Kanchelskis: I'd have stayed with Everton if I could

Oh how we thought we were about to enter another golden age... sounds familiar!

Sweaty, bored, stunk of drink, overweight and bad tempered... is what I think I heard him say as I walked off.

(My Russian is a little rusty.)

My recollections same as yours! Giving the ball to Waddle in the Bradford FA Cup tie was what convinced me he was trying to force a move. Some (but should have been more) great memories of him though!

As for it being good financial business, Foirentina still hadn't paid us the full fee years later.

Post of the day for Eugene.

I also remember him scoring a cracker at the Street End and not one player went over to celebrate with him. It's typical EFC that the best player is sold to keep the finances okay and perhaps the dressing room happy too.

As regards his dislocated shoulder, it was Lee Sharpe who did him when Man Utd came to town. He's the only player to wear the blue since Howard Kendall's '80s team, that would have had a chance of getting into it. No-one else has come close.

Great player. I had a shirt signed by him, which I've passed on to my nephew.

Shame, a real quality player and we didn't see enough of him.

I will never forget this guy for giving me my best football birthday present ever, 2 goals at the Kop on that dark rainy November Saturday afternoon in 1995, I remember that day like yesterday. Limpar dancing through 4 Liverpool players in midfield before laying Kanchelskis off with an absolute peach of a pass then Kanchelskis buried it. Brilliant memories.

Surprised by this sudden attitude that pressing is the new way forward in the Premier League, if my memory serves me right, the Big Joe's Dogs of War of 20 years ago were very good at it (Big Joe said if AC Milan could do it, then so could Everton). It's nothing new.

I do remember his form dropping off in his last few months at the club as rumours went around that other clubs were interested in him, and other rumours circulated that he wasn't that popular in the dressing room. (I remember him scoring against Sheffield Wednesday at Goodison and not one player went to congratulate him.)

The others? Lineker, Southall and, on a good day, perhaps Beardsley and Limpar. Rooney and Stones have reached/will reach those levels but not in an Everton shirt.

My recollection from press reports at the time was that Andrei had his head turned in his second season and his performances dipped so EFC cashed-in. At his best he was a devastating wide-striker (not a winger) with electric pace and great shooting power.

Well I'm sure that's all in the past and it was good to see him IN WILLIAM HILLS steering clear of that sort of thing...

Bombs and bungs: The story of Andrei Kanchelskis's United exit.

Andrei Kanchelskis is a Manchester United cult hero. The Ukrainian winger played a huge part in United's marvellous mid nineties team – Ferguson's first great United side. Alongside Giggs, Cantona, Hughes, Ince and the rest, Kanchelskis's lightening quick, direct performances down the right flank ensured his place in United folklore. He even scored a derby hattrick against rivals City.

Kanchelskis's acrimonious Old Trafford departure in 1995 is one of football's most intriguing and mysterious tales. Rumoured reasons for his exit are still discussed on Manchester streets to this day 20 years on, with hearsay and gossip spun wildly into webs of urban myths that wouldn't sound out of place in a Bourne Identity sequel.

Before we talk about the shady end, it is important to discuss the equally shady beginnings. Kanchelskis was recommended to Ferguson by agent Rune Hauge – the same unlicensed agent who was involved in George Graham's “bung” scandal of 1995. With the help of Hauge and Kanchelskis's agent Grigori Yesaulenko, United signed the winger for ٟm in 1991 from Shakhtar Donetsk.

In Ferguson's 1999 book “Managing My Life” he revealed that three years later in 1994, Yesaulenko handed him an unsolicited gift at Manchester airport — 㿔,000 in banknotes in a shoe box.

“I thought it contained a samovar, or some other typical Russian gift” Ferguson said. But when he opened the parcel at home, he saw that it was packed with cash. Ferguson decided to put the box in a club safe in the presence of lawyers. The cash sat there for almost a year, before Yesaulenko turned up again and was almost forcibly given back the gift.

Yesaulenko had arrived to talk business though and demanded that United accept an offer from Everton for Kanchelskis. United had earlier rejected an offer, which they felt wasn't worth enough to the club after the fee had been split according to clauses in Kanchelskis's contract. The Independent newspaper obtained a copy of those contract clauses in 1999 which detailed that Shakhtar were to be given 30% of any profit made from any future sale. 30% of any fee was also to go to the player himself.

United's boardroom wanted to make ٣m from the sale and so they pulled the plug on the deal. Yesaulenko, who wanted to make a cut of his own from the transfer, was apoplectic.

In a meeting with United chairman Martin Edwards, Yesaulenko told him “”IF YOU don't sell him now, you will not be around much longer.” He also told Edwards he would sort out the Shakhtar “problem”, allowing United to keep more of the fee.

A month later, Kanchelskis was sold. Two months after that, Aleksandr Bragin the Shakhtar president and five bodyguards were blown up at Shakhtar's ground four minutes into a match against Crimean team Tavria. (Bragin was known as “Alik the Greek” in the Ukrainian criminal underworld.)

The events which led to his death began after Yesaulenko threatened Mr Edwards and said he would “sort out” the Ukrainians. While the Kanchelskis talks were stalled, Mr Yesaulenko sent a fax in English to Shakhtar asking one of the club's board members, name Kolotsei to forward the fax on club notepaper to Manchester United. The fax, dated 13 July 1995, waived Shakhtar's rights to their 30% cut of transfer profits and United happily moved Kanchelskis on to Everton.

Aleksandr Bragin and his colleague, Ravil Safioullin, claimed Mr Kolotsei wasn't aware of what he was forwarding in the fax. In a letter sent to United (dated 19 September 1995) they wrote:

“Mr Kolotsei signed … text in the English language prepared by Mr Yesaulenko… only because Mr Yesaulenko requested and explained that this fax was necessary exclusively for helping Andrei Kanchelskis to solve private problems…”

The controversy surrounding Kanchelskis caused the Shakhtar board to re-examine the original contract for the 1991 move to United. Clause 3 stipulated they were entitled to even more money: 𧵎,000 after Kanchelskis had played 40 games for United, 𧶲,000 after he had played 80 games, and another 𧵎,000 should Kanchelskis pen a new deal. But a check on their accounts showed the money had not ever arrived from United, despite all the stipulations being met.

Initially the board thought that United were involved in dodgy dealings with Bragin. It emerged that Bragin had sent United a fax, asking them to deposit money in an account in the name of Euro Football Ltd at Coutts & Co in Zurich and not Shakhtar's usual club accounts based in New York.

Shakhtar maintained that the Euro Football Ltd account had nothing to do with their club. It appeared that Bragin had been attempting to siphon money away.

After Aleksandr Bragin's death, United and Shakhtar continued to argue over the profits from Kanchelskis's Everton transfer. Shakhtar also needed reassurance that United had made the 𧻞,000 payment relating to the appearance clauses in the 1991 contract – money that had “disappeared” thanks to Bragin's underhanded workings.

In Munich on 23 and 24 January 1996, Maurice Watkins, United's solicitor, proved to Ravil Safioullin (Bragin's successor) that United had been asked to pay the money into a numbered Swiss bank account. The arguments continued until March of the same year, when United made a settlement of 𧾺,000 to bring the chapter to a close. Safioullin claims he was made to sign a confidentially clause after the dispute was eventually resolved. United declined to make a statement about Bragin's death and the subsequent contractual controversies.

In 1998 Grigori Yesaulenko was arrested and charged with tax evasion following the sale of Russia midfielder Dmitry Alenichev to Italian Serie A club Roma. Yesaulenko was vice president of selling club Spartak Moscow at the time and was charged with hiding $7m in Swiss banks after the transfer.

It's easy to see why the Kanchelskis transfer, Bragin's death and Yesaulenko's behaviour were strongly linked to involvement with the Ukrainian mafia and criminal underworld from the outset. You get the feeling that we are only scratching the surface of what was one of football's most unusual set of circumstances.

I am guessing that Kanchelskis's fee from Hills was a more substantial free bet than your ٠. I wonder how much Andrei won? If he did win, I'm sure he will have just err... reinvested until it disappeared.

When I saw his photograph in William Hills, I was thinking that he looks just a step or two above the tragic figure of Kenny Sansom, a sorry sight wrecked by alcohol.

In Kanchelskis's case it's apparently gambling and mixing with the wrong company. Me Mam was right all along, then...

I've forgiven many a player for a crap performance but not trying in a game is an unforgiveable offence. Sorry, the guy is trying to re-write history.

That's exactly the same for the neutral fans these days, when they see a fixture like Everton v Swansea or whatever. We have become uninteresting and painful to watch.

It comes to something when people claiming to be Everton fans underestimate the quality of these legends, some of the best players ever to come from this country and their records prove it.

And if you know your history? The mind boggles at some of the comments here.

Don't know if it has been mentioned already but the rumours after the Bradford game in the cup was the Big Nev chinned him in the changies. It was a very odd performance from him that day. Either he wanted away or there was something even more sinister afoot.

Moyes was Mrs Hubbard throughout his tenure and in retrospect did marvels on a shoe string.Martinez stated the obvious when he said that we needed at least 6 or 7 new squad additions when we reached Europe. But we lost two players and signed two and he was gagged afterwards.

We will remain where we are at best, unless a major overhaul is made over the next couple of seasons.

As for the pass to Waddle against Bradford, he was pressed back and no Everton defender made an angle for him.

I know he should have given it to Big Nev but that wasn't in his make up. He had lost the players and they hung him out to dry.

As for Kanchelskis, we got him just past his very best IMO but when he came to us he still had plenty to offer, he was not past it. A terrific player with the ball at his feet.

I was at the Bradford cup tie with my son. An absolutely disgraceful display from him in the context of an appalling team performance . He definitely threw it away that day.

A dozen years on an unbelievable wage. He joins the lengthy list of footballers who have thrown it all away if the stories are to be believed.

Sadly, I can't.

No way am I having Kanchelskis was on £40k a week at United in 1995. I recall Stan Collymore costing Liverpool a British record transfer fee in the same year and even he, nor the likes of Alan Shearer, was commanding anywhere near those kind of wages at that time.

Brilliant player on his day but sadly his day lasted for a very short time.

God we need a player like him now, no one comes close to him in this current squad.

Kanchelskis Kans Kop – I remember it like it was yesterday.

EFC Transfers

I had forgotten Hottiger but still think Barrett was worse as he couldn't pass wind or trap a the proverbial bag of sand.

If you ask me who is the worst ever signing, I have to go back to Bernie Wright who makes Niasse look like Ronaldo. Claus Thomsen comes a very close second though.

We have had some rubbish... in fact, a lot of rubbish. It's a good job the bin men aren't required to collect our rubbish as, with one grey bin once a fortnight, it would take decades.

So Royle would splash out on Kanchelskis, Speed and Barmby which made for a fearsome attack but we'd go cheap or he'd choose the wrong players in defensive roles like Short, Hottiger and Thomsen. We ended up with a squad that eventually got asset stripped - Kanchelskis, Speed, Ferguson, Barmby – and what was left was threadbare. It was a malaise that took half a decade or more to resolve before Moyes finally moved us up the table and levelled out the squad.

Under Royle there were some great memories but between him and Moyes, I can only really think of Anfield in 1999 or maybe the demolition of West Ham the previous spring under Smith.

I remember Phelan complaining in the press that they had took him from ٥ a week to 㿔 grand and he had fallen out with them.