EVERTON chairman Bill Kenwright is getting a lot of stick at the moment, but one accusation you cannot throw his way is that he doesn’t publicly back his manager.

I’ve lost count of the times we’ve come across Everton with people talking about David Moyes being under pressure, or questioning whether he can take the club forward.

But that’s exactly what he does – and you can set your watch by the Goodison Park revival, knowing that they will always come good in the end.

One of the major reasons for that is because Moyesy knows he has the absolute support of his chairman and board.

Kenwright might not have the hundreds of millions that Everton fans want invested but he knows how to take the pressure off his manager and how to keep him happy in the job.

The reason why I bring him up, is that I think Bolton Wanderers and Phil Gartside can learn a little lesson here.

I’m sure support is there, but all the rubbish I read, and all the panic, could be diffused by a few simple words in public from the chairman.

It could be stopped dead in its tracks so easily.

Just that little acknowledgement means the manager isn’t looking over his shoulder, and gives a bit of confidence, meaning you can focus on the job at hand.

Kenwright does that on a regular basis for Moyes because he realises he has got one of the best managers around.

A few positive words from the chairman could change the whole picture, especially because we’ll face Everton again on Saturday with the pressure hiked right up after the defeat at West Brom.

But when you know the people above you are happy, you feel happier yourself, and that’s why I’d like to see a bit of encouragement from above.

WHAT a fantastic gesture from Tony Mowbray and Middlesbrough Football Club to get Gary Parkinson involved in the scouting set-up.

As I’m sure you’ll know, my former Wanderers team-mate suffers from Locked-in Syndrome after a severe stroke, and can only communicate by blinking his eyes.

Boro have taken the unbelievable step of sending him DVDs of prospective signings so that he can assess them, and communicate to his wife Deborah, who then sends the report back to the club.

This kind of thing must give him an incredible boost because it must be terrible for such a fit and active bloke not to be able to do the things he loves doing.

Hopefully, this could be a trigger for him to make a full recovery, and I pray that it is.

IF Gary Cahill has the choice between Tottenham and Chelsea, there would only be one destination in my eyes.

Having watched him form a partnership with John Terry for England, and seeing how Chelsea have struggled at the back recently, I’d be very surprised if Andre Villas-Boas doesn’t win that particular tug of war in January.

What’s more, I’d like to think that given his friendship with Owen Coyle, there might be business to be done in the opposite direction. We saw how Daniel Sturridge’s loan ignited last season.

Chelsea have a big squad and I’m sure there are one or two lads kicking their heels who could do a great job here.

MANAGERS will try everything to get a reaction after a bad result, and it was interesting to see Owen Coyle giving some of his senior players a dressing down after Saturday’s West Brom defeat.

Sometimes you give a talk to the whole group, sometimes with individuals.

And the way he picked out the experienced lads reminded me of something Bruce Rioch used to do in my time at the club.

Once at Port Vale, Bruce came storming into the dressing room and launched a real volley at me.

He was in such a foul mood, he threw a china teacup on the stone floor. It shattered into a load of pieces and one flew up into my face.

That didn’t stop him – and he was still laying into me as the physio knelt down and started trying to wash the bits out of my eye.

Bruce was capable of some real rollickings, and some time after he finished, he told me he’d often direct them at the players he knew could take it, or those who carried a bit of weight in the dressing room because it got a better reaction from the whole team.

A lot of the time it was just for effect.

Maybe the lads are seeing another side of Owen at the moment. They have had it nicey nicey for too long.

I’ve said before that he’ll be the first person analysing his own mistakes in a game, whether it’s a substitution, a decision he got wrong or something tactical.

But he’s nobody’s fool and he’ll know exactly where jobs aren’t being done out there on the pitch.