Drico
Player Valuation: £50m
If it's going to be my send-off to her, what a lovely way to go, Eggs.
The place was rocking. Everton is such an authentic club. I am a lifelong Irish Evertonian - we always had a big following in Ireland, but we have declined hugely in numbers in tandem with our fall from grace as a club - but it was nice to see a good Irish contingent. I mean, Liverpool is practically an Irish city and I've taken longer train rides in Berlin than my flight to/from Shannon, near Limerick in the south-west of Ireland, took. Such an easy hop. But my, we have declined under Kenwright. Not being over much since 1997 brought that home to me. We have so little presence. That's why, sad as I will be to see us leave our roots, we need to be reborn as a club on the river. It's an imperative.
I'll be making regular pilgrimages to the new stadium. Now that Old Bill is gone, I feel like I can engage with the club again. Hopefully our new owners are less alienating. I don't wish to upset locals - who are the club - when I say Everton has no choice but to compete for international visitors. In an ideal world, Everton would be for and of the people of Merseyside - not even Irish blow-ins like me. But the game has changed so much now that Premier League clubs barely feature local lads, and the icons of the club are not even English, let alone local. I think that's sad. I like clubs to represent their locals, at least in some tangible way. But that's gone now. Doucoure is from Mali, Mykolenlo from Ukraine, and even we at Everton have one of the bigger English representations in our side. But if we want to genuinely compete with Liverpool, we need to be in the international market. The new stadium will inevitably mean higher prices. That will price some locals out. I don't like that, but then I have long accepted that in the modern Premier League environment, Everton just happens to be based in Liverpool (even if the authenticity of the club is something beautiful) but is really fighting in a global marketplace. When the club does move, I hope it keeps its local soul even as it attracts us blow-ins out of absolute necessity.
