Moyes own story has Kenwright dreaming

Kenwright simply dismisses his share of credit even though the Liverpool Echo this week hailed him for trusting in manager David Moyes while also streamlining the club's boardroom and bringing in a dynamic new chief executive Keith Wyness. Yet the 59-year-old confesses there were times when this season felt about as bad as it gets.

"I maybe thought about quitting as chairman but I never really felt it, if that makes sense," he says. "I just love this club too much. My favourite line from any show I've ever put on is from Stephen Sondheim's Passion. It goes 'Loving you is not a choice/It's who I am'. You see, you don't choose your football club. You're taken down a road and it's like there's someone at the end of it hauling you in."

It is this theatrical passion which must make it easy for fans to warm to him, especially as it's difficult to picture another millionaire chairman giving quite such a good impression of just being one of them - and a good bloke with it. Even those fiercely critical of his and the board's competence during the leanest years for a grand club know where his heart is. He's lived in and loved London for 38 years but as soon as he hits Lime St, he's at home. It was his great friend David Dein, Arsenal's vicechairman, who advised him to become a director because he loved his club so but sometimes Kenwright fancies he's too emotional. Of course, he's a good actor - you can't take Coronation Street's Gordon Clegg out of the boy - but when he tells me I'm on the same sofa where former Everton boss Walter Smith was sitting when he had to sack him, his distress about it even now seems genuine.

It was the right decision, though. "David Moyes has become Everton," he enthuses. "He's more than tremendous; he's magnificent, the most focused individual I've probably ever met." Some suggest Everton's success has been built on sand and that without investment they won't be able to compete at the top.

Kenwright has no time for cynics, insisting negotiations with potential investors, Fortress Sports Fund, and others are ongoing and that the £42million debt reported at the AGM has been slashed. Moyes will have a "nice kitty" for transfers though Kenwright wouldn't confirm a reported £30m figure.

"I've always believed in my life that the best is always yet to come. Whether football or theatre, I've always put everything on the line. I mortgaged the house, this office, everything to buy into this club," he says. "And I don't have backers for my shows ever; it's all my risk.

"I don't see myself as chairman for ever and a day and I've always said if there's someone out there who could do it better, I'd step aside. I know this, though; we've got the history and the credentials, we've got the manager - and we've got to believe."

The feat of that lot across Stanley Park has made anything seem possible now. Like an all-Merseyside European tie should Liverpool win in Istanbul and, as Kenwright believes, be allowed to defend their title.

His eyes dance when he learns next year's final is in Paris. "Everton in the final in Paris? Now that would be the greatest show on earth."