The Mail Bag
The Inextricable Link
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Everton and Liverpool. Everton vs Liverpool. Two clubs, one city. In England no other city can boast two clubs with such success or auspicious history. Everton?s nine league titles and five FA Cups is enough to be getting on with, let alone what Liverpool have achieved in the last forty years. But them sharing a ground?
Not wanting to give a history lesson to all you well schooled fellow Blues, but we are inextricably linked to Liverpool like a flat mate you loathe but can never evict. I believe they were the first two club city rivals to fight it out in an FA Cup final. When Liverpool fans got English clubs kicked out of Europe, Everton were the biggest losers. When Liverpool fans were tragically killed at Hillsborough, who did they have to play in the cup final?
Going back further, Everton once inhabited Anfield and their fans would have stood where the precious Kop does now. Then in modern times, wasn?t it ironic that we should deprive them of fourth place in 2005 and that their last minute goal against Standard Liege should ultimately condemn the latter to having to sell Fellaini to us and, much worse, putting the Belgian outfit in a tie to eliminate us?
Some of our best players in the last thirty years donned red; Beardsley, Watson, Sheedy and eh?Abblett. Amusingly, going the other way doesn?t seem to be so fruitful; Barmby, Xavier (I won?t count Steve McMahon as he went to Villa in between) And that?s not to mention all the Reds who were Blues as kids; Rush, Fowler, Owen, Gerard.
It does rather smart when Liverpool fans make out that the only derby they care about is the one against Man Utd. This is Liverpool trying to pretend they?ve outgrown their old foe. And this is the problem and one of many things that suggest a ground share won?t happen.
Since the nineties, Liverpool have started looking down on Everton. For a few years in the eighties they couldn?t do this but their role as the last of the ?big four? means they see Everton as a poor relation. Their arrogance is quite breathtaking. They are critical of Everton?s players and style yet, in the last four years, have thrice been within three places of them in the Premiership despite Liverpool having spent more than thrice as much on players.
But can you imagine Everton fans going up to a ground every other week where there?s a statue of Shankly outside? Or Liverpool fans doing the same with William Ralph Dean staring back at them? Who would inhabit the new Kop end on derby days? Plus both sides will have to play on a ground that could be reduced to a local park pitch if they are in Europe on a regular basis. They?d be playing four games a week on it at some points of the season.
However, all that said, if Everton do move outside the city boundary then it?s us who moved out of the flat, thus leaving our annoying co-inhabitant to play ?Gerry and the Pacemakers? as loud as he wants, paint all the walls red and have Mark Clattenberg around for Paella whenever he wants.
It might be better the Devil you know. It might be time to move in properly with our cocky and annoying younger sibling and remind them who their real rivals are.
Andrew James, Posted 15/11/2008 at 19:46:31
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*cough* London *cough*
Remember that the Blues are still in fourth on the league winning front ? despite what Chelsea have done of late, they and Spurs are miles behind us.
Anyway, it does make sense currently, financially, for a shared ground ? even though emotionally it?s a no-go. With regards to Paul Daly, I think shared grounds have worked in Italy, another football-mad country. So Paul, is there any evidence, from anywhere in the world for what you are suggesting ie power-brokers in charge of shared-grounds clubs pushing through an amalgamation? Has it ever happened?
With regard to amalgamation, they were common even in England at the beginning of the footballing era and I fear they may make a return as football adheres closer to business models than to community based "club" models.
But that?s beside the point ? the old ethic, sectarian, district, class distinctions that threw up so many football clubs, leading to the great football rivalries mean noting to most supporters now ? what?s left is history and the rivalry itself. Do you imagine that matter to some corporate raider if it get?s in the way of his profit margins. You and I care, the owners, esp. the new petro-billionaires don?t. They would see amalgamating the clubs as logical and wise. We would be appalled and sickened.
But most technical problems can be solved by "imagineering". I suspect, as you probably do, that the problems with this whole concept are emotional, not physical.
Reasons why it shouldn’t happen:
1. The cost of a groundshare would pretty much drain all of our resources but at the same time halve the RS debt to fund the scheme thus improving their resources.
2. They have a bigger fan base than us so would want a 60,000+ seater stadium. They have a waiting list for season tickets, we don’t. This means for their home games they have a full stadium singing their shit songs. We won’t fill it especially if we can’t buy any players because the whole scheme has plunged us into so much debt. If we really do want to be the RS poorer cousins then a ground share will make sure of this.
3. For the money Everton would need to raise to fund the scheme, Goodison could easily be redeveloped and therefore we should stay put.
4. The RS ground move is strangling them financially and we should watch with glee as their bubble bursts.
All this talk of amalgamation is nonsense, we?d still be 2 clubs just sharing a stadium, nothing more ? we?d only cross paths twice a year as normal but our supporters would have the home/away end etc
Financially Everton are fucked, we have no prospective buyers and are unlikely to get one in the short term, the RS are struggling too (in a different way of course) yet neither of us has the ability to raise the cash for a new ground ? the best option is clearly groundshare.
The problem Evertonians have is that they don't really want to move from Goodison, they dont want Kirkby and they don't want a groundshare ? basically they want nothing other than Goodison, because I certainly haven't heard of any alternatives to the aforementioned.
This will rumble on and if we?re not careful, we WILL end up in Kirkby, so which is worse, the out of town Tescodome, or a top-class stadium in Stanley Park that we share?
I prefer the latter cos we sure as hell ain't stayin at Goodison.
Be careful what you wish for.
Why do people keep promoting this?
I want Everton to be better than Liverpool in every department not just as a team on the pitch but as a club.
A great part of a club is your stadium. I therefore want us to have a great stadium and Liverpool to have a rubbish stadium.
How can that be achieved if we share?
You need help mate
Do you have a viable alternative? I doubt it, because nobody else has thus far, and I don't mean people on here, I mean those who actually count.
Ground sharing makes financial sense, logistical sense and sense to both clubs as well as the community in the surrounding areas. Everton and Liverpool would still exist as separate entities, and loyalties would never be lost ? its progression and the only way (I can see) of us getting a decent ground within the City.
You want us to have a great stadium, and them to have a rubbish one? Isn?t that a bit of a juvenile view? What would we possibly gain from them having a crappy ground? Surely this is about us getting a great one? Without this kind of option I really don?t see us getting anything other than the Tescodome in Kirkby, and I don't want that any more than you do.
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1 Posted 15/11/2008 at 22:20:47
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And it would make sense to the money-men and the charlatans and the hucksters who increasingly run football. It would be presented like any other business merger. To the rest of us, blue and red, it would be akin to being violated, but it is the logical conclusion from groundshare to amalgamation in the minds of the money men. They would argue there are too many football clubs in England as it stands, that a Merseyside super club would make more business and economic sense, eliminating competing brands and setting up an instant market leader.
All it would take would be Gillett and Hicks and a like-minded majority shareholder at Everton (the mythical billionaire saviour of too many Evertonian wet dreams) to ramrod this through. And there wouldn?t be a damned thing supporters of either club could do to stop it. That?s what a groundshare really means ? it?s the thin end of the wedge.