KENWRIGHT REJECTS MOYES RUMOURS

Moyes - backed by Kenwright.

Everton owner Bill Kenwright has dismissed rumours that manager David Moyes could leave the club.

Rumours have been circulating around Merseyside that Moyes was considering his future after growing frustrated over the club's lack of signings this summer.

The long-term future of the former Preston boss has been the subject of constant debate all summer with the Scot yet to sign a new contract at Goodison Park.

And Kenwright has now moved to calm the fears over Moyes' future by saying he was 'amazed' to hear the rumours that the manager could quit.

"All that talk last week about David Moyes, betting suspended on him going and quitting. I'm amazed," Kenwright told Sky Sports News.

"I am on the phone to him all the time and you wonder where all this comes from.

"It all seemed to come from the fact that we lost a game in America last week, that's all. Of course no-one is a good loser at Everton, we never want to lose."

Kenwright, who is looking for possible investment in the club, concedes the club do not have the money to break into the top four.

Everton finished fifth last season and have ambitions of breaking the monopoly of the current 'big four', but Kenwright admits they do not have the finances to muscle in on the leading pack in the Premier League.

"The situation (over ownership) has not changed since day one. Certainly not for the last five years, I have been saying it at every annual general meeting since," added Kenwright.

"We are looking for investment, we always have been and we always will be and that continues.

"I do look at the clubs that have the Champions League status that brings in millions and have the multi, multi, multi-millionaires and the billionaires in them. And I think that is probably what it takes now to get a hugely successful football club.

"There is a part of me that hopes that is not true, of course there is and there always will be that feeling inside me.

"But if you look at that top four and the consistency of the top four, there is a lot of money floating around them and we at Everton do not have that money."

Everton are still waiting to discover whether their proposed ground move outside the city boundaries to Knowsley - in a joint venture with Tesco - will be jeopardised by the Government 'calling in' the plans for further investigation.

The Toffees already have planning permission, but there is a fear that any further delay - and a Government inquiry could hold up the plans for a year - may well kill off the scheme completely.

Kenwright says it is vital the club move from Goodison Park if they want to compete with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.

"A ground move is certainly crucial to the economic future of Everton, I have said it a million times that I love Goodison Park but we have to move for economic and financial reasons," noted Kenwright.

"We have to get more income into the club to begin to compete with those clubs I have been talking about.

"That is the reason we have been contemplating it and the truth is we have had enormous support from Knowsley (Council), from Tesco, and we have not had that from Liverpool (Council). That is the bottom line of it."