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The Mail Bag

Spirit of 69-70 today

Broadcast on Sky Sports last night was 'Times of Our Lives' which featured the Everton side from 69-70.

I sat and watched this last night, and although the program contained no footy action it was thoroughly absorbing. It was basically an old boys chat with Jeff Stelling. Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall and Joe Royle talked about their playing days and the part they played in Everton's 69-70 championship winning side.

Among things they talked about was their relationships with Harry Catterick and other players, such as Alan Ball, Johnny Morrissey, Brian Labone and Gordon West.

Joe Royle told us about the occasion that he got his first team call-up. He was cleaning the first team's boots at the time and the assistant trainer told him that the gaffer wants to talk to him in his office. Well, Joe thought he was in trouble and couldn't think of anything he had done wrong. Harry Catterick told Joe that Alex Young couldn't play on Saturday and that he would like him to play centre-forward. At the time, Joe's preferred position was Right Half (right midfield), but becuase he was tall and gangly, Harry asked him to play center forward. The rest is history.

An interesting point that came out of the this discussion that was very relevent to today's Everton side, and that was the camaraderie and team spirit they had then. The team battled for each other, which seems to be exactly what is happening in today's side. A common factor in today's side with the the side then, was the ratio of Scousers in the side. This helped to contribute to the humour, attitudes and friendships that were fostered then.

Are we seeing the same thing happening in today's side?
Brian Baker, Aldershot Posted 17/02/2009 at 05:01:49

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JL Slap
1 Posted 17/02/2009 at 14:50:58

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Good show, I enjoyed it.

Team spirit does seem to be as important today as it was then but I’m not sure about the ratio of scousers shout. They mentioned about 5/6 out of a squad of roughly 15?
We’ve got about 4/5 in a squad of about 30??

Brian Baker
2 Posted 17/02/2009 at 15:57:29

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JL, I was thninking more of the ratio of British players to non-British, rather than just scousers. In fact only Hibbert and Baxter were actually Liverpool born.

Matthew Douglas
3 Posted 17/02/2009 at 16:49:56

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Actually Baines was born in Kirkby which has "a ’L’ postcode and a 0151 STD code" ....erm, oh uh, who said that??

Keith Glazzard
4 Posted 17/02/2009 at 16:50:34

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Tim, Timmy, Joe, Steven and the Yak aren?t British, but they are anglophone ? English speakers. And Mikel?s English is better than many a native Brit?s. Moyes has preferred this in a player if possible, and I do think it is important for team building. It might be that he is now more comfortable with players like Fellaini and now Jo coming into the set-up. And the spirit in the camp helps them to settle in.

JL Slap
5 Posted 17/02/2009 at 17:01:46

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Fairplay Brian, I did see your point. But I?m sure Baines, Irving & possibly Wallace are scousers with Rodwell from Southport or somewhere. For that matter, if you?ve ever heard Vic speak then you would have to say he is as scouse as they come too!

I?m being picky, but I?m bored! lol

Tim Wardrop
6 Posted 17/02/2009 at 17:04:55

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Keith ? and in addition to that, Moyes generally likes to make sure that, if he has a player in the squad who can?t speak the lingo, that there is someone else fluent in his language that can (witness Fellaini and Saha / Arteta).

Dave Roberts
7 Posted 17/02/2009 at 18:13:37

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Does Fellaini speak French or Flemish or both? Or does he mainly speak Arabic?

And what has Arteta got to do with it? Does he speak French, Flemish and/or Arabic too!?

Craig Taylor
8 Posted 17/02/2009 at 19:23:27

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Arteta is fluent in 3 or 4 different languages ? including French and if I am not mistaken Portuguese.

There has always been a good ream spirit with Everton, the only problems have been the average managers we have had in the past!!

Christopher Mowll
9 Posted 17/02/2009 at 19:21:36

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My favourite part from last night was when Royle spoke about how we were romping home for the title, but still had to play the RS away ? and as the RS had beaten us at Goodison, we had to beat them so the title wasn?t tainted ? and we did. This simply summed up what it meant to wear the Royal Blue Jersey.

There is a post on here about Cahill being a legend ? Royle, Harvey and Kendall is how you measure legend status. Absolute class!

Damian Scott
10 Posted 17/02/2009 at 19:23:04

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Felliani is a French speaker... His parents were from Morocco, but he was born in Belgium, so I’d presume going to school and growing up there he would speak french as his first language... Depends if his parents also taught him to speak Arabic..

Arteta can speak about 7 languages and is the teams unofficial interpreter.. Himself and Valente help with Felliani, Castillo and Jo (I believe his English is coming along though).

From wikipedia:

"Arteta is multilingual, speaking fluent Spanish, Basque and Catalan. He speaks English and some French and Italian. He is also learning Portuguese.[13]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikel_Arteta

Matthew Douglas
11 Posted 17/02/2009 at 19:27:15

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Dave, Fellaini speaks Arabic and French. Arteta speaks several languages such as Spanish, Basque, Catalan, English, French, Italian, and was learning Portuguese as of a few years ago. Quite the talented lad apparently. Arteta and Saha have been the one?s to communicate with Fella in French.

Adam Cunliffe
12 Posted 17/02/2009 at 21:05:36

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I watched the show last night with my dad and I must say that Colin Harvey seems one of the nicest ex-pros you could wish too meet. All three of them were enthusiastic but Colin looked like he was genuinely enjoying the evening.

Keith Glazzard
13 Posted 17/02/2009 at 21:48:30

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Christopher Mowll is right to question how easily we use the term ’legend’. No player can ever be so while he is still playing, and a managerial career can overlay that. Howard Kendall is the ultimate example.

But Alan Ball was revered in his time with us, and has been called legend since. Tim Cahill is earning very much the same respect we gave to Ball back then. I feel sure that if you asked Timmy if he would like to be called a legend, he would say that he would like another few years to earn the title. The best is yet to come.

And you know, he just keeps getting better.