide a healthy spectacle and limit the damage of spivs on and off the pitch, the way we provide playing opportunities at every level for youngsters with enough of that admirable quality.

If Grantchester is to buy control then his most likely source of shares is either Paul Gregg or Bill Kenwright, perhaps both. Rumours claim Kenwright has an option to buy Gregg’s shares if he sells. What is less clear is where he would get the money for the kind of football transaction the financial institutions long ago identified as very high risk. Apparently he and Woods are already indebted to Gregg for the original purchase.

Even a cursory glance at the situation identifies Gregg as the most likely seller. I suspect he is as much fed up with his purchase as his self-admitted little knowledge of football. Whatever Kenwright’s faults, and they are at least on a par with those who obviously and ludicrously hate him, he is an Evertonian right through. It is likely the experience of ownership has been every bit as bad for him as his friend David Dein suggested it would be. Given his mercurial temperament, anything could happen. But not to the point where he endangers the bulk of his personal wealth put into the club. And maybe that is where the Grantchester rumours spring from.

The original rumour – right or wrong, your guess is as good as mine – is that his family weren’t enamoured of the True Blue Holdings proposals and refused to engage constructive discussion. Again according to the stories, this created extreme apathy between him and Bill Kenwright. Then again, if the Moores family were interested in holding on to Everton Football Club why did they sell in the first place? They had plenty of opportunity to retain control or even reacquire when Johnson sold out. In the circumstances we are right to be suspicious even if the re-entry rumours are true. What could have brought about such a change of mind? Was it maybe because it has finally dawned on Bill Kenwright that present circumstances are even more difficult than previously envisaged, and he HAD to approach Grantchester? That Paul Gregg’s demands for changes (before he would inject any more capital) did not suit him? Once again the rumours claim Gregg wants Philip Carter and Michael Dunford out and replaced with his own nominees. If so, could you as a fan trust the circumstances then in place?

The fact is Lord Grantchester is a farmer and has no special knowledge of football or how to run a football club. All he has is money and that guarantees little but an ability to underwrite further loans. This was the task Paul Gregg failed to perform when he was asked to sign a guarantee for £30 million and thus single handedly torpedoed the Kings Dock project. Allegedly Gregg is the one truly successful businessman on the board and he failed to deliver when it came to the crunch. Why should anyone believe Grantchester could do any better? After all Abramovich has twice as much money as he, and has delivered nothing of any note at Chelsea.

Where it would get interesting is if Grantchester did indeed return to the fold via shares bought from Paul Gregg, brokered by Bill Kenwright. Nobody doubts Grantchester’s credentials as an Evertonian, which means in theory the club would be in the hands of people the fans could trust. Take it a step further, suppose Philip Carter and Michael Dunford were then moved sideways into the positions of Club President and freelance consultant respectively. Neither position would affect the day-to-day running of the club. Grantchester could then become chairman and Bill Kenwright would be free to get on with restoring his worryingly affected theatre impresario business. A new CEO could be appointed and thus pull the rug from under the Dunford-haters, though doubtless such poisoned mentalities could find someone else to vent their hatred against.

Nobody should underestimate recent behind the scenes changes at the club. Rumours say the whole marketing system is now firmly in the hands of Andy Hosie with a mandate to get the turnover to something akin to £60 million. Of course we are starting from a low base so there may be some short term spectacular gains in that area. But if the rumoured target figure is true he has a lot of hard work to do to get anywhere near. Still, anything which can be done to eliminate shirts sales and shop opening hours as a topic of conversation has to have our support. Modern circumstances applying, there will have to be attention to the so-called corporate entertainment set up. Of course for that to be satisfactory we desperately need a new stadium. Until then we will have make do and mend measures.

Yet another rumour the club could sensibly squash is the idea that messrs. Carter and Dunford continue to ask Liverpool Football Club to provide our half of funds for a proposed shared stadium. If true, it is difficult to believe this approach has been made without the knowledge of the full board of directors. And if that is the case then those culpable should expect and get a severe rogering at the next Annual General Meeting. Quite apart from the Premiership Rules on such matters, I doubt if both sets of fans would stand for it.

In my view mithering on about who you hate on the board of directors or in the administrative structure is virtually useless. By all means replace inefficiency but don’t fool yourself that will turn playing fortunes around. That lies firmly in the hands of David Moyes and his players, some of whom are bound to move on at the end of the current season. With little money in the transfer pot David Moyes will be hard put to re-create the minor miracle of three of his last four signings. That is the REALITY of the situation, palatable or not.

Given all of this, I doubt even the long-rumoured return of Grantchester would make much short term difference, except to the year end balance sheet. He’s had his chance and blown it either through disinterest or lack of determination, though it would be nice if he could find it in himself to change his mind.

Wayne Rooney potentially would make a much bigger difference. But then he’s an eighteen years old Evertonian player from Croxteth. What does he know about selling shirts, shares or whining about shop opening hours, or telling someone how much he hates Philip Carter or Michael Dunford or the man who sells the programmes? He’s too busy trying to play well and score as often as he can. And he’s a breath of fresh air long after you’ve got the stink of rumour and spivs out of your hair. (29/03/04)

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