Some of the stories from Harry Harris' upcoming publication The Black Book surround the late Everton owner Bill Kenwright
Wayne Rooney of Everton with manager David Moyes (right) and deputy chairman Bill Kenwright (left) at Goodison Park following the signing of his first professional contract on January 17, 2003
Wayne Rooney of Everton with manager David Moyes (right) and deputy chairman Bill Kenwright (left) at Goodison Park following the signing of his first professional contract on January 17, 2003(Image: Getty Images)
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A former national journalist has recalled a couple of tales relating to the late Everton owner Bill Kenwright - including the inside story of Wayne Rooney’s controversial transfer to Manchester United.
With what is his 100th publication, Harry Harris' The Black Book: Secrets from the Heart of Football is an eyewitness history of more than 50 years of football, revealing the stories behind the stories.
Harris told the ECHO: “When I started out in journalism, there was no Google, no mobile, no email, no social media and certainly no WhatsApp. If you wanted a story, you had to find somebody who knew something – and persuade them to tell you.
“Your contacts were everything. Mine eventually filled what became my ‘Black Book’: players, managers, chairmen, agents, administrators, lawyers and all manner of people operating around the edges of football.
“Some became friends. Others probably dreaded seeing my number appear on their phone.
“That ‘Black Book’ helped sustain me through five decades of sports journalism and provided the inspiration for the title of my 100th football book, The Black Book: Secrets from the Heart of Football. I was fortunate enough to work through what now seems like another world, that started with hot metal and actual typewriters!
“As chief football writer of the Daily Mirror for more than 18 years, followed by eight at the Daily Express, and a couple more with ESPNSoccernet, I travelled the world chasing stories. I covered five World Cups and watched the football media grow from a relatively small group of reporters who knew the players and managers personally into the enormous global industry it is today.
“The methods changed. The essential ingredient didn’t... people. A telephone number was useful. Trust was priceless.
“That was how I learned Roy Keane had walked out of the Republic of Ireland camp before the 2002 World Cup. It was how I discovered Newcastle United had appointed Ruud Gullit before Kenny Dalglish knew he had been sacked, and that Paul Merson was hooked on cocaine and booze.
“It was how I found myself investigating people as formidable as Ken Bates, Terry Venables and ‘Big Sam’ Allardyce, and how I was invited to the homes of the good and the great, such as Lord Sugar.”
The 74-year-old added: “Sometimes I wasn’t merely reporting events. I became a participant in them.
“I persuaded Robert Maxwell to offer Johan Cruyff the job as Oxford United manager while I was in the room with them both. I interviewed Diego Maradona in the back seat of Osvaldo Ardiles’ car while George Best asked me to help him remember enough of his football career to write his final book.
“There were arguments, threats of legal action, and occasions when people would have been delighted never to hear from me again. There were also extraordinary friendships.
“The photographs in The Black Book remind me how privileged I was to get so close to the people making football history. Pelé, Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles, Bobby Robson, Ruud Gullit, Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan, Sir Alex, Arsene and countless others were not images on a screen.
“They were people you telephoned, met, questioned and occasionally annoyed. “Journalism is inevitably different now. A story can travel around the world before a reporter has finished making the second telephone call.
Harry Harris has written The Black Book: Secrets from the Heart of Football
Harry Harris has written The Black Book: Secrets from the Heart of Football
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“Information is everywhere. Yet information and journalism aren’t necessarily the same thing. The best stories still come from asking the right question of the right person and having that information to yourself – and knowing whether you can believe the answer. Perhaps that is why I finally decided to write The Black Book.
“For years, I kept many of these stories to myself. Some involved confidences that couldn’t be broken at the time.
“Others needed distance before they could properly be told. Now, after five decades, I can tell them – and I’ve still got the old, battered, original ‘Black Book.’”
Extract from The Black Book on Wayne Rooney’s transfer from Everton to Manchester United in 2004
My late friend Danny Fullbrook and I wrote a biography of Wayne Rooney when he was only eighteen. It sounded ridiculous.
Yet Wayne had already made his Everton debut at sixteen, announced himself with one of the great Premier League goals, become an England international, and attracted Manchester United.
I lived through virtually the entire transfer.
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright was a close friend and trusted me with extraordinary detail as negotiations progressed. The story produced a succession of Mirror exclusives, but my strongest memory is not of the headlines. It is of Bill crying.
He adored Everton and loved Rooney. On the day the £25.6million transfer was completed, he talked me through the final hours in tears. Bill knew the fee was too substantial for Everton to refuse, but losing Wayne felt like losing part of the club.
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright hugs Wayne Rooney
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright hugs Wayne Rooney
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He also admitted that he had always suspected Rooney would eventually end up at Old Trafford.
For a reporter, it was an extraordinary position: watching one of English football’s largest transfers from inside the room while the selling chairman shared both the negotiations and the grief.
Our decision to write Rooney’s story at eighteen soon looked rather less premature. Shortly afterwards, he signed a reported £5m, five-book contract with HarperCollins. Danny and I had simply arrived first.
Extract from The Black Book on Sir Philip Green and Bill Kenwright
Robert Earl would have loved to own Tottenham. Instead, he invested in Everton alongside his friend Bill Kenwright and built an international business around Planet Hollywood.
Robert introduced me to his right-hand man, Alex Garland, which led to several book launches and other projects at Planet Hollywood. Another Spurs supporter operating quietly behind major football deals was Sir Philip Green.
Before the collapse of BHS damaged his reputation, Philip was one of Britain’s wealthiest and most powerful businessmen. Less well known was his role as an unofficial intermediary within football.
He had known Irving Scholar from their early business careers, was close to Kenwright, helped bring Earl into Everton, and operated behind the scenes during Wayne Rooney’s move to Manchester United.
Philip knew Sir Alex Ferguson, Pini Zahavi, and many of the other figures capable of making major deals happen. I eventually experienced his effectiveness personally.
My relationship with Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond had deteriorated after he ordered me to retreat from investigations into football bungs.
I wanted the paper to defend the journalism. Desmond preferred the cheaper option of settling legal disputes.
Eventually, we began negotiating my departure. Then Desmond telephoned from his yacht, where he was with Philip and Bill Kenwright.
Bill Kenwright and Philip Green attend the Dorchester Bar launch party at the Dorchester hotel on June 27, 2006
Bill Kenwright and Philip Green attend the Dorchester Bar launch party at the Dorchester hotel on June 27, 2006(Image: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)
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Bill was receiving fierce criticism from some Everton supporters. Would I write a favourable article supporting him?
I would gladly have interviewed Bill and allowed him to answer his critics, but there was one obvious complication. “What about the fact you’re trying to get rid of me?” Desmond paused. “I’ll call you back.”
When he did, apparently beyond the hearing of his companions, he told me to arrange a meeting and promised we would sort everything out. I set off for the Express.
On the way, I learned Desmond had changed his mind. The meeting was cancelled.
My lawyers decided the proprietor asking me to write another major article while trying to dispense with my services strengthened my negotiating position. The price rose.
Desmond was not amused. Then Sir Philip telephoned, his message was part advice, part warning.
Do not push Richard too far. Once Desmond dug in, Philip said, he would proceed to court, which might not be good for either side.
Philip offered to mediate. I told him what settlement I would accept, he obtained it.
The payment enabled me to clear my mortgage. So, thank you, Richard.
Philip’s intervention demonstrated why people such as Kenwright trusted him. He understood powerful personalities, knew how to speak to them, and could identify the point at which apparently irreconcilable sides might do business.
There are other stories I could tell about the tempers and language surrounding some of those figures but I won’t. Even The Black Book has limits.
Harry Harris’ The Black Book: Secrets from the Heart of Football is published on November 1. You can click here to order a copy.