Keith Wyness' Everton exit not news we wanted

The club are obviously playing their cards close to their chest, apart from going out of their way to stress that this development is not in any way tied to the future of the proposed new stadium in Kirkby.

Unsurprisingly, that is never going to satisfy the dot-joiners and conspiracy theorists, with many now surmising that Wyness has jumped ship early having got wind of Government plans to call in the whole Kirkby project.

Why anyone would leave a highly-paid job like his because of something that is totally out of his control doesn't seem clear, although apparently that is the way things often work at chief executive level.

If a project becomes your 'baby', as Kirkby has for Wyness, then apparently the done thing is to fall on your sword if it gets derailed.

Granted, that seems plausible, although would the club make a statement declaring so strongly their continued commitment to the new stadium if they knew that it was potentially dead in the water?

Equally, if not more believable, is the theory that Wyness fancies the lifestyle out in Mallorca, where his close friend has apparently taken over their local side, Real, and could very possibly be looking for someone to head up their commercial affairs.

Evertonians' opinions of the departing head honcho seem divided.

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As the public face of Destination Kirkby he has made a number of sworn enemies among those Blues opposed to the move, and such is the way of modern football, he also takes the blame for pretty much anything that goes wrong at the club, no matter how big or how small.

On the other hand there are more than a few Evertonians who see someone who has made the best of a job that the much-heralded Trevor Birch famously couldn't handle for more than 10 minutes.

He also leaves a club that, for the most part, seems more stable than it has been for years, is challenging at the right end of the table and looks like its about to break its transfer record for the third successive season - should the Joao Moutinho saga ever end, that is.

Whatever Wyness's reasons for leaving though, be it because of the ground move or simply because he has an offer he fancies elsewhere, the timing seems somewhat inopportune from Everton's point of view.

Given that the departure is meant to have come as something of a shock to the board, we can only assume that Wyness hasn't been doing a handover for the last fortnight or so. We can only guess then at how easy it will be for a stand-in or successor to pick up the reins immediately and, hopefully, complete some of the transfer deals that are desperately needed in order to make sure the Blues have anything like a competitive squad when the season kicks off in just over a fortnight.

Because it's going to be a strange atmosphere at Goodison for that friendly against PSV Eindhoven if there are no new faces and the squad is still peppered with kids.