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Middlesbrough Everton 1988 FA Cup

maccavennie said:
Mental when you think about it. The squad had already been stretched to it's limit with injuries on the title winning season, so you'd think they'd have really invested heavily to keep us right up there challenging. You see the signings the rs made and we made and it's night and day.
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And we left our manager leave. I'd have been less disappointed if he'd actually left for Barcelona. But he went to Athletic Bilbao, a Basque version of us. I think that turned out to be a disaster for us - and the biggest mistake of his managerial career.
 
Being Champions we could've attracted most players in the summer of '87 yet Colin Harvey settled for a reserve 'keeper in Alec Chamberlain who was never going to get anywhere near Big Nev and a squad player (at best) in Ian Wilson whilst Liverpool went out and quickly recruited Barnes, Beardsley, Aldridge and Houghton, all of which would've improved our side, and the team they played in in 87/88 is still the best RS side I've ever seen.

The old saying in football that if you stand still you go backwards certainly applied here as the RS quickly accelerated past us, so needlessly as well when we certainly could've signed some of those players. Wasn't he in for Gazza in the summer of '88 but Newcastle wouldn't do business unless we gave them Peter Reid in part exchange so Colin refused? I wouldn't mind but he got rid of Reid within 6 months anyway.

We bought Mike Newell for the same price Spurs paid for Gary Lineker from Barca in the summer of '89. Another poor deal. Did we ever make moves to bring Lineker back? We should've put a buy back clause when we sold him like Liverpool did when they sold Rush to Juventus.

Colin is the biggest Evertonian on the planet for me but it has to be said he took us backwards during his spell as manager and lots of it was down to poor recruitment. From taking over the Champions in the summer of '87 to rock bottom of the league by September 1990 just before his sacking.
 
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Drico said:
The decline accelerated under Colin. I say "accelerated" because I think we were actually in decline the year we won the title for a second time - one of the great title wins given the unbelievable injuries we suffered that season.

We didn't strengthen adequately when he took over, and seemed to wait a full year before backing him properly - and then he spent badly.

I think the seeds of our decline were already planted, but he couldn't arrest it. From a perception perspective, his biggest mistake was probably coming back again as Kendall's number two straight after being sacked. It gave the impression he was never a manager and his time in charge was an aberration. Maybe he wasn't, and maybe it was. It said a lot for the man, though, in that he was humble enough to do that and return to what he was truly great as: coach.
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Thing is, he'd have come back to work brushing the leaves off Bellefield or the ciggie stumps off the Gwladys St after a game. He'd have done anything for Everton.
 

After literally playing Boro 3 times, the minimum should have been to buy Pallister, who was then in the 2nd division, before Man U did so he could have partnered Watson.
 
Drico said:
And we left our manager leave. I'd have been less disappointed if he'd actually left for Barcelona. But he went to Athletic Bilbao, a Basque version of us. I think that turned out to be a disaster for us - and the biggest mistake of his managerial career.
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Hindsight is wonderful,but looking back I was fully behind the “promote from within”policy with Colin Harvey,but that summer as champions we could literally have had our pick of any manager from elsewhere to come in.
 
Dario Terracotta said:
Hindsight is wonderful,but looking back I was fully behind the “promote from within”policy with Colin Harvey,but that summer as champions we could literally have had our pick of any manager from elsewhere to come in.
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The 'promote from within policy' rarely ever works. It was endemic of those in charge to blindly appoint Havey 'because that's what you do' seemingly based only on the one/most high profile success of replacing a successful manager with someone from the backroom staff (Shankley to Paisley). Mind you, the powers that be at Everton rarely have much idea of what to do - appointing Mike Walker based on one season of non-success (Norwich made the early season running before fading away - same as many teams have done over the years).
We are jusr badly run and have been for decades, arguably since Catterick left!
 
teppic said:
I've just listened to some old YouTube commentary of this game (the last minute 2-2) on YouTube. As I was listening I jotted down who was playing. I can't for the life of me work out the formation Harvey was playing. I'm assuming it's this, but it still looks very unbalanced with Pointon on the left wing, Snods centre back and where was Harper playing?

Any thoughts?

Southall

Stevens Watson Snodin van Den Hauwe

Steven Reid Harper Pointon

Sharp Heath
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Pat VDH played Centre back a lot, so I assume he played there with Pointon LB, Snodin centre mid (he moved to RB when Stevens left), Harper left side of attack.
 

I suppose by modern standards 4th, 8th, 6th and an FA Cup final defeat, that record would be seen as relatively successful.

In fact Moyes had a similar enough record and was venerated for it! Different times and a different Everton though.

Moyes was manager in the Blue Bill's "good times" years. Whilst we were expected to compete for the top prizes every year when Colin was manager.

He possibly could've turned it around eventually who knows, it's not as if Howard's second coming as manager was a resounding success.

Colin apparently didn't like upsetting people, he found it hard to drop players while Kendall would have no reservations in making the ruthless decisions and calls.

That's not a criticism at all of Colin btw it was just typical of the gentleman he is. We saw how well promoting from within worked for the neighbours, we tried it ourselves and it just didn't work out in the end sadly.
 
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Screenshot_20241112-211510_Chrome.webp

Ultimately, this is what killed off the Everton team of the 80s. Only buying Ian Wilson, a month into the championship defending season, when we could have had the pick of all the talent in the country.
 
teppic said:
View attachment 281632
Ultimately, this is what killed off the Everton team of the 80s. Only buying Ian Wilson, a month into the championship defending season, when we could have had the pick of all the talent in the cou
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teppic said:
View attachment 281632
Ultimately, this is what killed off the Everton team of the 80s. Only buying Ian Wilson, a month into the championship defending season, when we could have had the pick of all the talent in the country.
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He was touted as the new Bobby Charlton. Well, his comb-over was.
 
Cork Evertonian said:
I suppose by modern standards 4th, 8th, 6th and an FA Cup final defeat, that record would be seen as relatively successful.

In fact Moyes had a similar enough record and was venerated for it! Different times and a different Everton though.

Moyes was manager in the Blue Bill's "good times" years. Whilst we were expected to compete for the top prizes every year when Colin was manager.

He possibly could've turned it around eventually who knows, it's not as if Howard's second coming as manager was a resounding success.

Colin apparently didn't like upsetting people, he found it hard to drop players while Kendall would have no reservations in making the ruthless decisions and calls.

That's not a criticism at all of Colin btw it was just typical of the gentleman he is. We saw how well promoting from within worked for the neighbours, we tried it ourselves and it just didn't work out in the end sadly.
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He was unfortunate to be the manager when we got to the FA Cup final in 1989.
We were on a hiding to nothing in that game but winning it under normal
circumstances might have led to a different outcome.
 

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