Roberto Martinez on his love for his Belgians

Any road, he is right though when he states "we" feel in love with Rom. Damn internet went wild when we signed him. So yes we did fall in love, maybe not the type of love were we want to run off get married and have his children. But then again, I am sure there are some Evertonians out there that think that would be an ideal situation. I am more than happy to watch him play, and grow as a footballer playing in Royal Blue, and love him from afar.

But back to football. I also believe in this day and age if footballers were treated like they were in the 60’s when I started to watch Everton, they would all pack their bags, go home, and wait to be transferred. While all the time collecting the interest on their big fat bank accounts. In that "era" we started with, players were not multimillionaires, but as we know, some were working jobs in the off season. So playing was still a "privilege". Now days off season work is modeling. But that is me being a bit cynical.

Got to coddle, nurse, educate these young players now. I look at the age of the team now, and damn it, I am old enough to be the father of all of them. So I can understand the challenge you would have if you don’t show them some "love". Boast their ego, encourage them to try new things, don’t crap all over them when they do make mistakes.

Can’t have these young players throwing up their hands, hanging their heads, or moaning when things go bad. Especially can’t have them out and about smoking and not leading the younger fans by example when they are not playing football. Then again we have that current topic about the younger players these days and the money they are making.

"Show me the money, then show me some love".

Moyesie had more sense than that although you would never cross him especially in public (Jesper Blomqvist!).

Roberto is another step down the evolutionary chain.

However, the man that got the balance absolutely right and was ahead of his time in some respects was Kendall Mk I. Mickey Thomas saw his tough side, the Chinese restaurant meals with the players saw his softer side.

The trick is to marry the two together. Kendall Mk II and Mk III were lacking in discipline and it all fell apart. Roberto is doing great with the softly softly approach. It will be interesting to see how he deals with a player stepping out of line.

Harvey's first mistake was to be 'too nice' and not sign a single new player that Summer of 1987. Kendall had signed Lineker when we had a team that was exceptional because he realised Gray's knees were on borrowed time, Harvey did not heed the lesson despite LFC also always signing big when they were Champions.

By the time he splurged the market in Summer 1988 the rot had set in, Gary Stevens wanted out and left , Reid was on the wane, Steven and Sheedy unsettled and Bracewell out with a career threatening injury, and he had to bring in a large group of new players.

As described in Graeme Sharp's autobiography two cliques of old and new players formed and it went steadily downhill from there. Can't remember if the Sheedy / Keown bust up was 1989 or 1990 but by then the great team had well and truly broken up and although a decent enough team we had blown our chance to overshadow Liverpool.