Alex the Great — a new film tribute from Dr France

For me and my generation, there are a few: Ball and Kendall spring to mind. However, before Ball and Kendall, to me there was only one Legend: Alex Young.

This was a guy who was a Legend, not after he finished playing or left the club, this guy was a Legend while he was here! A great and lucky thing is that we have honoured Alex whilst he is still alive and therefore he knows how revered and thought of he is by the Club and supporters. It was great to see him at our pre-season game at Tynecastle last season; I know he really appreciated the ovation he got from both sets of supporters.

I have seen many great players at Goodison playing both for us and against us but to me the only one is Alex Young. I wish our younger supporters could have seen him play. Had he been around now we would never have seen him grace Goodison as no way could we have afforded him. Now he really is a Legend!

I agree that legends are defined by different generations; my Dad used to say that Dean and Lawton were the best centre forwards Everton have ever had. He also said that Sagar was the best keeper.

For me, my first idol was Dave Hickson, then it was Alex Young. I then moved to Tony Kay, Brian Labone and Alan Ball. Then you get to an age were you just have favourite players and don't hero worship them like you did when you were younger.

Apart from Hickson, none of the others got close to legend status although we did have some decent players. The half backs as they were called then were Cyril Lello and Wally Fielding. I always remember being in my mates house and we were talking about half backs, and his mum asked: How long do they have to play half back before they are full backs?

I think my generation were lucky because we watched sides that regularly won trophies. I think the last great side was the '80s team consisting of Southall, Reid, Bracewell, Sharp and Gray.

Hopefully Ronald Koeman will help restore us back to those days, but he will need time and quite a lot of financial backing. Financial backing was something all the managers of all our great teams had; let's hope with Moshiri on board the present manager gets the financial backing he will need.

I have always thought – for those who didn't watch us in the '60s but who know our '80s team – that the Everton player who, at his best, resembled Young a bit was Trevor Steven.

Hickson was my first hero, then Collins (and Parker, king of the slide tackle).

Then it was Vernon, Young, Harvey, Kay and Ball. I also loved Morrisey, but there were so many to choose from.

I grew out of heroes but loved Latchford Thomas McKenzie and Dobson (so cool and elegant he should have had more England caps).

My Dad was of the same view above about Sagar Dean and Lawton and he loved Mercer and Britton, but he always thought Vernon was the best of his type he'd seen since Alex James.

Really looking forward to this.

Alex was peerless in the air he seemed to float at times, or was that just my imagination, he also had an absolutely uncanny ability to drift into open spaces, he always seemed to have yards of space. He was one of those thoroughbreds that just seemed to glide effortlessly around.

A joy to watch in that era Young ,Vernon, Labone, Kaye (what a player he would have been), Wilson, Gabriel, Harvey, Kendall , Ball, Parker, Temple and on and on.

We're going back there guys I feel so optimistic about the future .

I worked on a milk round in the Magull area where a lot of players were given a new house as part of their contract. One Saturday, my milk float broke down in front of the house owned by the new Everton winger, Micky Lill.

As they had a game that afternoon, Lill, Vernon, and Gabriel gave me a hand to get the float out of the way of the drive. I was so excited, I forgot to ask for their autographs. Can you imagine that happening today?

That was the start of the great era, with Alex Young arriving. I am 73 now, living in South Wales, still following the Blues and hoping that new manager Koeman can bring back them great years.

I couldn't even find it on eBay, which was where I bought The Golden Vision!