Joe Royle leaves Everton

Charm itself. Despite Kendall's success, my favourite manager. Always had a line, a tale, a story.

My dad used to love watching him play and he was his favourite player. I was, and am, similar age to Joe and I was amazed how someone of my age could be scoring for my beloved Everton when I was just holding down a place in my school team.

Super player and a super man.

COYB

I just hope it has no negative overtones and it was Joe's decision.

It depends what was laid out in the discussions and contract as to how Everton will look in a month or two from now. I know many here have advocated a mass clear out, no sentiment, no jobs for the boys, a hard-nosed, business-like attitude to aiming for success. Well, the first attempt at that ended rather badly.

I feel an opportunity was missed following the arrival of Moshiri; a chance to realistically start to build the team and club in the spirit of Everton, for there is something different about this club I believe, and losing this soul now may see it gone forever.

Truth is, it's already a money game above all else, and the table and success reflects that. Our position will ultimately be defined by cold figures, almost calculable, save for the odd reverse, once we play to expected form.

What a shame we didn't set out to do things differently with this in mind; to build gradually and carefully on what was a good basis post-Martinez. To keep the best players wherever possible and grow and develop something a little different, using as far as we could, the excellent youth players we are consistently producing.

In the absence of the ludicrous finance available to Man City and others, but with the size and power to almost assure our place in the Premier League, we had our chance to grow nicely and with stability, whilst remaining "Everton". Recent events have really rocked the boat – where it will end, who knows? Surely, ultimately, our identity is all we have.

Now we're into the manager merry-go-round, like so many others, having appointed not to improve but to save. I fear we've taken our place at the table with the other lesser teams, with their constant changes in search of improvement, that somehow rarely generate lasting improvement but simply leave them as mostly predictable opposition for the Big Six.

The one thing that set us apart was stability. For years under Moyes; however, the football... we were by far the best team without money - and that meant something. That was soul, something to rescue and improve, to nurture.There were three sub-leagues in the Premier League : the Big Six, us, and then everyone else. I hope it remains that way.

As an aside, he once played for Quarry Bank at Anfield and Bob Paisley's son played in goal for the same side, lost 6-1 to De La Salle.

Top bloke.

Enjoy retirement Joe!

Emotionally, I've always warmed to former blues being involved but, other than Catterick and Kendall/Harvey, it has never really worked out long term. Many at the club would agree that there have been too many offered key posts without meriting them.

If we want to progress we have to lose the sentimental side of things. It only comes from and is instigated by one man.

The club is hardly likely to hold a press conference.

Thanks for everything Joe.

You were part of one of the finest footballing teams in the English game which unfortunately never achieved to it's full potential. The 1969-70 team was a joy to watch the players were heroes every one of them and I was lucky to see them. Even though the "Holy Trinity" take the limelight, the whole team were special. Thanks Joe!

Hope we continue to develop and promote our own along with the best from the rest of the world.

Thanks Joe.

I couldn't agree more with your comments, I seriously worry about the future of Everton Football Club, we seem to be constantly going backwards.

Years of rank bad business management

Joe had everything in his locker to be a much better player than he was, a natural footballer his skill was what he was born with, good control, two footed and marvellous heading ability, he lacked a bit of devil in his game. Alan Ball used to rant and rave at him in training for not doing more.

Joe had much more natural ability than Ball and Kevin Keegan were born with but the latter two worked continuously to improve their game; Joe never did. As I said earlier, he was too easy going and possibly too nice.

However he will always, I imagine, be welcomed at Goodison Park, especially by Everton fans. Enjoy your retirement Joe, no need to tell you to take it easy, you've always done that and that is said with respect.

At one stage of proceedings they had listened to a talk, and were then sent off into groups to reflect and ponder upon what they had heard, then discuss their thoughts.

Dad and Wilf were in a group consisting mostly of priests and nuns, who duly held their discussion on the tricky moral matter. Wilf was silent for the half-hour the group was together, but clearly troubled and deep in concentration. His silence was respected until the end when my Dad asked him if he wanted to contribute. There was a pause, Wilf slowly lifted his head, and said “Do you think Joe Royle's back will ever get better?”

A good manager for us as well. The last trophy we won was under him.

Thank you, Joe, for all you've done for this great club.

England, with a forward line of Joe Royle, Brian Kidd and Dave Thomas won 3-1. If only we could have seen those 3 in blue shirts at the same time.

When he spoke about Everton he was credible in a way no-one since has been.

But if it's the right call then it's the right call. Everyone has to be pulling in one direction and that's Sam's job. Hopefully it was all done on good terms.

I would imagine he'll always be welcome at Goodison. Proper legend.

Sounds very amicable and well dealt with.

As Joe said, he'll still be around.

“I'd like to thank everyone I've worked with at the Club, but I'd especially like to pay a personal tribute to Bill Kenwright. He is a dear friend and I will be forever grateful for having been given the chance to come back to my Club once again.

“While it just feels like the right time for me to take a break, I'll still be around the place. I've been coming to Goodison for more than 60 years and I'm not going to stop now. I've always been an Evertonian and I will always be an Evertonian.”

So it would appear there's no reason for conspiracy theories and it also seems not everyone hates Bill Kenwright!

Wonder how that fits with those that advocate ex-players being involved while seeing Kenwright as the anit-Christ? :-)

He was a class act as a player and a manager and even more importantly as a man. I hope his leaving has nothing to do with Allardyce arriving and bringing along his cronies. We have had many very good centre-forwards since Joe left and, as good as Latchford and Sharp and Gray were, none were as good as Joe in my opinion.

Joe and Bally are my all-time favourite Blues, not just for the footballing abilities but as decent men too. And in Joe's case, he became an instant hero of mine simply because he was the only lad in 1968 who owned a powder blue Jag in Norris Green!

I echo all that has been said – Thanks Joe, enjoy your well-earned retirement and see you around on match days without a doubt!

It wasn't Fjortoft but Tore Andre Flo, as well as another one (Kvarme?). Either way, the board blocked the move when we desperately needed a striker and he resigned as a result.

The whole saga is chronicled in a book by Neville Southall called Everton Blues, which was a diary of the 1996-97 season.

A completely loyal and selfless Evertonian. I'd like to think he saw the changes afoot at the club and decided to stay out of change's way.

Have a good break and see you soon, Joe.

How we could use a centre-forward like he was!

Gerald Sinstadt on ITV on the Sunday commented on how electric the atmosphere was that day – for a game that had relatively little at stake, I think. I do remember that Royle goal.

Used to love Sven Hassell's Porta who was dead good at procuring stuff for the men (he was like a serious German Bilko).

James Coburn as Britt in The Magnificent Seven was boss too, with a knife - he could take the plums off a bluebottle at 50 paces.

A mechanical genius is always handy in these groups, plus a vast brute, a dead-shot with a gun and a 'brains.'

In the film 'Everton' (nb: that exists only in my head) Joe Royle is the centre-forward and later manager known as 'the psychologist.'

Apart from his wonderful football ability, he uses a kind of smiling, intelligent sarcasm and dumb insolence to get inside the heads of referees, opposition managers players and the media.

He has a good idea what the other feller is thinking and uses that information to defeat him - “Sorry about the dream final lads - but bollocks to you. And that's with a double ‘L'.”

Well...as I say, that's in my head, but I always felt Joe had this quality and loved him (even more) for it.

By the way, other cast members:

'Lefty' – Sheedy (with a ball and his left foot can take the plums off a bluebottle...etc).

'The Flame' – Bally (losing a game of snap can send him crazy).

'Pitbull' – Peter Reid (you'll need to shoot him to keep him off you).

(Oh, and on the bench, purely for comic relief, because of how he controls the ball: 'Knee-Ass'...)

Royle has been there and done it, and he's not exactly a spring chicken. Why there has to be anything sinister attached to him leaving seems weird to me.

He would be the one that does the moody ID papers.

All the same, he is a wonderful man who dragged us back from the brink and threw an FA Cup in as well. I arrived in Norris Green a few years too late to see him play on the street but have great early memories of him as a player for us.

I would love to see him in the middle of the ex-red players as a match day TV pundit to put some decency into it.

After years of supporting their chosen football team many of them with broken bodies no longer can afford the price of a ticket.

I thank Joe Royle for helping raise our spirits at a time when we needed such a boost plus his above average input. I hope he was well paid for it but that is all.

He was a very gentle man, and a gentleman, but also probably the most one-eyed Evertonian I ever met (and that includes Tony!).

My Mum cut up a white bed sheet and stitched the number nine on the back of my Everton shirt. Joe was and still is my Everton hero. Great player and cast off by Bingham too soon.

Could add, a man of uncommon integrity but that is all part of his legend.

In 1993 it should simply have happened and this would've allowed big Joe to build a side which he was not given time to do when sacked in 1997.

I hope he enjoys his well deserved retirement.

[I know... fascinating stuff! :) ]

We laid to rest another great Crosby Evertonian yesterday. The church organist, yet another Blue, managed to slip in gentle versions of both Z-Cars and Faith of our Fathers

Mike (#55), there is a copy of the excellent new Everton oral history “Faith of our Fathers” winging its way across the Atlantic as I type.

"What's that?" he asked. "Bring the FA Cup in on Sunday," I said.

With a smile and a chuckle he said, "Of course, no problem!"

We know the result at Wembley. On the Sunday afternoon, Joe and a couple of FA Cup minders came into the lounge. Joe walked up to the table we were sat on, placed the cup right in the middle, and said with a big grin, "I told you I would!"

We sat there gobsmacked for around 10 minutes just staring at the cup and each other in disbelief. Great times.

Joe Royle, you are truly a legend at EFC.

Imagine a team now that had Southall, Watson, Rhino, Parkinson, Horne, Ferguson, Rideout. It truly was a team that had a hard spine. People talk about “hard man” Roy Keane at the time, he never acted on his hard-man image against that team.

Then brought back to aid the youngsters and get them on decent loans. Dowell, Williams, Connolly, Browning, Pennington, Galloway, Robinson – all on loan at the best set of clubs for years.

I hope he did leave amicably, and I like the quote that he'll always have a role if he wants to come back.

''And wonderfully biased'', great line and don't we all know / knew marvellous characters both Blue and Red who would choke rather than say a good word about the rival team, you would never ever expect them to be different, and you never took offence but would just laugh along with them.

Your friend who wondered if Joe Royle's back would ever get better never prayed hard enough for that to happen!!!!

I remember my Dad telling me of one such occasion being the '68 Cup semi-final and turning on the radio to hear "leads by one goal to nil through a penalty taken by Johnny Morrissey".

Our Dads were very reasonable supporters, your Dad more than mine as we know, but they were, as you pointed out, very biaised!

In a way, I was hoping it would have been Duncan leaving instead, but yes, Joe's getting on in years and maybe it's time to take a back seat.

Hugely aligned with Unsworth, not sure he could carry on with a new broom about the place. Choosing to move on leaves him in control, not levered out.

My opinion is: his leaving underlines his distaste for the new manager and the marginalisation of Kenwright at the top.

In all the games I've been to, the Semifinal v Tottenham topped even the final. We destroyed them, stuck two fingers up at the media, and their ‘Klinsmann love-in' at the same time.

Top guy, number one in my heart.

Hope he has a happy and healthy retirement.

Joe had a fairly low-profile but important role which I have no doubt he chose to give up on his own terms. We have another 18 months of stuff like this and, whilst Kenwright tried to sell the soul of the club by moving us to Kirkby, Moshiri has now succeeded with the appointment of Allardyce and crew.

Allardyce, Lee, Shakespeare and Walsh. My father would turn in his grave. I will continue to go to the match out of love and respect for him but there is a horrible empty feeling now.

Happy retirement, Joe.

But maybe even though your nemesis has been given the job and he has brought in people he knows will work with him, he just might get things right.

Unfortunately, my Mrs knocked my crystal ball off the sideboard last week and I am in the dark as to how things will pan out. If the team don't do the usual roll-over and let the rednecks tickle their belly on Sunday, but actually play for the new manager, will that go any way towards you giving any morsel of praise for knocking the malaise out of them? Or would a loss suit better?

I didn't want Allardyce either... but, if he turns things around, I will be chuffed to bits – not bleeding suicidal.

As for the reason why Joe Royle left, other than what he has stated, then he may put them in print one day but, until then, I'd stop with the conspiracy theories.

My great-uncle owned a newsagents on Townsend Lane where my grandy also worked. Joe used to come in there quite often after being at the betting shop around the corner. My grandy, despite being the most one-eyed LFC supporter ever, presented me with an autograph book that he had got Joe to christen.

I didn't get to play for Everton but only (!!!) because we headed Down Under when my age hit two digits. Incidentally, I've been told Joe has relatives in my home-town Adelaide who he has visited over the years. Have a long and happy retirement Joe – you've earned it.

City won 3-2 (it was the Marsh, Bell, Hartford, Tueart team), and their first goal was a cracker from Joe, from a pass by Asa Hartford, I believe. Alan Ball also scored a great goal, as the Gunners almost made a comeback, having been 3-0 down at one stage.

At the end, Joe and Alan embraced each other as they left the pitch, and I was left wondering what might (still) have been.

All the best Joe, and thank you!

Enjoy your retirement, Joe.

So, good luck Joe, in whatever you may do, in the future.

Di xx.

Anyway, my Uncle John gets Joe to come to St Basil's Club, Widnes, to present the medals for my dad's footy team (adults).

I was minding the house / looking after my two brothers... it must have been 1972-73 ish. About 10 o'clock there's a knock at the door and stood there... Joe Royle and me uncle John!!!

What a gent, he was great to talk to, so down to earth.

His dispute with Peter Johnson robbed us of a fine manager who, I am sure, would have done great things for us.

Whatever you do, Joe, good luck

I'm looking forward to Leighton Baines taking up some sort of role in the back room. Defensive coach or Fullback skills coach or whatever. Imagine him teaching the youngsters.

All ended well, then I jumped on a table that Duncan was dancing on, and sang with him, till the table collapsed and we all fell off.

I can write an article about that night and get it verified if you like.

Luckily we got Bob Latchford who was great, maybe not as good with the ball but strong and fast and scored so many sweet goals.

You loved the club and we loved you.

He was under a lot of pressure at the time yet he still found time, only about an hour before kick-off, to come and meet my parents and I.

My Mum had bought him some kind of medal thing that she said would bring him good luck!! It worked as we won 2-0.

Joe was the perfect gentleman that day. A really decent, gracious human being. That day was over 20 years ago and we still talk about it like it was yesterday.

Firing him was a massive mistake. Replacing him with the hopelessly out of touch Kendall was an even bigger one!!

Happy retirement, Joe.

1995 semi-final at Elland Road, we trash Spurs 4-1 to ruin the media's 'Dream Final' of Man Utd v Spurs.

Post-match Big Joe addresses the media – 'Sorry we've ruined your hoped-for 'Dream Final' lads, bollocks to the lot of you (and by the way that's two Ls)."

Absolute Class – enjoy your retirement, Joe...