The Everton board has now grown to six members this week after spending eight years as CEO at Elland Road with Leeds United. Kinnear will form part of the club’s boardroom hierarchy as the side start to reshape under the ownership of the The Friedkin Group. His appointmemt shows ambition and with the club preparing to move into their new 52,888-seater Hill Dickinson Stadium, the season ahead is looking ever more promising.
Owner Dan Friedkin was appointed as an Everton director in March alongside Eric Williamson who has worked with The Friedkin Group for over three decades. The Merseyside giants’ board now consists of Friedkin, Williamson, Kinnear, Chong, Analaura Moreira-Dunkel and Marcus Watts. Kinnear spoke to Everton TV about what the Toffees should strive for in what feels like a new era for the side.
“Ultimately my job and the job of everyone at Everton is to make Evertonians proud. I know they're proud to belong to the club and I want to find reasons to make them proud.
"That starts with what we do on the pitch, so football will always be the number one priority and I think David has done a wonderful job since he came in stabilising things and moving the team on.
"I see the potential in everything that Everton is and everything that it can be. I want to be aggressive in our ambitions. I think there's lots of case studies that we've seen recently of teams that I would see as smaller than Everton. Perhaps Nottingham Forest making a run on Europe, Crystal Palace getting to an FA Cup final. They're all things that should be in our ambitions for the medium-term.
"Longer term, I think we can look beyond that. I think there's no reason why Everton can't challenge it at the top table of European football. We have to be pragmatic. We have to be balanced. We have to be sensible in our decisions. We have to work in a structure where we're not worried about relegation, where we're not concerned by regulatory issues, which have pinned the club back. We need to create a firm foundation that we can build on."