It is a good many years since I posted on this or any other Everton site as since distance and ill-health prevented me from attending matches on anything like a regular basis, I have felt ill-qualified to comment. However, Rob`s post has brought me out of retirement as `I was there` at the time and can honestly claim to `know the facts`.

Harry Catterick was a very private man with little or no time for the Club`s `off the field` staff, press and supporters. All of which made my job as editor of the Club`s programme a nightmare.

He insisted on reading every article – on any subject – before publication for fear it would somehow disparage him. Compiling `The Manager Speaks` article was a particular nightmare as so often he just wouldn`t speak – or would leave the appointment for the interview so late, we had already gone to press!

But, for all that, he was a brilliant football manager. He did no coaching, preferring to watch Wilf Dixon and the other coaches work with the players from his Bellfield office window. But he missed nothing and many old players would attest to the bollockings they got from on high!

He rejoiced in the 69-70 1st Division Championship victory. He was prepared to go as far as claiming it was his best side ever and just for once, his demeanour lived up to Shankly`s sarcastic sobriquet for him –`Happy Harry`. Certainly1970 was probably the happiest summer he ever enjoyed – although even that was, in his eyes, tarnished by England "carting no less than four of his players (Ball, Labone, Newton and Wright) to the old side of the bloody world!"

His fears over the effect this most demanding World Cup would have on these lads proved well justified as they came back knackered and the team could manage not a single victory until the eighth game of the 70-/71 season.

Whilst the team did well in Europe, that adventure ended with the infamous trip to Athens to play Panathinaikos – enough to say that Harry went to his grave convinced that the referee for that game `had been bought`. Most of us present agreed with him. He was taken ill on the flight home and although this was dismissed as `a bug`, it was enough to make him miss the ill-fated Old Trafford FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool four days later.

We had enjoyed a marvellous although potless journey in the cups but this meant nothing as against finishing 14th – until then, Harry`s lowest ever finish – in the League. "A bloody disgrace," he told me as I prepared the final programme of the season v Blackpool. "Print what you bloody like, you're having nothing from me!"

From that moment until his major heart attack in January 1972, he was never the same man. To me, he seemed to become even more remote and depressed than ever before and although he recovered well enough from his illness to take back the reins, it was all downhill from there.

And so, Rob, to answer your question, "Did he fall or was he pushed?", I think I can honestly say it was a bit of both. Regardless of the fact that his team had got perilously near to relegation by April 1973 when the drawbridge was pulled up, Harry was too proud and financially astute to resign but I can categorically state that it was a strangely relaxed and `Happy Harry` who travelled home from his final game and yet another defeat at Derby! He may `have gone upstairs` but I never discovered the building they were in!

I will never, ever forgive Catterick for breaking up the championship winning team. If they had stayed together our history would be a lot different then it is now.
Concerning your question, once he was no longer manager I think he just disappeared.
Despite winning us major honours he is not remembered fondly.

Colin; I don't think Catterick dismantled it, more like it fell apart. Poor form, World Cup backlash, being the target as champions, the Cat's TV gaffs giving away tactics, failure to properly replace fading players coupled with not too many gooduns coming through in positions that were weak

Rob; If you think we get told nowt now, it was 10 times worse then. Catterick could've been the man in the moon for all your average Joe knew (or, it has to be said, cared).

Colin, it's nonsense to say Harry Carry is not remembered fondly. He was a difficult individual and very remote, but the fact is that he was a brilliant manager and the football his teams produced was among the best ever seen at Goodison. He deserves credit for that. He was also a true Evertonian through and through and died an Everton fan's death - watching us battle foot to foot on a Saturday afternoon. You'll never be able to say these things about David Moyes who isn't fit to chip the dried mud off Catterick's boots.

Hello David (588) - that is a fascinating insight. Could you contact me via robsawyer1970 "at" gmail.com (replace "at" with @) or call 07779 483713. Thanks.

David Hall excellent insights and I'm glad to see you added meat to the bones of my suspicions.

You should write a book, and if you have where can I get it?

Or even a series of pieces on here 'From my seat 50 years ago'

This sort of tribal memory needs preserving.

At the moment, I'd rather read about 9th Mar 1963 than think about 9th Mar 2013.