Install the app
How to install the app on iOS

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

 

Walter Smith

Status
Not open for further replies.
I was there for that game and couldn't believe what I was watching. I think injuries and lack of quality alternatives forced Walter to look to Steve W. Played in nearly every possible position for us while he was here. Hat-trick was under Moyes though and it was a really good quality one.
 

He was in charge at an awful time for the Club - a bit like now!!

However, he was the last manager to win at mordor (Sept 1999) until Ancelotti last February. Never thought it would take 21 1/2 years!
 
While he didn't do very well with us. Ironically his low keep signings did a lot better than his big ones. Weir and Stubbs, gave the club many years of service for I think £250,000 the pair. Lee Carsley was a seriously underrated player. He managed the club with class and dignity. RIP
 

Sad news, although his time here wasn't great, unlike now it was a time when the clubs soul was still intact.
Will never forget (in the days before media football coverage wasn't quite the closed shop it is now) him signing Gazza elevated our media profile as high as it probably has ever been and his part in getting agent Johnson out in those heady days of Christmas 1999....
Shame we haven't really moved on in the 21 years since.
R.I.P
 
RIP Walter

I was amazed when we managed to hire Smith. He'd done so well at Rangers and we managed to bring him in due to false promises from Peter Johnson about limitless money to spend.

First season we signed Dacourt, Materazzi, Simonsen, Collins and Bakayoko.

Each of them very exciting signings in their own right. Dacourt the stand out centre midfielder who walks into our team today and Materazzi who went on to have an amazing career.

I was at an away game against West Ham and think I remember Ball and Dunne both starting for us in defence and possibly Jeffers up top. All three of course young players with high potential.

He was heavily restricted in terms of transfer funds apart from that first season. Managed to develop young players and also bring in experienced players alike, Richard Gough joined at about 37 years old and was absolutely fantastic.

Straight talking but with a sense of humour and definitely someone who represented the club well.

What a pity Johnson didnt have the funds as I think with money behind him Smith would have had us back at the top table.

Sad to see the news today.
 
...who will ever forget that cup tie away at Middlesborough, when only a way-past-his-best Gazza was the only Everton player who seemed to think it was an important game. None of the other ten should ever have been allowed to wear the shirt again. Gazz pulled what was left of his tripe out for his friend WAlter but no one else was bothered.
 
Disappointing.

More seriously, and less flippantly, my abiding memory of Walter was how he, essentially, rid the club of Hamperman. It was the apotheosis of his time at Everton as the utter financial meltdown we endured in the aftermath ensured he had little chance of success. The football we suffered around 2001 was, in my 40 years of supporting this club, unquestionably the worst I have seen. He was kept in the job a good 18 months too long when everybody knew he simply did not have the answers. And, really, why would he? It was a total rebuild on a shoestring that would be required - a young man's task. He had an eye for talent - as evinced by his purchases of Dacourt and Matterazzi - but he was sold down the river by Johnson.

Still, he stood up to him and forced his exit in the aftermatch of the Ferguson affair, and for that he deserves our respect and gratitude. A good man, and too decent for the vipers he had to deal with at Goodison.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.

Welcome to GrandOldTeam

Get involved. Registration is simple and free.

Back
Top