How soon is now
I'm just finishing watching Everton v Man U from the 03-04 season on Fox Soccer Channel and it pops up some very distinct but paintful memories. Whlsit watching the game and forgetting what happened, I just watched Everton claw themselves back to 3-3 only to lose 3-4 with Rooney just missing at the end. Why does it matter? Maybe not all that much but......In summary:
- Moyes was our new manager to rescue us from the Walter Smith era. It really was dire before Moyes. To Walter's credit, I firmly believe he was the one to start the turn around despite such dross as Ginola. He just added the stabalisers and ran out of ideas after that.
- The Man U game at home that season brought our pride back, I was so proud of Ferguson and Unsworth in that game even though we lost. It was the start of my regain in Everton pride which I hadn't completely since 1995.
- We had an awful season with Rooney and finished 4th from bottom. We all knew we were better than that (as opposed to previous seasons). It was a much better Everton side than that which finished 4th from bottom on goal difference a couple of seasons earlier at the expense of Bolton
- We were very proud of Wayne Rooney back then. Well, I was anyway. I remember staggering through London at 2am yelling "there's only one Rayne Wooney". Call him what you like, he was our saviour. We now know he's a twat but hey, we got £20 mill plus for him. Thank you Colin Harvey. Why he's employed by Bolton and not us I'll never know.
- Big Dunc was my idol, even when he played a few games a season, he scared the shit out of the big clubs. It was all we had to look forward too when we were truly shit. I'd love to spend an afternoon with Dunc talking about Everton, being married to John Parrot's sister and what it's like to own a ton of pigeons. True legend in the eccentric Neville Southall mould.
- I now notice that Lee Carsley was awesome in that game. No-one noticed back then. After reading about his daughter, the man is a pure inspiration to all of us.
- It was the early steps of Moyes turning us around . The workhorse, committed players such as Zinedine Kilbane moved us forward from the fat has-been Ginola can't be arsed has-beens.
So what's the point in this post? I turned on the tv by random and Fox Soccer Channel had a game from a time when it was the first time since 1995 I was proud of Everton and the effort the players put in. Maybe not the whole season, but that game was awesome.
As a parting note, Big Dunc a waste of money? On games like that, he was worth every penny. A true Everton legend.
And in that Man U game, who thwarted Everton in goal? It was our very own Tim Howard.
2008-09, let's bloody win something.
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Well he can win all the trophys he likes, but one day he will sit down an old man and if he is still the blue he and his family claim ,then he should regret that he wont be down in our history books as a legend alongside the usual suspects.
No one would deny in time he coud of left us for pastures new, as time was on his side and although the move was instigated from within his total lack of respect for the club stinks.
So ask yourself this ,would you rather win what he has for another club and have nothing on paper for the club he claimed to love, or win nothing and have your name stamped in our history as someone whom then fans adored and will forever be remembered? I know which I would choose every time.
Well he’s certainly blessed as a footballer but, with the best will in the world, the second half of that sentence is bollocks.
For thousands of EVERTONIANS, playing FOR EVERTON at GOODISON in a Carling Cup tie (on £50000 a week) tops playing in a Champions League Final for Manchester United (on a £100000 a week).
NB: Yes I AM joking about the money.
So kissing the Man Ure Badge in front of our fans at Goodison plus the comments attributed to him in the papers about OUR club since his move down the 62 etc, etc do not, in your books make him a twat?
You are entitled to your opinion mate, just as I am entitled to disagree (look at it this way if you will, if yer best mate shagged yer bird then laughed about it in your local and took an ad out in the papers mocking your meagre ?length?... by your reckoning, just cos his own bird isn?t that good looking by everyone elses standards and yours is a stunner that is more likely to win beauty contests, at home and in Europe, then he was well within his rights as a top shagger to do so and therefore isn?t a twat?)
The lad may be a class footballer, who still has bags of untapped potential agreed, but he is completely without class of any other type
How anyone can see he is anything other than a twat is beyond me...
unless they are calling him a cunt!
Do you think Stubbs would ever run round GP kissing the badge of the team he’s playing for.
Do you think Stubbs would end up in a brothel at the age of 18.
There is no comparison as I’ve already said Rooney has no class whatsoever and for me the best thing EFC ever did was cash in on him.
"who did no differant than all of us would do in the same circumstances"
So what you?re implying is: we would all refuse to sign a new deal to make us the highest-paid player in Everton?s history, the club that we allegedly grew up supporting, and then with 24 hours of the transfer window open, submit a transfer request forcing us to sell for about half his value to bitter regional rivals, without so much as a by-your-leave. And then, to continually disrespect the club because of our hatred for our supposed "control-freak" of a manager, the same one who gave us our first start in professional football, so much so that we cannot return out of fear for our safety.
Either you?re a Manc or you?ve a screw or two loose. I suspect the latter. If you need a number for a good psychiatrist then please, let me know.
Its sad because I think football and the premier league lost a great player and a style of play we are unlikely to see again.
He could fight, put himself about and had a passion that few have surpassed. In todays market you can only get lip service to some of those qualities and every manager knows the first time a ball is given a route one he will be blown up for competing,, In the last season or so, he incurred more fouls that it became embarrising (not that he embarred himself, but that referees would pull him up continuously for fouling.)
Sad loss to the club but just as importantly a sad loss to the premiership and the days of a contact sport
Yes he is classless and as thick as pig shit but to me he is a lad who used to play for us way back when and nothing more.
As the grafitti said, "you could have been a God but chose to be a Devil"
I have moved on and I wish that people would stop giving him grief on the pitch as it make the fat granny shagger play better.
One image that remains in my mind about Ferguson was when he was having a go at Ellery, he had been blown up for a foul for the umpteenth time when the defender was all over him and he turned to Ellery and said (I could hear it as he was near the Lower Gwladys) "What the fuck do you want me to do" and then proceeded to jump straight up and down with his hands by his side.
The league, as you said, outgrew him with all the ponces and sprinters taking over.
I remember the feeling of utter despair when, having celebrated wildly when it went 3-3, that goal went in.
It must have been worse, though, to have seen it as a 4-3 on Sky, only to have it corrected lol
Here’s to more proud moments next season.
PS Anyone remember being 2-0 up against Oldham (early 90s I think?) and conceding 2 goals in the last 2 minutes? Now THAT was bad!
I can see that playing for your home club has lots of appeal (Nicky Barmby take a bow), but if you were young and keen to win things and Man Utd came calling, you’d give it serious thought.
Have no problems with the Spud Faced Nipper going to Man Utd, he’s bringing us more money each season. We would never be in the situation we are now had he not left, we would be shopping in the bargain basement every transfer window for overweight has beens.
The team played as a team when he left, no more passing it to Rooney and see what he can do with it.
The Yak scored more than him anyway....
Simonsen, Pistone, Weir, Stubbs, Unsworth (Blomqvist 75), Hibbert, Carsley, Gemmill, Gravesen, Radzinski (Moore 45), Ferguson
I think we’ve moved on myself....
"I remember feeling utter despair when that goal went in, but it must have been worse watching the sky report"
You couldnt make some of these responses up could you ?
Good Article though Dan
My sympathy lay with the poor blues inside the ground who after being taunted by Mancs for the entire first half, were still celebrating the equaliser, when that sickening winner went in
Read the post again and note the whole thing in context. I remember it vividy because it was the one home game I missed that season and it was the day before my mates wedding. Also I see you have left the end of the sentence off for the second quote, the one that would indicate that the viewers not 20 seconds before thought we were 4-3 up
You seem to be wound up here and I didn’t say I heard the report on Sky, I was watching Soccer Saturday in the Bookies but don’t let the truth get in the way of an attempted wind up.
You can say what you want after this mate as I won’t be responding to you or commenting on your petty digs. I just find it hilarious that out of over 20 threads you chose to pick at mine and Bobs, am I him?, is he me?.
Take a chill pill mate and relax, life’s too short to bear grudges.
first year at uni in Newcastle and got in to this tidy bird on the wednesday. So we decided to meet up on sat, walked around (to say i expected a mauling is putting it bluntly) while me bro was texting me the depressing yet all to predictable scores. Then, 3-1, rhino... so i took this bird (a manc actually, man city if i remember correctlly) to this right dive geordie bar were i knew they played the game on arabic.
The rest is history - i got pretty pissed, the high’s and the lows were potrayed with me jumping around when we scored and in utter disbelief when ruud scored, seeing ronaldo taunt the bullens road. Needelss to say, she never called me back after that. Did i care - did i fuck! that game made us all proud, even in defeat (very a la the fiorentina game if you will) and, at the end of the day, you can get a shag any day right...?!
The funny thing is Rooney was just one of the things I mentioned but that’s what everyone’s pounced on. I was actually thinking more about unsy, Carsley and Howard to be honest.
If people want to focus on Rooney, I was just discussing the badge kissing episode with my kopite Brother, a Sheffield Wednesday fan and a Derby fan down the pub and they all agreed that it was something disrespectful and something you wouldn’t expect of an ex-player. He’s a dumb twat, full stop.
fair play to you lad, some of the best posts on thise site have been typed by people under the influence, at least it would appear so
Tony
At last we agree, your right, life is too short
Another argument looked for on a completely non-controversial thread - takes some doing, but well done for creating an argument where none existed.
Yawn....
Some of my Juniper Juice ramblings:-
Two points - Point one: Big Dunc will be to me the epitome of Everton. A man. Someone who would never take a backward step. He may be outdated in todays cosmopolitan superstar moneygrabbing piles of shite but he has made me proud to be an Everonian and I have been there since 1971. I guess if i’d been a bit older it may have been Dave Hickson who reckoned he would die for the Blue jersey.
Point two:- Andy Johnson will prove to everyone what a buy he is - remember his 3-0 salute against the Shite - this guy has surely been unucky with tactics - with a strong midfield run by Mikel and Manny (with Leon) he will prosper up front and the return of Vaughan will surely asist in our push for the top - not top 4 - The Top!
Come on you Blues


1 Posted 29/05/2008 at 09:21:18
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It was 3-0 and I switched my phone off.
We walked into a bookies to see the final 10 mins on the old videprinter then it went to 3-3, we were pissed and dancing in the bookies and what made it worse was the bastards at Sky put the score as 4-3 to us when Van Horseface scored for them so we were going mental only for it to be taken away with the dreaded word "Correction"
This was made even worse when the fella behind the bookies was a Manc and started laughing at us.
I was sick I missed that game but as you said was proud that we came back from 3-0 down