Everton once landed £9m striker on the cheap because of Bill Kenwright

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Everton won the race for Andy Johnson in 2006 thanks to Bill Kenwright.

That’s according to Simon Jordan, who has admitted that Crystal Palace had better offers elsewhere before he was sold to the Toffees.

Bill Kenwright became chairman of Everton back in 2004 and spent nearly two decades at the club before his passing last month.

Jordan, the former Crystal Palace owner, has paid his respects to Kenwright and has commented on his ‘kindness’ and his ‘warmth’. The TalkSPORT pundit also admitted that he allowed Everton to underpay for Andy Johnson due to his fondness of the former Toffees chairman.

After being named in Crystal Palace’s Cenentary XI, Johnson arrived at Goodison Park for £8.6 million in 2006.

The Eagles initially turned down a £7.25m offer from the Merseyside outfit, before they accepted two bids of £8.5m from both Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.

However, Everton eventually upped their offer and snapped him up for a new club transfer record. The forward went onto score 22 goals in 74 appearances for the Toffees.

After Everton beat off competition from elsewhere for Johnson, Simon Jordan has now revealed that their success was down to Bill Kenwright.

Writing for the Daily Mail, Jordan said: “During negotiations to take Andy Johnson from Palace to Everton, I made a comment in the press about their £7m bid a year earlier and asking if they were trying to buy his trainers. Just a bit of fun but when it came to selling Johnson, I pushed Bill because I had higher bids from Bolton and Wigan.

“In the end we did a deal for about £9m despite those bigger offers. That was because of Bill. The smoothness, goodwill, integrity and decency of the transaction — and twisting his arm to pay it upfront and give us a pre-season friendly — meant I was comfortable with foregoing that money because I knew Johnson was going to a good club, manager and chairman.”

Bill Kenwright will be remembered fondly

Bill Kenwright was far from perfect during his 19-year tenure at Goodison Park, but he was a huge fan of the club and did everything he could to bring us success.

The former chairman oversaw Everton play European football and also bringing in the likes of Seamus Coleman, Kevin Campbell and Leighton Baines. Arguably his biggest mistake was bringing Farhad Moshiri into the picture.