The Poisoned Chalice

I was delighted to see the back of Martinez and was pleased to see Koeman arrive but noted at the time that a fair number of TW regulars were skeptical about him.

The thing I find most bizarre is his public criticism of both his team and his bosses. I know he is not the CEO but, to draw a comparison with the commercial world, if the CEO blames the company's failings on both the employees and the Board then he/she would not last long. I do wonder if Koeman is behaving like this to get himself a pay off for the very reasons you set out?

Persoanlly I would give him at least another year but Mr Moshiri may not be so tolerant

So, yes, you're right, expectations are high because of the highs of our history. But it is history, and it cannot be easy for an Everton manager now, if expectations are this high. But in a way, it's a potentially massive opportunity for any manager. To take this club with it's rich heritage, and get us back from an ordinary mid-table side to one of the best again. Any manager who could do that, especially given the problems we've had recently, would have a big extra notch on his career belt, a massively beefed-up CV. And even if it didn't work out like that, he'd no doubt still get another job anyway.

So, in a way, a great opportunity rather than a poison chalice, depending on how you look at it.

Early '80s for me so lucky enough to experience Kendals all conquering team and to know how winning feels and better still the expectation that you would win.

I suppose this is how Chelsea and Man City young fans feel today and Man Utd and RedShite have felt for long periods.

It is very hard when all that is taken away as we Evertonians know only too well. I hope we experience even a fraction of that again especially for the younger fans who have had nothing but disappointment from supporting our great club.

News is out that EFC have agreed a fee for Schneiderlin from Manu so this proves that the Everton "Project" continues and Koeman won't be going anywhere for another 2 to 3 years.

Can someone please email Diego Simeone and tell him. He'll be sick as a parrot!!

I actually think he does, Rick; it's just that he isn't as loquacious about it as his predecessor was which is understandable – they could not be more different in terms of personality.

And if he is able to complete his "project" of finally putting this club back at the top table then he will have earned all the kudos you believe he desires.

We have to accept that it is going to take time. Maybe more time than it probably should but, having made the investment in him, the Board is going to give it to him and we have to see how he does with it.

All of the above have precisely the square root of nothing to do with his ability to carry out the job he is paid to do.

This type of narrative does clearly demonstrate one thing to me though. It explains how bullshit Bill was able to con his way to a fortune whilst waxing lyrical nonsense like a character from The Fast Show for the best part of 20 years. He knew precisely what to say and when to say it. The misty eyed masses would lap it up. There is a grudging admiration on my part.

Whether Ronald will be able to achieve stuff at Goodison is open to debate, let's see how we are doing this time next year; 18 months should be long enough to assess if we are progressing or not.

Perfectly put.
The situation summed up in three paras.

Apart from that I can't find much to argue with. If he's still here this time next year it'll mean one of two things – we're Improving or Moshiri is a lot more stubborn / has a lot more faith than me / and a lot more money.

Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad I suppose.

From the beginning, he made it plain that old ways no longer mattered. This fellow was utterly ruthless in his attitude toward the old guard and he shifted them on as fast as possible.

A hard disciplinarian he had little time for backsliders on or off the field. Fitness and a willingness to run until you dropped was a pre-requisite of any new signing.

He commanded total obedience and woe betide any player who stepped out of line. It took him a few years to line up all his own ducks but he ended up being our best ever manager.

Who was he?

Personally, I would have taken a spanking at Leicester for a cup win. We are never going to finish higher than 7th this season, even less chance when he goes spending 㿄m on another defensive midfielder to add to the collection.

So, after realising we reached two semi-finals last season, the momentum would have been there in the players' minds–- there are no medals for finishing in the bottom 19.

In Koemans defence – his lack of tolerance (and much has been written about his treatment of Niasse on another thread) is all to do with the sort of character who is used to getting his own way.

I was quite shocked to hear Klopp's reaction in a press conference recently. The likes of Klopp and Koeman do not take prisoners. Koeman is ruthless and as an England supporter, for all of my admiration towards the Dutch team he played in, I couldn't stand him.

I think our eternal problem is that our love for this Club will always interfere with our judgement. To Ronald it is a job – to us it is a way of life. The two will seldom mesh.

You are probably right in that the size of the salary went some way, amongst other things to convincing Koeman to come here. However, here's where I disagree. You talk about Koeman as though he's gone as far as he can and he wants to be gone. You ask Lyndon for evidence that he buys into the history. It's all hypothesis on your behalf; opinions, same as Lyndon. There is no evidence.

Koeman was left a pile of crap the size of Snowdon when he came. He probably didn't realise just how big a job he had until he started. People seem to forget just how bad it was under Martinez and how poorly the players played. They also seem to think that the RS were completely transformed when Klopp came, but that has taken quite a while to come to fruition with far better players than we have.

Koeman has every right to publicly question the board about funds. I'm guessing he was promised certain things, funds being one of them and they have failed to appear.

Koeman has every right to appear frustrated and short of patience with the players. They have not performed consistently for 3 years now. How is that Koemans fault? He has tried the arm round the shoulder, tried tough love, it just doesn't work with this lot.

I am frustrated with the players as I'm sure most other fans are. If Koeman couldn't care less then why make comments suggesting he does? Why bother showing your frustration? I don't buy that he's looking for a way out. For crying out loud, he's only been here 6 months. He tells it like it is, something we've needed after the schmaltzy crap of Martinez. I guess some people just don't like the truth that we are in fact not very good.

You are also alluding to Koeman wanting to be at a Southampton with little or no ambition. What rubbish. He had it cushy there, he was reasonably successful, why leave for a job that is hard? He didn't go into this job with his eyes shut. He's not stupid. I'm quite sure he didn't think this would be a doddle.

He has taken his time and given most players a chance to see what they could do. Now he has found that most are sadly lacking so wants funds to rebuild. What's wrong with that? We've known for ages that a lot of the players aren't good enough, well the ones who weren't conned into thinking that this was the best squad in a generation. Fuck me that was the biggest con of a generation.

It appears the board have listened to him as we now have Schneiderlin on board (hopefully) with more to come. So judge him this time next year when he has his own team playing the way he wants. We know how he wants them to play, the players, or at least most of them, won't or can't do it. So, with that in mind, he needs to get shut of some and bring in others who will do what he wants.

It's foolish and ridiculous to judge him after only half a season. He has them in 7th place when not playing well with a team that is blatantly not good enough. He has shown ambition coming to Everton given the size of the job when he could have coasted at Southampton until the bigger clubs came calling.

Lyndon's and Kevin's comments may just be opinions but so are yours. You have no evidence to back up your posts, its just based on your opinion of body language and the fact he doesn't gush Everton like his predecessor did, that turned out well didn't it? Give him a fair chance and we shall see if it works out or not. You may well be right, but we can't judge on half a season with a piss poor inherited side.

Today is very reminiscent of that period: decades of underachievement turned around by the involvement of John Moores, the Moshiri of his day. He ruthlessly sacked Carey, in the infamous London taxi ride, and appointed Catterick, who was an exact opposite to the easy going Carey.

Moores/Moshiri, Carey/Martinez, Koeman/Catterick: add in interest free loans to enable the club to compete for the top players and the parallels are strikingly similar.

It took Moores three years to get us back to the top. I'd say that today it'll probably take a bit longer but the building blocks are being put in place.

It seems most of the players he inherited haven't... yet. Will they ever? Do they ever want to? Do they care?

Does Koeman 'get' the club? Does that matter? Martinez told us he did and how did that turn out? He'll be gone in a few years at most and Everton will have been one step along his career path. As will Klopp from across the park for all his camera-conscious antics and all round love in with LFC. He'll be just the same at Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG or even Bayern if he gets on that merry go round. Guardiola? Ancelotti? Van Gaal?

Let's face it in the modern game how many stick around to build a dynasty in the Ferguson, Wenger mould? Very few become synonymous with one club. Catterick, Kendall and possibly Royle for us, all ex players.

So for now we have Koeman trying, I believe, to imbue good, professional standards on the club and, whilst he might not be a fans' or media favourite, I've a feeling he will leave us in better shape than he found us.

When Johnny Carey came to Everton and started bringing fabulous players like Collins, Gabriel, Parker, Ring, Vernon and my all time favourite, Alex Young, it was the tops.

It's an interesting point you've raised about whether Koeman has bought into the Everton vision or whatever we want to call it. And I look back to the late 50s - early 60s as a rough parallel. I'm not sure if Johnny Carey was anything other than a manager brought in to raise the standard of our play and bring success.

To me what he brought was a standard of football, light years better than I'd seen before and I like many thousands of others would be queuing up to go the match from about 1 o'clock.

I think when Catterick came though, we weren't as successful over his time as manager, even accounting for the league and cup triumphs as we should have been.

To me, I'd have liked to have seen Carey stay but between Catterick and Shankly, I'd have loved Shankly to have been our manager.

So, to me, it's not so much a question of Koeman not buying into the "Everton Vision" or whatever we want to call it. It's whether he can begin to rebuild a team that needs a fundamental clearing out and replacing with better players. That's what Johnny Carey did and I won't be disappointed if Koeman can start to bring us along the long road back to the top.

Koeman isn't all effusive compliments and endless positivity; he say's it like it is. I think that those who comment that we had the best team in a generation, and it was just that Martinez just couldn't unleash the fantastic talent just waiting to burst it's way into the top four, see football differently from me.

My view is that, if EFC had put the whole team up for sale last year, the majority of players just wouldn't sell, unless it was in the bargain basement. I don't think that was purely down to Martinez, nor do I think it is that Koeman isn't getting the best out of them.

We have a lot of players who are set in their ways and are just not good enough to do other than keep us floating around the middle of the table.

Koeman has a massive job on, and I think he was dead right to look at all the players he has and give them the opportunity to show him they are good enough. Well, he's looked, and he, rightly in my view, has made his decision that quite a number of those players are simply not good enough and need to be replaced.

I also think he was right to let those responsible for bringing in the players he's earmarked as priorities, to get a bloody move on and bring them in without delay.

So he's not like "the Joker" over the road, all smiles and cuddles, who was given the much easier job of finishing touches to a team already there. Koeman has to more or less start from scratch by replacing players who are not good enough. I think he said early on that it would take two years.

Dave Ganley has written a really fine post and I go along with all what he's said. I think we should be willing to see what the next two or three transfer windows bring and back Koeman while he's rebuilding.

And one little plea to Mr Moshiri: give those doing the negotiating, a great big boot up the arse!

Despite the game having changed a lot since then the one thing that hasn't changed is the richest clubs tend to win all the trophies. I think when John Moores no longer backed us with his money, the club went into decline. But I think that our choices of managers had a lot to do with our demise. When Shankly went to Liverpool, they were paupers compared to us but he bought well and coached well. I know also from reading Ferguson's autobiography that money was tight when he went to Manchester United. But again good coaching made them a top team. When I look through our list of managers apart from Kendall, Royle and Catterick the rest were bang average.

So now Koeman is in charge, and he was my choice when we sacked the charlatan. Let's hope he is the real deal and for the first time in a long time he will have financial backing, which will make his job easier.

I would just say criticizing your players in public never works and also has a detrimental effect on team spirit. So my only advice is keep your criticism inside Finch Farm, and get the players to enjoy playing for you.

Perhaps Koeman is finding the exact opposite and so his overall demeanour is not helped by the way the players go about their business on the pitch... he looks cheesed off to put it politely.

There was an interesting point made at the weekend about Steve Bruce's appointment at Aston Villa. The fans seem to have taken to him and have forgotten about his time as Manager at local rivals, Birmingham, and he has been afforded a better reception by the fans than Alex Mcleish, also a previous manager of Birmingham.

Of course, positive results help... Steve Bruce is generally winning or drawing; Alex Mcleish wasn't.

Football is probably as simple as that.

Would it really matter to the majority of the fans who the manager is as long as the team are winning or drawing far more than they are losing. I give you Rafa Benitez, not from a personal view to wanting him to replace Koeman.

If for some reason in the near future, we needed a new manager, and Benitez was appointed and then managed a successful Everton team playing the best entertaining football seen by our fans for many years, perhaps winning a cup final or a league title along the way, would we be resentful of the fact that he was our nearest rivals former manager...

For me, I appreciate where we currently are: bottom of the Top 7, using someone else's thoughts on how we should perceive ourselves, not best of the rest!

However, I would appreciate it more if the football we played was entertaining, there seemed to be some actual plan or purpose amongst the players, working their socks off for each other, plenty of fight and spirit etc... and with the Martinez spirit of adventure...

If we are to lose matches, and all teams do, it would be great to feel that the team winning had had to earn it, we had fought to the end and not helped via any slap-stick defending...

Parker and Collins were already here when Carey arrived although I agree Carey brought some great players to the club. We were brilliant to watch but, in many ways, he was similar to Martinez in that he neglected defensive aspects of the game.

He was fortunate in arriving just as Moores's influence was allowing Everton to compete for the very best players but, nevertheless, he failed to take us to 'to the next level'. (As they say, today). His first two seasons were underwhelming: although the football was great we were often very poor away from home.

Catterick added organisation and steel to the side and made them hard to beat.

Although the Carey football was great to watch I think the '67-'70 Catterick side was my favourite.

Anyway as opinions are always going to vary I'd have liked him to stay, as with the money available and the early Sixties team was "The Team" for me. I don't think Catterick was anything like as successful as he should have been and would have loved to have seen Shankly, if Carey had to leave, become our manager.

I think the central point that we've got now though, is can the team be improved with Koeman and start us on the long road back to the top six...and in my view it is a long road. I think he should be supported on what he is aiming to do in the next couple of years.

I don't think that Carey quite had it in him but he did get us playing vastly better stuff. Ah, Tommy Ring... best crosser of a ball I've ever seen, was with us too short a time.

It is not just about money in getting on a level field, it's always about money, it's not inequality which is the real misfortune – it's DEPENDENCE.

For too many years now, we have been too dependent on a man who wasn't and isn't up to running the club. I'm not about to have a go at him (again) but hopefully he will gradually go further into the background as Moshiri gets the club off its knees and back on its feet.

Historically I stubbornly argued against logic that our history alone merited our place at the top, but 20 + years of nothing has taken its toll! Sadly we are neither financially in the big boys club, but more depressingly, not on the ambition front either "Nil Satis etc.

From where I'm sitting, the club has operated in an unambitious way across the board. Most aspects of the club, from the state of the stadium (let's see how the dock site develops), our retail, marketing, our publicity machine are amateurish and to be frank, a bit of a joke.

Discipline throughout the club appears to be non-existent (personified by the lackadaisical performances of late) and a general malaise seems to permeate the whole scene.

Like you , I have not seen in Koeman the empathy, passion and vision we will need to rouse us from this slumber, as Bill Shankly did across the park.

Oh and Tony (#26)... I never saw Tommy Ring play, but a better crosser than Dave Thomas? He must have been great!

Dave Thomas was a very good player and great for Bob Latchford, but oh for Tommy Ring today, only played 34 games for Everton. Over 50 years later I savour every minute I saw him play.

I remember the regret I felt when I heard he'd broken his leg against Chelsea. One of the Sillets wasn't it?

I seem to recall that he was caught between Mathews and the full back but will defer to your superior memory. He came from Clyde for 㾸k I think. A Scottish international and knocking on a bit.

I was 12 at the time and it is still a real pleasure to me to have seen him. What an exciting time that was with the Moores money and new players coming in.

I wonder...

We had some great left wingers in the sixties with Ring, the really tough Johnny Morrissey and the gifted Derek Temple.

Someone above mentioned Bobby Collins, I don't think any signing has had a bigger impact that Collins did when he signed. He rivals Colin Harvey for me as my favourite Everton player, though Young and Vernon were very very special.

The closest for impact was Andy Gray when he signed and transformed the eighties team and made Graeme Sharp an even better player.

Dave Thomas was a fine crosser of the ball, one of the last to be able to deliver consistently on the run. But Ring, apart from the balance and change of direction which Rick mentions, had a knack for sort of floating crosses which I've not seen any others manage to the same degree (he played some fine games for Scotland too I remember).

He was a special player.

Shit, did I just write that? 60 years ago!

The current lot aren't in the same league.

And then Tommy arrived on the heels of some other fine signings mentioned by others, primarily Bobby Collins who turned things around almost on his own. I quite agree with all Jim, Tony, Rick, Dave, Bill and Chris have said. Carey inherited some good players in a team on the rise and got us playing attractive football again. It was a real thrill to look forward to going to GP in those days. It was not so much fun watching them away from home as we really struggled to win games on the road; was it the '60-'61 season when we did not win one game away but were hammering teams at home? Catterick undoubtedly took us the next step that Carey could not do.

If Tony Kay had not been suspended I have no doubt the teams following the '63 title would have flourished. But, as we know, Catterick did have the idea of breaking up his winning teams and trying to start again with some new faces.

I think Dave Thomas is a fair comparison for Tommy Ring. Very different players in different times. Very easy on the eye. I would take either one of them playing for us now.

It confirms that my memories are valid and real and shared by many.

Back to Koeman: I can't work him out properly but it seems he's been exasperated by the lack of leadership in the squad. I still expect another centre-half and my money would be on Fonte replacing Jagielka to finally give Williams a stable partner and give us a lot more organisation with a possible back three.

There is talk we have signed another striker so if this transfer goes through, I'd expect us to start playing in a totally different way.

The Robertson analogy is fair. But Tommy Ring was better, although Robertson is revered by Nottingham Forest fans and team mates. Forest took the First Division by storm when they got promoted and he was a major part of the reason. Didn't we play them at a Goodison early on that season ?

We will hopefully start to change now.

Please.

Incidentally I remember a game in which Kavanagh played, it was a night game and I was standing in the paddock down at the Stanley Park end against the wall and Kavanagh, yet again failed to go past his full back and ended up on the cinders in front of where I was.

Someone yelled something on the lines of "Kavanagh, you're useless" and to his credit he grinned as he got up and said "What do you expect for ٟ,500?" We'd signed him from Romford, I think in the Southern League.

I must admit to the same puzzlement. That was until I laid eyes on Tommy. My biggest regret was Everton not signing him much sooner.

I was gutted when we sold Dave Thomas. Tommy Ring must have been some player if he was better than Dave Thomas.

Actually, I think it was the finest managerial feat of all time when Forest won the European Cup under Clough – especially with a few players who were deemed either too old or just not quite good enough;

I hope this new forward proves to be similar, because it seems to me he might just have an obvious talent.

This was a very good article, by the way.

Also Dave's at 17 & 44. I also grew up with Thomas & Latchford and was at the Forest game on that opening day. I thought we'd batter these newly promoted upstarts and left Goodison shell-shocked at the result.

I was actually grateful to Cloughie and his team over the next 2/3 seasons as they seemed to have the hex over LFC and pissed on their chips quite a few times in league and cup games.

Billy Liddell is still an icon amongst Red fans of our age. One of the reason Liddell didn't get more caps than he deserved was because he was an Anglo-Scot, ie, he played his football in England and this was frowned upon by some Scottish selectors. although sometimes Bobby Mitchell of Newcastle was selected.

I don't want to praise a Red too much but Liddell was an outstanding footballer who was someone to look up to as a player but also as a man.

Something in that Glasgow water though; very talented, never fazed, especially the class in the school Jimmy Boyle was in as a lad, if you've ever read the book "A Sense of Freedom!" ... or was it A Quest for Freedom?

Having read the comments about Tommy Ring I wish I'd had the pleasure of seeing him play.

Great thread.

Thanks to all.

You're right about Liddell. He was a good man first and foremost before he was a good footballer. Big and powerful and athletic at a time when the athletes in England were all a bit undernourished post war. He burst footballs when he hit them, several times from memory.

Anglo-Scots were a common breed. Alex Young, Bobby Collins, Jimmy Gabriel, Alex Scott, Ian St, John, Yeats, Alex Parker. All would have had many more caps had they stayed up in Scotland. Was it 8 caps for Young and 12 for Collins?

Ridiculous.

When Tommy broke his leg, Micky Lill played briefly on The left wing. We were then treated to a litany of short term wingers on both sides. These included the likes of Veall, Fell, and others on the left and Bingham and others on the right.

It settled down after a bit and history speaks for itself.

Royston Vernon was a genius.

Jimmy Fell, signed from Newcastle, did have a goal in him and played for a couple of seasons following Ring's injury. I recall seeing a picture on a snowy Bellfield of Bingham, Collins, Young, Vernon and Fell jumping over a chain.

I think I got about 7 autographs that day as Roy hit a shot onto the cinder path from my school, the Holy Ghost annexe which cut the golf course in half. I returned the ball to him, I think I was 7.. he laughed and gave me smile and lit another cigarette (I think he was a chain smoker). He got all the tem who were with him to sign my homework book... my teacher wasn't impressed..

I remember seeing him play, lanky, elegant and seemed to always score, well in my mind he did... a perfect foil for Alex Young I thought... must have been around 1962 I think.. they won 3-0 against West Ham.

His partnership with Young was sublime, they didn't weigh 20 stone between them and in the days when central defenders did kick, they somehow by sheer skill and speed of thought managed to outwit and outplay them all. Vernon used to point his hand , like a signpost and move off in another direction, it worked time and again.

In 62-63 I was sixteen. and my Goodison heaven is that team, my spec in the old Paddock, watching Young, Vernon, Morrissey, Kay, Gabriel, the young Labone, the wonderful Alex Parker, the eccentric, Gordon West, pulling his crossbar down and Stevens working so hard. I think the eighties team was probably better all-round, but as an attacking force, 62-63 led by Vernon and Young was "my" Everton.

The following day in the People, Bobby got 9 and Tommy got 10.

I was 12 in 1960 and that early 60s team was my team too. Like a first love I suppose. Spoiled me really, like the rest of the 60s, both football and music and culture. The city was briefly the centre of the universe,

What a side that was! Roy Vernon weighed just 10st and was about 5'-10". Harry Catterick said he was the only player he'd seen who could smoke in the shower!!

Vernon was a great penalty taker and very rarely (if ever) missed one. He struck them with tremendous power, hard and low. Like Collins he was sold far too early.

Brian Harris was one of the best wing halves in the country but Catterick replaced him with Tony Kay, half way through the 62-63 season. Brian, of course, regained his place when Kay was banned the following season. Both great players.

Rick: if you recall, Stevens was signed, from Bolton, the following season. It took many fans by surprise as he wasn't exactly a top line player and was no spring chicken. He was probably the original box-to-box midfield player.

Kay, Swan etc got life bans for something that, today, just seems to attract a slap on the wrist. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Barton.

Alex and Royston were a magical air to watch, especially in the championship winning year when (if me memory will not let me down!) they scored about 50 goals between them and they just seemed to slice through opposition defences for fun. It's great having the ould memory jolted by the reflections and insights on here.

We'll all have a special place I reckon for that '60s side (or more correct, those '60s sides and oh for players like that again.) but I'm not saying anything new when I say we've fallen so far behind the other big clubs, that it will take years to get us anywhere near again. That's if we're going to do it at all.

Coming to the point of Ronald Koeman and the comments I've seen regarding his enthusiasm or lack of it and his acumen as a manager. He seems to have done alright at the other clubs he's managed and I think that, at the least, he can do as well for us.

I think the real problem we have his well there's at least two: (a) the team he inherited and the players he still has from it needs a thorough overhaul. I could never see the reasoning behind the comments that the squad that Martinez managed was the best in a generation but, whether they were/are or not, Koeman doesn't see the squad as anywhere near good enough to get us in the top six. So the similarities between the late '50s side before the rebuilding got undwerway and the last couple of seasons isn't that different.

Koeman at the very least, will have to improve on what we have and by that, he will be judged. But (b) the other weakness we've had is the legacy of the ownership for at least the last twenty years (especially the last 20 years) and that is the job Mr Moshiri has got.

"We don't want to be a museum, we are here to win things" – paraphrased but that's almost as good as our motto. I think we need to give Mr Koeman and Mr Moshiri some time and a lot of support for them to get this museum of a club back on it's feet and on the road to the top.

Oozed class and was aggressive with a temper to match his red hair. He was intended to be Cattericks lynch pin I've read. I've no doubt he would have been an England great for many years and a World Cup winner too. Can you imagine him and Ball in the same Everton team?

Apparently he was amazed by his reception the first time he came back many years after. He came on at half time and got a standing ovation. Surprised that anyone even recalled him.

What happened to him was a real travesty of justice as Shankly might have said.

He was not popular at first as he replaced Bobby Collins and he missed a sitter on his debut but by sheer effort and skill he won the fans over. A great man marker he was also very versatile. Catterick always put him on marking Bryan Douglas of Blackburn who was a tricky customer.

He got a great compliment from Nat Lofthouse in his autobiography. I think it was called The Lion of Vienna but couldn't swear to it.

When Dennis died a coach full of Evertonians went to his funeral, in Dudley his home town I think, I learned about it later, but would have tried to go with them, loved him and his attitude to the game,

He was a cousin of the late great Duncan Edwards.

I think that it is about time that we got in a manager like Koeman. A manager who, as a player, played with the best players in some of the best teams.

If you could choose the playing career of your manager you would be hard pressed to write a better playing CV than Ronald Koeman. Now, I know this doesn't make him nailed on a great manager, but I believe that having high standards borne from the heights you reached (and were expected to reach) as a player is important if you can carry them over into your management career.

Martinez didn't have high standards, we saw the proof of that, and one could argue that Koeman has been brought in to untangle the 'tangled fishing line' created by years of poor maintenance within the club. Players on contracts they shouldn't have been given, players here that should be in the Championship at best.

We might moan about players thinking they are bigger than the club, but what can we expect when the club has the image that it has? We're not a big club, and haven't been for a while. We are proud but not of stature, and Moshiri was right in saying that we cannot continue to be a museum.

I am 40 years old, I lived around the corner from Goodison Park on Beech Road (close to the Top House and over the road from The Taxi Club) and my first memories of going to Goodison were my Grandad (John Fitzsimmons, Shipwright for the Merchant Navy) pushing me through the turnstiles into the Gwladys Street. I remember when Kendall left and when Lineker left and when we started to erode following Heysel and the European football ban. I remember Mo Johnstone and Beardsley scoring against Liverpool in the Derby and I remember the 3-1 win against Bayern. Sadly, my overarching feeling of being an Everton fan is of disappointment. I've been taking my son (he is 11) to watch Everton here and there (he can't go to every game sadly) and so far he has been to 9 games – we haven't won any of them.

Now, to bring this back on topic, I've not been so excited about us as I am now. At last we seem to be realigning ourselves with the rest of the league. We are no longer prepared to behave like the small scruffy kid in the schoolyard, doing things 'our way' and ignoring the laughter from the bigger boys. It might be noble to act that way, but from our chairman to our PR to our players and our fans we have had the 'knife to a gunfight' mentality for too long.

I am delighted to finally have a manager who will openly say a player is bot good enough, I am happy that he will probably tell them that privately also. If you are a shit player, and EFC's manager thinks you are shit player then you had better become not shit, or leave. I'm glad that our manager seems to think this way also. If the players cannot take being told they are shit, then they either play better or move on.

It seems now that, finally, we are moving in the right direction. From Moshiri to Walsh and Koeman to our new stadium plans and our financial setup I feel we are starting to at least act like a proper modern football club. Compare how things felt when Kenwright took over from Peter Johnson to how things are now...

Moshiri means business, it seems. He wants to make us good so he can make a load of money, let's face it. Hopefully somewhere along that journey, we'll get to see EFC win something.

I knew him vaguely because my mate at school's brother knew him from Flo Melly and he even played bowls at the Hermitage and cricket in Walton Hall Park with some of us. A lovely man.

They used to open The White Star at 11:00 to accommodate him and we used to chat with him every so often. He would literally talk to anyone, particularly about Everton and horse racing. Then he'd move on to his next watering hole.

My mate was a great man for the turf and reminded Brian about his race horse, Goodison, that he had backed a couple of times and won a few bob on. That really set him going.

His tales about his time at Everton and particularly about Harry Catterick were hilarious, but he never had a bad word to say.

The White Star is a Red pub, twinned with bars in Norway and they loved him there. If you go in today you will see a picture of Brian in his Everton blue on the wall.

As l was walking around the ground, there was Brian Labone puffing on a ciggy, huddled up from the rain. We stayed together (very stressed) Praying for the final whistle... me and The Corintian...

Young and Vernon were special players I used to see them both in the Royal Tiger on Saturday nights along with St John and Ron Yeats.

Tony Kay what a player as someone said in an earlier post he would have played in England's World Cup side without doubt. He always got booed every time he came to Goodison with Sheffield Wednesday. But when he put the blue shirt on he was worshiped by the Goodison faithful. Also you couldn't leave Dave Hickson or Brian Labone out when talking of Everton greats.

Then you move on to the 80s team, with again so many stand out players. Gray, Sharp, Heath, Lineaker, Southall, Ratcliffe, Steven and Stevens and Bracewell and Sheedy. Were do you start picking the best of that lot?

I have to admit a soft spot for Peter Reid, what a player the only thing he didn't do was score goals. I met him about 12 months ago when both of our Grandsons were playing football in Manchester. Despite him once being manager of City nobody other than me spoke to him. What a 90 minutes of reminiscing that was some of his stories were brilliant.

I reminded Peter that I was lucky enough to be at the players banquet after we beat Watford, I was also lucky enough to sit on his table. What a night that was Bailey still wearing that tall hat he ran round Wembley with.

He told us he would be in serious bother when they returned after the summer break. Apparently Howard Kendall said, "Look lads, I know you want to take the FA Cup to your banquet but sadly I have to go to the directors do, so leave me the plinth to take there." Yes, you've guessed it – Bailey smuggled the plinth out in a carrier bag.

I stand to be corrected but I have a feeling there is some footage of him in the "Golden Vision", playing against Man City. Ernie Hunt scoring much to the displeasure of Malcolm Allison and Bally missing a pen... Nurse!

Aiden Maher was a child prodigy in football terms but never moved to the next level much like many of them.

The mid-sixties was the start of the change in English football thanks to the Euro-style play, a la Italian, whereby out-and-out wingers became more and more defunct although people like Giggs were exceptions to the rule.

Since we're rambling about the past, another name who I think gets overlooked is John Willie Parker of whom I have fairly hazy memory – I was just starting to become fully Everton-conscious during his time – but he was a cracking forward with a very good record for us.

I actually played against Wainwright when he was at Rochdale.Neither of the above were anything special.

Vernon and Young were special as was all that 60's side.

Everton were coming home from America, by boat in them days. James, who became Bobby's mate, asked him did he want anything carrying off the ship. Bobby didn't understand,; James put him wise by saying, "Have you got anything you don't want the customs to see?" Bobby had a few things, so that's how the friendship was born and lasted.

John Willie came through the ranks at Everton and formed a great partnership with Dave Hickson, they scored over 50 goals between them the year Everton were promoted in 1954.

He was very underrated, looked lazy but had a very good football brain, good with his head. I think he scored two in the 4-3 loss to Bolton in the 1953 FA Cup Semi-Final,

What has gone wrong, we ask ourselves, since the great days of Carey, Catterick and Kendall. I say Carey because it was he who was the initial architect in turning Everton into a competitive club in the old Division One that Catterick capitalized on late with the help of John Moores money.

Now we have another big benefactor but Koeman like Carey may be a little too laid back to whip this team into shape. We shall see.