Category: Matchday Reads

Posted on by

AN OPEN LETTER

Dear the next owners of Everton Football Club

Europe. 

Every season. 

Do your sums, ask hard questions, look at the history of the club and the current state of football at the top level in England. Then, ask yourself this: do you have the money, the guts and the appetite to do everything within your power (and the rules!) to guarantee EFC compete every year for Europe? 

That’s the starting point. And, every time it doesn’t happen, do you have the stomach and futureproofing to dismiss whoever’s in charge and go again? 

Oh, and by the way, we need to win something very quickly, too. Our new house won’t become our home until we do – and that’s the thing that will be your biggest asset moving forward: Evertonians happy at home. Ask The Friedkin Group.

It’s not pie in the sky: Newcastle, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace have all tasted trophy success recently; Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland are all in Europe this season. None of them come close to the footprint Everton leave wherever we tread. Ask The Friedkin Group. 

Come on in, the water down by the stadium is warm! 

Make your money at Bramley Moore Dock, put Sabrina Carpenter and Paul McCartney on, have the rugby, host the European Championship, let cinema screens and motorbikes loose on what we hope becomes hallowed turf… but do it knowing this: it stands on quicksand unless Everton Football Club get in to Europe come May 2027. Or win something. 

Ask The Friedkin Group. 

But, please, do it quickly: the clock has been ticking for 31 years… 

Words: Alan O’ Hare | Photo: Thomas Regan

Posted on by

SHEEDY, SHEEDY, SHEEDY!

The greatest free kick(s) of all time?

March 9th, 1985. Goodison Park. The Blues at home to Ipswich. What happened next? 

It was the quarter final of the FA Cup, when the cup-holding Toffees found themselves one down to Ipswich Town. Cue Kevin Sheedy and a free kick from on the edge of the box that he fired into the top corner of the Park End net. 

The rub? The ref’ wasn’t ready. So, Sheeds dusted himself down, gave himself a bigger run-up and… chipped it, picture-perfect, into the opposite side of the same net. Impudence? Cheek? Confidence? 

Just pure genius, actually. 

But that was Kevin Sheedy for you. With The Tractor Boys in town, we thought memories of that unique Everton moment could set tongues wagging about our favourite Kevin Sheedy goals. Disagree? Have we missed your favourite out? Join us on Instagram and X to tell us… 

April 1987 v Liverpool (a)
Pick that out. In a game the Blues should have won to all but clinch our ninth league title at Anfield, Sheeds’ rocket at the Kop end was followed by the greatest two-fingered salute in history. Good job the net was there, it’d still be travelling now… 

April 1987 v Aston Villa (a)
A goal that maybe did win the title. As 12,000 Evertonians gathered behind the goal at Villa Park, a long free kick broke loose from Dave Watson’s header and masterblaster (copyright Clive Tyldesley) Sheeds’ volley took the Blues closer to the title. 

October 1984 v Manchester United (h)
Kevin Sheedy bagged a brace on what many say was Everton’s finest ever performance at Goodison Park on the way to the 1984/85 Championship. It was his first that stands out, a perfect looping header from just inside the box that saw him take a whack for his troubles. A collector’s item! 

April 1985 v Luton Town (Villa Park)
FA Cup semi-finals don’t come much more dramatic. With time running out on the Blues’ dreams of a treble, one down to Luton, up stepped Sheedy to drive a low shot beyond Les Sealey and set up a grand-stand finish to the game. The fact his perfect floater minutes later meant Derek Mountfield could head Everton into another FA Cup Final made the first an even sweeter memory… 

May 1985 V Rapid Wien (Feijenoord Stadium)
The icing on the cake of one of the best ever Everton nights… a Sheedy pearler always made things better. A great move to end a game we’d dominated helped cancel out a late Wien min-rally. Be honest: is there a doubt in your mind when he takes a first touch and sets himself? “There’s the answer… huh! Take that,” as Brian Moore said.

Enjoy the game, Blues. UTFT. 

Words: Alan O’ Hare

Posted on by

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

Transfer deadline day

First they came for the music and I said nothing. Just started streaming for free.

Then they came for the telly and I said nothing. But carried on flicking.

Now, they’re coming for the football and… I’m furious.

Trad football clubs and fans are endangered species. The clubs are the content creators and we just scroll and shout on repeat. Shake it up, baby. Winning? That’s not the goal… nor are goals. Using and maximising every asset we’ve built off the pitch is the point for American owners in 2026.

Transfer deadline day was a bad day for Everton Football Club. Only time will tell if it was the catalyst for a disaster, but right now it was bad. And yet… the fact remains that this summer’s business wasn’t all bad. Honest! Stop scrolling and start thinking for a sec’…

Hackney is better than Tim. Nørgaard is better than another-year-older Gana Gueye. Johnson is better than McNeil. Maitland-Niles is a better than Patterson. And George and Grealish replace our maverick Skilliman. Fair dos, the jury’s out on the last one… but Ndiaye wanted to leave so what you gonna’ do?

The online reaction suggests we’re going to do it all: organise protests, snub buying minty merch from the club shop (this we can get on board with!), boycott ale and food, shout to the top. Sound. But don’t turn on those players. They’re going to need us… all of us, that is, so can we swerve the getting off on 35 and 75 minutes regardless of the score please?

We were told we had to move to contend. We moved… but we’re not contending. And with one forward and two recognised full backs at the club after the summer, the appetite to contend isn’t tangible. That’s undeniable. So, let’s ask the right questions that the board and owners can’t deny. It’s important we get the shape and tone of those questions right. Otherwise we’re just throwing the blues out with the bathwater.

And I’m sick of swimming in the stream.

We’ll be Everton Forever, remember. See you Sunday.

Words: Alan O’ Hare

Posted on by

LITTLE PALACES

LITTLE PALACES

“And the doors swing back and forward, from the past into the present…”

Elvis Costello, ‘Little Palaces’ 1986
Palace, eh. 

Jesus. 

An opening day fixture against The Eagles makes you think of Howard Kendall’s third spell in charge back in 97/98 and Lombardo letting us know how tough that season was going to be. 

But, these days, memories of Palace at home means on thing: 3-2. 

Who was there? 

Thursday May 19th 2022, Frank Lampard in charge and a relegation-threatened Everton side under as much pressure as they’d ever been following defeat at home to Brentford on the Saturday. 

It didn’t start well. Two down before half time thanks to a soft set piece and Seamus showing his age on the half way line. Throw in an embarrassing goalmouth scramble that brought to mind Gary Ablett and Wimbledon and the grey skies were gathering. 

The Blues made us happy in the second half, though. The Deli sub. Gray putting a shift in. Keane’s measured volley and Richarlison’s will to win getting us back in it. And then… the goosebumps are starting. 

It was the following year ahead of the Bournemouth game on the final day that Evertonian and Fans Against Foodbanks chair Dave Kelly said “Everton don’t go down”. It might have been tempting fate, but fate isn’t tangible. What is tangible is EFC’s top flight record. 

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s goal that night v Palace was tangible. The sun setting in the corner of Goodison Road as the cross came in was tangible. The number nine’s diving header was tangible. And the relief… the relief of almost 40,000 Blues lucky enough to get a ticket was… palpable. 

We all know what happened next (and again). But in that moment, the joy released by the unstoppable force of relief that flowed through us all as Dom peeled off towards St Luke’s to celebrate… that joy was tangible. 

Evertonian joy. Everton joy. Delirium when wining against all odds. That’s Everton, that. 

And, remember Palace at home last year when Grealish got the late winner? That’s what this place can be an’ all. 

Happy new season, Blues.

Words: Alan O’ Hare | Photo: Tony McArdle (Everton FC)