In 1990, England reached a World Cup semi-final for only one of three times in the history of the competition to date, with a team featuring some key current and former Evertonians.
Immediately afterwards, the then England manager Bobby Robson called it quits and Graham Taylor, long-ball merchant who’d never won anything was handed the keys to the kingdom.
I was 12 at the time so didn’t question it although, even then, I knew Brian Clough was too outspoken for the job. But was Howard Kendall not in the reckoning? By then, he’d left Athletic Bilbao and was rejuvenating Manchester City.
But he was the last Englishman to win the Football League Champions trophy – and he had done it twice with Everton in the prior 5 years.
Maybe I’m missing something and there was more to the story I missed but, on the face of it, why the hell didn’t Howard Kendall get the England manager’s job?