FAN ARTICLES

The Ones That Got Away

A thought occurred to me with recent press coverage of Jamie Carragher?s book ?. Over the past 20 years there have been a number of (as hard as it is to admit?) outstanding Liverpool players who were in fact born and bred as true blue Evertonians. One would assume that the ultimate dream for these guys as young aspiring footballers would be to play for the club they have supported ? Everton.

And yet the Everton scouts and Academy ? predominantly during the 1980s ? seems to have overlooked, ignored or missed out on approximately £50-80 million pounds worth of home grown talent in the shape of Carragher, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Robbie Fowler ? all of whom subsequently signed for and prospered with the dark side ?

I therefore pose the question: How did this calamity happen? In the case of Michael Owen, for example, as a young boy playing in school and Sunday Leagues he set a remarkable goal-scoring record that was well documented in the Merseyside local press ? The Liverpool Echo and Daily Post ? so how did we miss out on this kid? Why when he was a dedicated Everton supporter was he overlooked and allowed to sign for Liverpool ? particularly as during the 1980s Everton had almost as much success as Liverpool and therefore as a football club had equal appeal for young apprentices?

It could perhaps be excused as an oversight if it happened once ? but 4 times ????!!! All of these players mentioned went on to prove their credentials as England internationals, so before Evertonians shoot me down in flames ? just put your prejudice aside for one moment and forget about their current history of playing in red. Now, close your eyes and imagine that these guys had never ever played for Liverpool and were all nurtured by the Everton Academy ? just imagine how the fortunes of our club might have been affected in a positive way if all of the aforementioned players had been signed by Everton ?

I appreciate that some of you might retort with ?On Yeah ? what if... blah, blah, blah? but my point is that, surely at the zenith of their success in the mid-1980s was the time that Everton could afford to invest in the future by pouring money into the kids at the academy, and by capturing outstanding young talent ? particularly when most was sat in the boys pen every other Saturday afternoon!

Surely our scouting team from that period must now be shaking their heads in disbelief at the ones that got away and were welcomed with open arms by the dark side? Thankfully we now seem have got our act together with the academy and the future seems a lot brighter? but it was a bitter lesson to learn having boyhood Evertonians scoring against us when it should perhaps have been the other way around?

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