EVERTON fans have delivered a damning verdict of the club’s former CEO in an exclusive online survey.

More than 1,100 Daily Post readers visited our website to give their views on Keith Wyness’s shock resignation last week.

The results show most people thought his commercial performance was poor, and many believe nothing has improved at Goodison Park during the Wyness years.

And a majority of fans are glad to see the Aberdeen-born football executive leave.

More than half said they were pleased or very pleased about Wyness’s shock departure.

And that figure surges to more than 60% when just Merseyside-based fans are counted.

Fewer than a third of all fans said they were either worried or very worried by the news.

While the majority of Everton fans voted in favour of moving to a new 50,000-seat stadium in Kirkby, the results of our survey show that almost 70% of readers disagree with Wyness describing

the move as the “deal of the century”. The majority of the remaining third say it’s “too early to say”, with 6.1% agreeing with Wyness.

With only 15% of readers saying refurbishing Goodison should top the new CEO’s to-do list and 4.6% saying the priority should be Destination Kirkby, stadium worries were far from the minds of most.

More than 65% of all fans said either buying and selling players or extending manager David Moyes’s contract should be the focus of who ever takes over. And 15% want the new CEO to find a venue elsewhere in Liverpool.

Nine out of 10 fans rated Wyness’s commercial record as average, poor or very poor. Wyness was responsible for launching the club into the Deloitte League of the top-20 richest clubs. He was criticised, however, over rises in season ticket prices, especially in Goodison’s lounges, and a deal with JJB Sports to run the club’s retail arm.

The club spent the past four years staying the same or getting worse, according to almost 58% of readers. Asked how they thought Everton stood as a club since he took over, almost six out of 10 readers answered “same”, “worse” or “much worse”.

Posting a comment alongside their answer, one fan wrote: “As a football team, better, but that is down to Moyes. As a business, much worse.

“Have we got any decent sponsors since he arrived? No. Has he sold most of the Club's assets? Yes. What happens if we have a poor season? What will the financial implications be?”

Another said: “I believe a lot of the stability has come from Kenwright. Not taking away anything from Wyness, but we have an Evertonian in charge and that is good enough for me.”

And one added: “He (Wyness) has sold all of our assets apart from Goodison. He has outsourced most of the non-football departments which has proved disastrous. On the field, things have improved 10-fold.”

* A TOTAL of 1,109 people responded to an online Daily Post survey.

The shareholder’s view – Richard Lewis, chairman of Everton Shareholders 2006, passes judgment on the Wyness years >>>