DOMINIC KING: It broke his heart to be told to stay away from Everton, but Bill Kenwright is the man who couldn’t let go

• Everton chairman Bill Kenwright has tragically passed away at the age of 78
• Kenwright was a man with values, proud of his family and so proud to be a Blue 
• It broke his heart to be told to stay away, but he loved Everton right to the end 

The first place to start is the final phone call. It was early January and a tempest was roaring around Everton. It was late, approaching midnight, but the screen was flashing “private number” – only one person was going to be on the other end of the line.

‘Dominic, it’s Bill.’

That’s how he started every conversation we’d had since our first introduction 18 years earlier, in August 2005. I’d been appointed the Liverpool Echo’s Everton reporter and, on my second day, a meeting with Bill Kenwright had been arranged, fittingly, in Goodison Park’s Chairman’s Lounge.

‘You’ve been working in Manchester but you come from Liverpool,’ were his first words. ‘So… who do you support?’

Quick thinking was needed otherwise we were about to get off on the worst possible footing. I explained allegiances had nothing to do with it. I told him I was thrilled to have a job at the paper I’d grown up reading and honoured to have the responsibility of covering a wonderful club.

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright has tragically passed away at the age of 78 

Kenwright (left – pictured upon Roberto Martinez’s unveiling as Everton manager in 2013) was a boyhood blue and loved them right to the very end

It cut no ice. He’d already worked it out.

‘A Red!’ he exclaimed. ‘A Red! I don’t believe it! How on earth am I going to work with you!?’

We found a way. Football is a fiendish industry in which to maintain relationships and it would be disingenuous to say everything with Kenwright was plain-sailing. Merseyside is a unique place to work, with passions and emotions always bubbling away, plenty of late night calls had ended in rows. He could go months without speaking after them.

Kenwright had a way with his words. He used them colourfully and powerfully, never more so than at the 24th Hillsborough Memorial Service in 2013 when he told the world those who had distorted what had happened on April 15, 1989 they had: “picked on the wrong city – and picked on the wrong mums.”

But this night in January, his tone was different. Everton had lost at home to Brighton 24 hours earlier, results were spiralling for Frank Lampard but the main focus for opprobrium was Kenwright. The bitterness towards him at the end of that 4-1 defeat had reached new levels.

Before we started to speak, I had one question for him: why on earth are you carrying on?

‘Because, son,’ he said. ‘You couldn’t imagine what it would be like if I didn’t.’

Plenty will read that and throw their arms up. Kenwright, in the eyes of many, became a symbol for broken dreams and the failings of a once proud institution. They called him “Billy Liar”, accused him of holding the club back and being more concerned with his own image than Everton.

Kenwright, who passed away, aged 78, on Monday evening, had been dealing with a number of health issues for a period of time. Unfortunately earlier this summer, the situation became more serious, prompting the club to issue in a statement a few weeks ago.

Illness was the only thing that could stop him working for Everton and, while he felt active in January, he was so determined to keep pressing ahead to try and restore balance. He loved Everton to a fault and his biggest lapse in judgement was staying on too long.

He was a man with values, proud of his family, proud of his city and so proud to be a Blue

Kenwright sold his majority stake in Everton to Farhad Moshiri in 2016 but remained chairman

There was a point, after major shareholder Farhad Moshiri appointed Rafa Benitez in June 2021, when he considered resigning. He was vehemently against the recruitment of the former Liverpool boss decision, implored Moshiri not to make it. In hindsight, he should have walked away then.

That would have been better than how things miserably ended last season, with him unable to attend Everton home games – along with other executives Denise Barret-Baxendale, Graeme Sharp and Grant Ingles – due to concerns for their safety.

When Kenwright was told stay away from the Southampton game on January 14, it broke his heart. Goodison was his happy place, a boy he grew up idolising ‘The Cannonball Kid’ Dave Hickson; he stood on the Gwladys Street and hoped one day he’d be able to afford a seat in the Main Stand.

‘I’d get two buses and a tram to Goodison and I’d watch my all-time hero and I felt safe,’ he told Mail Sport in September 2011.

The bitter irony in that line. It often gets forgotten how wretchedly Everton had been run under Peter Johnson before Kenwright took full control of the club in January 2000, raising the £20million by any means possible – even guaranteeing his house – after 14 months of negotiating.

It was Kenwright’s dream for Everton, under his watch, to follow in the footsteps of the great teams of the 1960s and 1980s and when he appointed David Moyes in March 2002, he was adamant he had found the man to make it happen.

Moyes went for his interview at Kenwright’s house in London and agreed to take on the challenge over a late night plate of eggs on toast, within 20 minutes of walking through the door. Over the next 11 years, they did all they could to make in-roads to what was becoming a closed shop.

Everton under Moyes and Kenwright were a progressive club, fiercely ambitious: the misery of the last six years shouldn’t mask that period. Moyes got Everton into the top four, secured European qualification four times and took them to an FA Cup final in 2009.

‘I do think Everton have the neutral support,’ Kenwright said on the eve of that trip to Wembley, where they faced Chelsea. ‘Wherever I go, if it’s at the theatre people will be saying: “Mr Kenwright? Win.” If I’m out for a meal with Jenny (Seagrove), they’re saying: “Good luck!”

‘If I’m in HMV on a Sunday buying, my 1950s rock and roll records, people will be doing the same. The other day I was looking at an Everly Brothers compilation and a guy came up and said: ‘You’re him – not Don Everly, you’re the chairman of Everton!”

Everton under David Moyes and Kenwright were a progressive club and one on the up

When he was forced to stay away from home games for safety reasons, it broke his heart

‘He followed me round the shop, like a stalker, and all to say good luck! Even the cabbies driving along, who aren’t Evertonians, are tooting their horns and saying all the best. There’s a buzz towards Everton in this final. This is beyond my wildest dreams.’

To be around the club for that decade, you could see a common goal. Fans behind players, manager and chairman working in tandem. There was spirit, values and desire. They didn’t always get everything right – in life, who does? – but the intentions were clear.

Everton fought tooth and nail to make a mark when Sir Alex Ferguson was guiding Manchester United, peak Jose Mourinho was at Chelsea and Arsene Wenger was Arsenal’s manager; Manchester City were also emerging with ferocity.

But Everton had something that connected with everyone. That stadium with its atmosphere, the intensity of the fans, it was on the cusp of lift off but the thing that was supposed to take it to the next level – Moshiri’s arrival – sent it into reverse. This isn’t the moment to go into reasons why.

What can be said is that the last two seasons, with those soul-destroying fights against relegation, left him hollow. Watching from afar, there were plenty of people at other Premier League clubs bewildered as to why Kenwright was always in the line of fire.

The reason? Those who knew him knew what he was: a man with values, a raconteur, proud of his family, proud of his city and so proud to be a Blue. He loved them so much, he loved them to the very end.

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