"if you know your history"

First off I’d like to thank Everton fans for the amazing atmosphere they created on Tuesday night against Villareal. If only the old cliché about the crowd being a twelfth man were true we would have won by a cricket score, which these days is about two isn’t it? It was uplifting to see so many young fans especially getting behind the team with a passion that only Blue fans can generate. Well done everyone, there is long way to go yet so keep it up!

Speaking of you younger fans, you might like to read the Guardian sports pages occasionally if you really want “to know your history”. There is a writer called Dominic Fifield who seems to be reporting on Everton quite a lot at the moment and he is excellent. For example, in a piece written on the Tuesday morning before the game entitled “Everton’s day finally dawns”, Fifield analysed accurately how much this game meant to Evertonians:

“It is impossible to judge how successful Kendall’s side might have proved – they won the league again in 1987 – had they not endured the European ban imposed after Liverpool fans rioted at the 1985 final. In so many ways Everton never really recovered from that penalty. One of the greatest sides in the club’s history eventually broke up, players denied continental competition drifted off elsewhere to satisfy their appetite.”

Then reporting after the game in yesterday’s Guardian, Fifield’s headline said it all: “Everton pay for their years away”, before going on to applaud the fans:

“the ear splitting din prior to kick-off was outpouring of three decades of frustration, the chance to make amends in kind for the damage caused to this club through no fault of its own by the continental ban on English sides after the Heysel disaster in 1985.”

He is right that we did pay for our years away. There is much learning to be done, but at least we have started. He is also right in his historical perspective and I reflect on how this only became apparent over time. At first I thought the ban did not seem to affect us too much – a great season in 1986 was followed by another championship in 1987. Then gradually it became clear what was happening; Lineker didn’t stay, Steven and Stevens went to Rangers of all places to get European football, and Kendall left, too. You can look back now, as Fifield has done, and it becomes crystal clear how Everton were robbed of the chance to enter the Premiership as the most powerful club in the country.

Much more recently I have also mis-read an event at Everton just as I got wrong initially the impact of the ban in 1985. When DM signed Phil Neville I was slightly dismayed to say the least. After one game I can say I was totally wrong and you can all be glad that DM is the manager and not me! This lad oozes passion and his desire to win will drive the team this season. Might I suggest though, with the greatest of respect, that DM does not always get it all right either. Naming David Weir as captain with the implication that when fit he will always play might now be re-considered by nominating Weir as “club captain”. Neville did enough in 90 minutes to take the armband on the pitch.

So, all in all, despite the disappointing result all is not doom and gloom. I have not forgotten though the debacle caused by Wyness and co. over the tickets. As I said in my last mail to Bluekipper, this fiasco sums up the poverty of professional support at our club. I genuinely thought Wyness might resign in consequence, but then that would have exposed even more another huge negative turning point in our history – Kenwright’s refusal to back Birch and to replace him with someone from, er, Aberdeen FC. We are on the learning curve again. Our history shows us that we all have to learn the lessons more quickly. Please note, Mr Kenwright!

JOE 90. (11/08/05)

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