Forgotten Champions , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Paul McParlan

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158 pages

English

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The Forgotten Champions recounts Everton's remarkable 1986/87 title win - a feat that tested Howard Kendall's managerial skills to the limit. The previous season, the club were runners-up to rivals Liverpool in the league and FA Cup. Top scorer Gary Lineker left for Barcelona with no replacement in sight and the arrival of several inexperienced players worried the fans. An injury crisis deprived Kendall of key stars such as Neville Southall and Peter Reid, forcing him to field a makeshift team at the start of the season. Optimism was in short supply at Goodison as by November the team were in eighth place and struggling to stay in contention. Further injuries to Graeme Sharp and Kevin Sheedy threatened to derail Everton's title bid, but the astute purchase of Wayne Clarke proved crucial as the Toffees strung together a winning sequence. Against all odds, a patchwork, injury-ravaged Everton were crowned league champions, ahead of Liverpool. It was a magnificent achievement. To date, it is the club's last ever title.

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	27 septembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	2
EAN13	9781801500319
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Paul McParlan, 2021
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785318665
eBook ISBN 9781801500319
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eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1. Catalonia calls
2. Barcelona beckons - but for who?
3. Transfer disappointments
4. Playing in Europe
5. The return of the royal blue jersey
6. A rivalry resumed
7. The record breaker
8. ScreenSport showdown
9. Far from elementary for Watson
10. The return of Big Nev
11. Capital troubles and power plays
12. The return of Gary Stevens
13. A very merry blue Christmas
14. The plastic fantastic
15. The nemesis
16. Fash the Bash
17. Sniffer s younger brother arrives
18. The second wave
19. The countdown to Easter
20. The Easter weekend
21. The Anfield derby
22. Opportunity knocks
23. Carrow Road
24. The homecoming champions
25. The final game
26. Damned with faint praise
27. A historical perspective
28. The backroom boys
29. The end-of-season awards
30. Player of the season
31. A summer of uncertainty
32. El Kel
33. The press conference - Goodison Park
34. Meet the new boss
35. Postscript: How did the 1987 side compare to their 1985 equivalent?
36. Conclusion: The way we were
Bibliography
Photos
This book is dedicated to my wife, Janet, and my son, Mark, without whose encouragement it would never have been written.
Acknowledgements
MY THANKS to Rob Sloman, the producer of the Howard s Way film, for putting me in contact with players from the 1986/87 team.
To Kevin Ratcliffe, Alan Harper and Paul Power for sharing their memories of the season with me.
Also, to the team at These Football Times who encouraged me to write a book.
To my dad, who brought me and my brother Dean up as Everton fans.
To my son Mark for allowing me to constantly wallow in Everton nostalgia without complaint.
And finally, to my wife Janet for her patience and assistance in supporting me throughout the writing of this book.
Foreword
IN PRE-COVID times, it was a regular conversation in our household. Before embarking on my trip to Goodison Park to watch Everton with my wife Janet and son Mark, he would ask me for a prediction. I would invariably reply by saying, I think we ll win today.
Mark would then raise his eyes in frustration and reply, Why do you always think we re going to win? It is okay for you; you ve seen Everton win the league four times. In my lifetime I ve never seen them come anywhere close to winning the league. He would then add that he expected us to lose the match.
I can imagine that this type of conversation might well take place among any family of Evertonians who have children born since the Premier League started in 1992.
When Everton won the First Division championship in 1986/87, I never imagined that I would not see them lift the trophy again. I never expected that 35 years later I would still be waiting for the Toffees to win their next title.
We have three seasons left at Goodison Park before the move to the new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock. I fervently hope that I am wrong, but it is highly likely that Howard Kendall s team from 1986/87 will forever hold the honour of being the last side to win the championship at the famous old ground. And that hurts.
I do hope this book brings back happy memories to those who were privileged to have witnessed Kendall bring the First Division crown back to Goodison Park.
If you know your history - Nil Satis Nisi Optimum.
Introduction
I couldn t handle the thought of Liverpool parading the FA Cup and league championship that we d lost.
Saturday, 10 May 1986 - the darkest day
When the final whistle blew to signal the end of the 1986 FA Cup Final, my friends and I were already walking along Wembley Way, our visages contorted with a mixture of rage and despondency that was perhaps best conveyed by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in his masterpiece of the human condition The Scream almost 100 years earlier. If Munch had been at Wembley that day, he would have undoubtedly empathised with our plight.
Scurrying down the road towards Wembley Central station, the crescendo of joyous celebratory singing and cheering erupting from the stadium seemed to grow louder and louder the further we travelled, twisting another vicious knife into our wounds of despair. It reminded me of a scenario whereby the party of the year was happening in your next-door neighbour s house and your name was conspicuously absent from the guest list.
As we boarded the train, a hideous ramshackle Home Counties commuter vehicle that appeared to have been dusted down from the nearest railway museum, we were still only halfway through the DAWA (Denial, Anger, Withdrawal, Acceptance) process of coming to terms with our loss. How could it be that Everton, despite leading 1-0, contrived to concede three goals in the final 30 minutes to Liverpool, not only handing them the FA Cup but the double as well? It should have been us! Only ten days earlier, on 30 April, needing just three wins from our final three games to seal the championship, we somehow managed to lose 1-0 to a struggling Oxford United side to blow top spot, handing it to the side across Stanley Park.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, To lose one trophy may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness.
The journey back to Lime Street station seemed interminable, as though we were being transported by the ferryman Charon to the underworld without a coin in our mouths. On arrival in Liverpool we pounced on the nearest taxi, instructing the driver not to mention football if he wanted to get paid. I said goodbye to my friends. We knew. We just knew. It was a well-rehearsed routine from the previous decade of non-stop Liverpool success. Lock the door, cancel the papers, put the radio in the shed and unplug the television. To avoid awkward calls from any of our gloating red-loving friends, the phone would remain unanswered all day.
A victory parade was scheduled to take place in Liverpool city centre the following day to celebrate the achievements of the sides that season. This was a time when the idea of the Merseyside region being united against the rest of the country appeared to have engulfed both sets of fans. Perhaps the organisers were secretly praying for Everton to have won the FA Cup (I know I was), so that the two sets of supporters could participate in the revelries. Now that this was purely a lap of honour for Liverpool, no right-minded Blue had any intention of being seen in the vicinity of an open-top bus. I am still to this day dumbfounded by the number of Evertonians who showed such formidable powers of fortitude to show their support for the team. And I am still so glad that I was not one of them.
It is still a source of wonderment to me that the team went ahead with the previously agreed arrangements. Now crestfallen Everton players were having to cast envious glances at their Red counterparts who were displaying the two trophies that only a matter of weeks ago seemed destined to be in their own hands. I secretly admired the resilience and forbearance of those Blues who defiantly and stoically lined the route to cheer their team. The manager Howard Kendall, perhaps not wishing to renege on this long-standing agreement, insisted that all the squad would be present as arranged.
For one player it was too much to bear. Everton s midfield dynamo Peter Reid informed his boss that he would not be present as Liverpool celebrated their double. Kendall warned him that he would be fined if he failed to join his team-mates on the bus. Reid did not care and as the rest of the squad returned to Merseyside, he headed back to his old stomping ground of Bolton with a friend where he drowned his sorrows in the Red Lion pub. He said in his book Cheer Up Peter Reid , I couldn t handle the thought of Liverpool parading the FA Cup and league championship that we d lost. His solicitor, Zac Harazi, told reporters that Reid was, Very upset. He comes from Liverpool, he s a winner and the result got to him.
As ever, Reid s non-appearance sent the Everton fans rumour mill into overdrive. It was alleged that the reason for his absence was that he was in the process of negotiating a transfer to the West German team, FC Cologne. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Kendall publicly rebuked Reid for his no-show, telling fans, We deserved an explanation, but it was only for the sake of appearances as he never did fine the England international. If Reid was not already a hero in the eyes of most Blues, he certainly was now.
As we came to terms with our loss, there was that nagging question at the back of the minds of most supporters. Was that glorious 1984/85 season a one-off? Would we ever reach those heights again? Four Everton players had been selected by the England manager Bobby Robson for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The last time Everton players had featured in a World Cup, in Mexico in 1970, the following campaign saw us slump from being league champions to fin