Goodison Park – where games for the people are still played

The historical account is a bit thin on the ground. It doesn't really capture how good we were in the 60s (School of Science as a moniker for the great football) and 80s (best side in Europe, and unable to compete in the European Cup because of the Heysal actions of our lovable neighbours - important to highlight, because the article compares us with them).

It's all very well talking about a bygone age when things were supposedly simpler and less commercial, but it's really nonesense. Things have been commercial with top level football for a very long time, it's just that the information technology age has pushed money to unprecedented heights. The success of the great Everton sides in the 60s was based on lots of money, from the John Moores empire. Everton were the wealthiest club in Britain at the time. The success of the mid-80s stemmed directly from the 60s success, including via Kendall. Since then, the relative demise has been based on a lack of money. It's only in the last few years that efforts are being made to correct that.

This article, although saying nice homely things about Goodison, is just another example of simplistic and potted history, with its daft references to cloth caps and horse manure (Cobbled streets also usually feature in such accounts, even though asphalt streets were widely predominant by the 60s). It's like the potted history of the 1970s we see on the BBC, which suggests everyone walked around looking like Abba, everyone smoked, and we were all racist and homophobic.

In short, articles like this are a waste of time, but seem to arise quite frequently.

Standard column filler, some nostalgia and a side of sleeping giant / plucky Everton.

The gap between these two middle ground teams and the top 2 or 3? Cheeky bastard. Needs to get some glasses, the gap in quality l saw was between the two teams on the pitch.

Hiya Stan,

In my extended family growing up in 70s Kirby everyone smoked, wore flares and enjoyed laughing at Jim Davidson style humour.

Everton was a racist club, tormenting black players. There was even a Nazi memorabilia shop nearby the ground.