Are Everton fans unfairly blaming their long-standing chairman, Bill Kenwright, for the lack of progress at the once great club?

As another summer passes on Merseyside, what has now become par for the course in these parts is occurring yet again during another major football transfer window – Liverpool are seemingly linked with every player under the sun (remember that big yellow thing in the sky?), whilst their neighbours and derby rivals Everton, have hardly been linked with any. In fact, the Blue’s have hardly featured in any of the many major transfer gossip columns around the country – and sadly for their fans, it is not something new.

Lack of transfer action is something which the Evertonian’s have grown accustomed to over the years. Amongst the proud fans of this grand, historic club, frustration and restlessness has been growing for some time towards Kenwright and the board, and this is now in danger of turning into pure anger. Indeed the Chairman is already seen as a hate-figure, by many in the blue half of the city. His crime? That depends on who you talk to, and which blue camp you are sitting in.

The immense frustration has led to a number of ‘groups’ being formed by Everton fans, newest of which and perhaps most interesting is ‘The People’s Group’. Created with the aim of getting the national media to highlight what they see as ‘the failings of the board’, and in the hope of getting answers from them, they have garnered quite the following in a short space of time. Nearly 2,000 members joined the cause in just 10 days, mostly through the medium of social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. They’ve had their voice heard through the national media already; getting a slot on Talksport to promote their cause, and hope more media outlets will start to pick up their campaign and investigate what is going on at the club.

The People’s Group highlight that, to them, Evertons’s size and stature in the English game, should dictate they’re in a better position as a club – both sportingly, and economically, through marketing etc. They point out that when the Premier League was formed, only one club had won more top-flight titles (presently only three clubs still boast a better trophy haul) and no other English club has played more top-flight matches. They say since the Premier League began, their club has stagnated and various opportunities to progress have been missed, especially under the Kenwright regime, who has promised so much but delivered very little, if anything at all. Lack of investment, lack of signings, lack of a new stadium, this group has had enough of the apparent broken promises from the board and the vast majority of the supporters I’ve spoken to want some direct answers. However, as mentioned above, there is another camp…

You see, for all the apparent lack of progress at Everton, there are still some supporters who refuse to blame Kenwright, who is, by the way, a life-long Everton fan. They say, sarcastically, that his only crime is that he is not a billionaire sheikh. They say, as a fan, he has the best interests of the club at heart and doesn’t want to hand over the proud heritage of the club to just any foreign investor that comes along. Others say that Kenwright inherited a club that simply isn’t an attractive proposition for any would-be investor. After all, the club has only won one trophy in 24 years. Kenwright was also responsible for bringing manager David Moyes to the club, who is held in high-regard around the league.

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So, just who is to blame for the current situation at Everton? Are ‘The People’s Group’ right in blaming the current board? Is it all Kenwright’s doing? Is manager David Moyes’ partially to blame for lack of success due to his, sometimes questionable tactics? Should Everton’s historical record give their fans the right to demand they be in a better position? Or do Everton fans feel that the current Chairman is doing a remarkable job, and that a minority are being ungrateful, as other clubs have been in drastically worse positions than the club from Goodison Park? Let the debate commence…

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