TippEverton
Player Valuation: £35m
I'll buy Judy Morris and Luca Vialli a bevvy if the opportunity ever presents itself.
Besides that, koff Chelsea.
Besides that, koff Chelsea.
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John from Bootle
Player Valuation: £15m
That moment came for me when we had to sell Keown.
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
We owe Gianluca Vialli a huge debt of gratitude. He had a Cup Winners' Cup final versus Stuttgart to prepare for that week, and still he made a point of telling his team to go out, give their all, and win.
The attitude of a winner.
That Everton team had all the worst attributes of Howard Kendall's mini-midget side from the early 90s - and none of the Beardsleys: tidy, small, generally ineffective, and easily bullied.
This was probably the lowest point of Evertonianism in my 40 years supporting the club. In 1994, we still felt that the last-day survival drama was an aberration - and in some ways it was as we won the cup the following year and had a very good side for 18 months or so. By '98, reality had set in that this was our lot for the forseeable. Walter came in soon afterwards, and after a promising period the rug was soon pulled from him financially and we fell into what was probably the bleakest period in my time as a fan, supporting a team that was utterly joyless. The last Kendall side had some tidy, technical ability, but the end-of-days Walter side (and this dragged on for at least 18 months too long) was an abomination.
Ould fellas like me - I am 48 - always bang on about the classic Everton side of the 1980s, but that Walter team really is the one that puts this summer's renaissance into full perspective. Bar those four ecstatic years under Kendall in the 80s, we really haven't had it so good. This current team appears to have the one ingredient that all intervening teams lacked: fantasy. Even the brief giddy months of the boy Rooney were always put into relief by the fact that the team was dire and that he'd be sold off as soon as he threatened to make us worth watching - which is what happened.
While I am sure the current positivity will collapse around our ears in the coming weeks, just savour the moment. We are genuinely on the rise. We have an ambitious, wealthy board, a world-class manager, and a beautiful, visionary playmaker pulling strings in the same direction. Basically: we are competitive again. That's been the exception rather than the rule over the last four decades.
The attitude of a winner.
That Everton team had all the worst attributes of Howard Kendall's mini-midget side from the early 90s - and none of the Beardsleys: tidy, small, generally ineffective, and easily bullied.
This was probably the lowest point of Evertonianism in my 40 years supporting the club. In 1994, we still felt that the last-day survival drama was an aberration - and in some ways it was as we won the cup the following year and had a very good side for 18 months or so. By '98, reality had set in that this was our lot for the forseeable. Walter came in soon afterwards, and after a promising period the rug was soon pulled from him financially and we fell into what was probably the bleakest period in my time as a fan, supporting a team that was utterly joyless. The last Kendall side had some tidy, technical ability, but the end-of-days Walter side (and this dragged on for at least 18 months too long) was an abomination.
Ould fellas like me - I am 48 - always bang on about the classic Everton side of the 1980s, but that Walter team really is the one that puts this summer's renaissance into full perspective. Bar those four ecstatic years under Kendall in the 80s, we really haven't had it so good. This current team appears to have the one ingredient that all intervening teams lacked: fantasy. Even the brief giddy months of the boy Rooney were always put into relief by the fact that the team was dire and that he'd be sold off as soon as he threatened to make us worth watching - which is what happened.
While I am sure the current positivity will collapse around our ears in the coming weeks, just savour the moment. We are genuinely on the rise. We have an ambitious, wealthy board, a world-class manager, and a beautiful, visionary playmaker pulling strings in the same direction. Basically: we are competitive again. That's been the exception rather than the rule over the last four decades.
Daz1878
Player Valuation: £8m
I remember going to see us that season in a midweek League Cup game at Coventry, where we got thrashed 4-1 - and the scoreline could have been a lot worse. I remember that rat Barmy getting an equaliser only for the wheels to then come off big time. I seem to remember an argument between HK and virtually all the players at the final whistle, and I thought this was going to be a particularly grim season. Little did I know how grim.... no idea how many years that final fixture took off my life.
The Binman
Player Valuation: £10m
Agree with a lot of this, though I don't agree 48 being old.
John from Bootle
Player Valuation: £15m
47 and a 1/2?
witchdoc187
Player Valuation: £60m
Remember that myself. Probably realised at that point that we weren't getting to any more cup finals soon where as in previous years just assumed we would do well.
Absolutely super post.
I think when Walter had his players sold from under him - there was no denying then that we were old hat. With Moyes too a couple of times - maybe between 2005 and 2009 - relatively little investment and we were very, very close although the football often left a bit to be desired. If Mosh had landed then........
If my auntie had balls she´d not be my auntie, I suppose.
I am so happy for my eldest lad - a massive blue who is 13. He is living from match to match at the moment. So excited after so many years of misery and utter dross. And he keeps saying - you said we we will come good!!!
John from Bootle
Player Valuation: £15m
Hopefully he'll never know how close you came to letting him down. lol
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
I can understand this sentiment. There's probably a sense that if all was right with the world the biggest clubs would comprise the top flight - and there is always a sense that "something has gone badly wrong" when a big club is in a lower division. Obviously, on the flip side, social mobility is a good thing and small clubs need to have something to aspire to. Meritocracy is good (even if a lot of it is really just about which club has money and an astute, ambitious board at the time).
Buy yeah, in terms of "size", I think the "ideal" or "optimal" Premier League of 20 clubs would include Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Derby County, Leeds United, Leicester City, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, QPR, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, WBA, West Ham, and Wolves.
Alanbileysfeathercut
Player Valuation: £80m
80-81 wasn't much better.
Remember going to st Andrew's for a game late in the season, night kick off.
The coppers couldn't believe how few of us there was.
Think we won or drew,which guaranteed safety.
Remember going to st Andrew's for a game late in the season, night kick off.
The coppers couldn't believe how few of us there was.
Think we won or drew,which guaranteed safety.
Palace and Boro for QPR and Derby?
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
Ha ha - I knew this debate would crop up. I suppose it depends on when you started watching football, to some extent. QPR are undoubtedly the "smallest" of the clubs I mentioned. Leicester have outgrown them over this last 25 years. I never saw Leicester as a big club - still don't, because they aren't - but they have certainly achieved more than most in the 21st century, including us.
Are Palace bigger than QPR? Like Leicester, Palace were relegation fodder when I started watching football at the turn of the 80s. Norwich and Brighton were similar. Middlesbrough were another struggler, and have won absolutely nothing historically, but are the third significant club in the North East, so there is an argument for them even if they never had a team as good as QPR's mid 70s side.
I think Derby are a properly big club by midlands standards. Certainly they reached heights in the 1970s that none of the others mentioned here did - and they were a founder member of the football league like us. Then again, so were Preston and Bolton and Huddersfield had a great side in the 30s.
I think all this shows is that there are really only about 12 properly big clubs by European standards.
Ha ha - I knew this debate would crop up. I suppose it depends on when you started watching football, to some extent. QPR are undoubtedly the "smallest" of the clubs I mentioned. Leicester have outgrown them over this last 25 years. I never saw Leicester as a big club - still don't, because they aren't - but they have certainly achieved more than most in the 21st century, including us.
Are Palace bigger than QPR? Like Leicester, Palace were relegation fodder when I started watching football at the turn of the 80s. Norwich and Brighton were similar. Middlesbrough were another struggler, and have won absolutely nothing historically, but are the third significant club in the North East, so there is an argument for them even if they never had a team as good as QPR's mid 70s side.
I think Derby are a properly big club by midlands standards. Certainly they reached heights in the 1970s that none of the others mentioned here did - and they were a founder member of the football league like us. Then again, so were Preston and Bolton and Huddersfield had a great side in the 30s.
I think all this shows is that there are really only about 12 properly big clubs by European standards.
Great post. Coventry were perma fixtures in the top flight - Pompey were class too at one stage. Not sure Derby were that big - I think they had Brian Clough for a while and that made all the difference. An uncle lived in London in the 50s - he always said Charlton were bigger than Chelsea, especially in terms of crowds!
Know what you are getting at about the Foxes. Were a proper yo-yo club for a long time.
Drico
Player Valuation: £60m
The Brian Clough comment is a really good one. It's so true that many of the clubs we think of as "big" in some way were really just mid-sized clubs who had one truly great manager who made them far bigger than the sum of their parts. Clough, love him or hate him, was a genius. He did this for TWO clubs, both of whom have achieved squat all since his departure.
In that sense, maybe a truly big club is one that has had at least two truly great managers (or two truly great periods).
If that were the criteria, then we are obviously a big club, having had multiple great periods since the founding of the Football League and two legendary managers. Similarly, Arsenal - who had Herbert Chapman (another genius because he did what Clough did at two clubs when you take Huddersfield into account), George Graham (who was a great manager for the best part of a decade despite his corruption), and Wenger. Huddersfield miss out on our criteria - and I doubt even their fans could argue. Forest, Derby, and Leeds also miss out on this metric, because I don't think anybody could consider Howard Wilkinson's success a sustained period of greatness on any level. It was, effectively, a very happy blip.
Spurs, meanwhile, sort of find their level among the big clubs if we use this criteria. Clearly, they are a big, historical club - but they really have only had one legendary manager. No, Terry Venables doesn't count. They have had only one true period of greatness under Bill Nicholson, though Keith Burkinshaw is underrated.
Chelsea are similar, I think. They had Mourinho's era of domination, but what else was sustained? I don't think Dave Sexton quite joins the greats, a bit like Wilkinson, and Conte and Ancelotti were sacked too soon to dominate.
City have had Guardiola, but who else? Joe Mercer. His record was indeed great, so on this criteria they definitely qualify. But yeah, we're splitting hairs slightly when referencing only managers. It really is about having eras.
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