Source: Liverpool_Echo
BARRY HORNE: Why Everton fans should pay tribute to Bill Kenwright
WHILST very few people will be overly concerned that Portsmouth's players were late getting paid again last month, the perilous state of the club should stand as a salutary warning.[LNB]The sorry saga of Leeds United in recent years is a slightly different tale in that the club overstretched itself 'chasing the dream.'[LNB]There was clearly mismanagement and culpability, although not, I suspect, on the same scale that must have occurred at Portsmouth.[LNB]The club has been passed around between a variety of owners and people are quite rightly questioning the applic- ation of the Premier League's fit and proper persons test.[LNB]It would appear to be the case that the people charged with running the club have been happy to welcome anyone with a vaguely Middle Eastern sounding name and a flashy watch into the boardroom as owners.[LNB]Yet no-one has ever questioned the integrity or acumen of the people who have been at the club throughout this turbulent time and who are presumably responsible for signing off all the paperwork - including transferring ownership of the club, as well, of course, as sanctioning transfers and players' wages.[LNB]I realise Portsmouth don't get the biggest crowds, but they have been receiving Premier League money for the last seven years, as well as winning the FA Cup.[LNB]When I read in the week that John Utaka's wages were £80,000 a week, I thought that perhaps the fit and proper person's test might be applied not just to new owners' of clubs.[LNB]I can clearly remem- ber a vocifer-ous minority of Everton fans being critical of Bill Kenwright for not finding new owners or investors for Everton.
