EXCLUSIVE: Former Everton player Billy Kenny tells the ECHO how he also had his pick of Liverpool and Manchester United as a teenager
Former Everton player Billy Kenny stands outside Goodison Park
Former Everton player Billy Kenny stands outside Goodison Park(Image: Andy Stenning Daily Mirror)
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Lifelong Evertonian and former home-grown hero Billy Kenny is arguably the football’s biggest wasted talent of the Premier League era. But now he is telling his own story, revealing how Liverpool and Manchester United were both desperate to sign him ahead of his beloved Blues.
A decade before Wayne Rooney came along at Goodison Park, Kenny was the son of an Everton player from the 1970s of the same name and made his Premier League debut in the inaugural season of England’s new-look top flight, in a 1-1 draw at home to Coventry City on October 17 1992.
Less than two months later, the teenager was named man-of-the-match as the Blues recorded a 2-1 comeback win over Liverpool in the Merseyside derby, and having been handed a new contract, he seemingly had the world at his feet. However, a tragic and rapid decline into drink and drug abuse saw him sacked by Everton in 1994 after a mere 23 appearances and one goal.
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Comeback attempts for the England Under-21 international at Oldham Athletic and Barrow proved short-lived and he was out of the game completely by his early 20s. With his addiction issues and continued turmoil in his personal life, Kenny would also have spells inside prison.
Citing the death of his beloved mother Bella as the watershed moment which prompted him to finally turn his life around and achieve sobriety again after the best part of three decades of mayhem which left him admitting that he was lucky to still be alive himself, Kenny, now 53, is opening up on his tumultuous journey with his book.
Written with help from the Guardian’s Jamie Fahey, it is titled The Goodison Gazza, after the nicknamed bestowed on Kenny by team-mate Peter Beardsley, who had played alongside Paul Gascoigne at Newcastle United. At the time, it was meant as a positive moniker because of the youngster’s similarities to England’s Italia ‘90 World Cup hero as a dynamic midfielder but both have since suffered badly with their off-the-field demons.
Appearing on a special edition of the Royal Blue podcast, Kenny, who grew up on Burlington Street, off Scotland Road, recalled just how highly rated he was as a schoolboy protégé with a pair of now Scottish footballing knights, Sir Kenny Dalglish of Liverpool and Sir Alex Ferguson of Man United, both courting his signature before he ultimately chose his club, Everton.
He told the ECHO: “I was picked to represent Liverpool schoolboys and that’s when all the scouts would come in. I’d be playing and coming off the pitch and my dad would be with a different scout every Saturday, whether that was someone with a United, Liverpool or Everton coat on.
“There was Sid Benson, Jim Aspinall and Eric Harrison and I’d see them all at every game. My dad said: ‘You’re not signing for anyone yet’, so I was probably the last schoolboy to sign for anyone because my dad was telling me: 'You’re too young, have a look around first’.
“I did. I went to all these good clubs, getting loads of boots, trackies and coats – I loved it, just going around. When I was 16, leaving school, it was time to make my mind up.
“I was possessed. I needed to play for Everton, you know what I mean, it was my dream.
“So, when it came to it, it was easy, it wasn’t hard. Although I loved it at United and Liverpool because they treated me and my family so well - Kenny Dalglish was great with me and Alex Ferguson... I never really saw Howard Kendall to be honest.
“I was getting dealt with at Everton by Graham Smith, the youth development officer, who was a lovely fella as well. I never saw Howard Kendall but that wasn’t going to stop me either.
“I was nuts about Everton and I’m still nuts about Everton today. It never leaves you, does it?”
Billy Kenny was to be Everton's biggest prospect in 1992
Billy Kenny during his days playing for Everton(Image: Action Images)
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A testament to the level of potential that Kenny possessed is that he would regularly hold his own against a player who went on to make 963 appearances for Manchester United, winning 13 Premier League titles, four FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions Leagues.
He said: “I had some cracking games against Ryan Giggs, or Ryan Wilson as he was called at the time. Salford and Liverpool (schoolboys), we’d always face each other in semi-finals or finals. Some we’d win and some we’d lose but me and him used to have a great game.
“It was mad because he’d be on the left and I’d be on the right, so we’d mark each other and the two of us would get man-of-the-match. It was nuts.
“He brought the best out of me and I brought the best out of him. Then when I went to Manchester United (to train) he was made up.
“He said: ‘I’m glad I’m not f*****g playing against you no more Billy!’ We ended up having a little friendly game and we were in the same team when I was up at the Cliff for six weeks.
“It was just great times, being young and that. It’s a great life, football. I only enjoyed it when I was younger. When you get in the first team, there’s a lot of pressure on your football.
“I can only imagine what it’s like in today’s game. They mustn’t be able to move.
Kenny added: “The feelers were definitely out. When I came back from Liverpool at Wembley, I went to United for two weeks. Alex Ferguson knew. He said: ‘How was your trip to Wembley with the Reds?’
“He was keeping a close eye on things. It was even tough knocking them back because they were all great people.
“They looked after me. I had to choose in the end, but it was one of them, if you’re a Blue, you’re a Blue and if you’re a Red, you’re a Red.”
The cover of The Goodison Gazza: Whatever happened to Billy Kenny
The cover of The Goodison Gazza: Whatever happened to Billy Kenny
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It wasn’t just Man United who coveted Kenny’s signature though, Everton’s local rivals Liverpool – who also brought boyhood Blues like Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher up through their ranks in the 1990s – were desperate to snap him up. So much so, that manager Dalglish deployed the likes of the late Gary Ablett – a Scouser who would ironically later cross Stanley Park to join Everton from Liverpool – to spend time with him.
Kenny said: “For the FA Cup final against Wimbledon (in 1988), I sat with Gary all the way, there and back. He was just a lovely, lovely fella.
“He was a great footballer as well. I was made up when he came to Everton as I already knew him, we just hit it off again.
“I’m sure Dalglish used to get him in to try and tap me up. Kenny did it with another fella, Jimmy Taylor, he was a top chef.
“When we used to go on the coach from Melwood back to Anfield for our dinner after training, Jimmy would be on Kenny’s table. Jimmy was my Uncle Rocky’s mate from Mere Lane in Anfield.
“I used to say to him: ‘All right Jimmy, what are you doing here?’ He was a mad Red.
“My mother’s house was a five-minute walk from Anfield but Jimmy lived in the next street and I used to walk home with him. He’d tell me again: ‘Kenny loves you, lad, you’ve got to make your mind up soon, what are you going to do?’.
“I had all these lovely people, I didn’t know what I was doing. My dad just left it to me. I think my dad knew: 'He’s not going to sign for anyone else, our Billy, he’s nuts about Everton’.
“Growing up in Burly, I hated Liverpool. If you read the book, our neighbours were the Maloneys and the fights we had over Everton and Liverpool. I didn’t know what I hated about them. I hated Liverpool’s success in the 80s.
“I was jealous but jealousy turns into hatred, doesn’t it? I think that’s what it was and all the fighting with the Maloneys because they were all Reds and I had to look all over Scotland Road to get a five-a-side team.
“When I was actually at Liverpool and meeting these players – who I hated through the telly – I was thinking: 'Oh my God, they’re lovely people’. I’ve got it all wrong here.
“I don’t hate Liverpool, I don’t hate the fans, I just hated their success. It used to kill me. They were all lovely people. Dalglish, all the staff at Anfield and all the players.
“That sort of diluted it for me. But if I had to play against Liverpool tomorrow, I’d hate them again. You’ve got to. It is what it is, isn’t it?”