Once Duncan Ferguson's greatest ever fan... well, he probably still is! 

 LARS THE NORSE — A BlueView Original

I was mad about football, mad about Everton at the time, although I understood little and, amongst other things.  I thought David Seaman couldn't concede goals (I thought this was unfair) and I couldn't understand why Graham Stuart (then at Chelsea) played football, since he looked American.  I had already learned that Americans played a different kind of football.  I thought Chelsea put him in the side to be kind.

Gradually, I understood more.  After we won the Merseyside derby in the autumn of 1992, I read a travel report in the Norwegian Everton Supporters Club's magazine.  It went: "Just after Liverpool scored, an Evertonian stood up and shouted "Come on you Blues, make me proud".  Just after that Mo Johnston scored and Beardo won us the game.  It sent shivers down my spine.

I remember once praying to God that we'd win away at West Ham in 1994, when we were badly stuck in the relegation mire.  When I was young, I had an unbelievable statistic for praying to God for a goal or a result.  I almost never did it though.  My mum told me, I shouldn't pray to God for those kind of things.  Tony Cottee scored the goal and we won 1-0 in a very rare away win back then.  The last time I prayed was away to Liverpool sometime around 1996, when we were trailing 1-0 late, hadn't lost to them for years, and boom, there goes Gary Speed with a late equaliser to keep the record intact. 

By the end of the 1993/94 season, I had finally persuaded my parents to go with me to an Everton game.  I got tickets for THAT game against Wimbledon, but had to send them back as I had to go on a trip with my school.

The following autumn however, there was no stopping me as I went on the first Norwegian Supporters Club trip to England, to see the Merseyside derby at Goodison.  Joe Royle's first game and Duncan Ferguson's first goal.  I cried my eyes out, first when Duncan opened the scoring and then when Rideout put the game beyond the shite and Evertonians were running onto the pitch in sheer joy.  I think my father became an Evertonian that day.

I love this club so much.

I then discovered that there were other things to life, such as girls, music and booze... and my interest died down slightly for a couple of months.

Then I got connected to the internet, and got to follow the club much more closely. I made friends in England through the mailing list and set up one of the first big Everton web pages to compete with ToffeeWeb, BlueView.com.  I began saving up all my money from working various part time jobs and travelled to England several times.

I met so many nice people.  I was there when we survived against Coventry.  A complete stranger hugged me and cried when we scored and then same procedure after the final whistle.  I was there with the away fans at Charlton the game after we sold Big Dunc (my big, big hero).  I begun thinking what really mattered to me.  If Everton won the League, I was thinking, I would be crying my heart out.  Not just because I love Everton, because I know it means so much to so many other fine human beings out there.  Everton plays a big part in so many peoples' lives and it's such a great club.

We always feel hard done by.  But sometimes we make it. Whenever we beat Liverpool, I think of all the Bluenoses that are having the time of their lives those few, precious evenings.

And that's the fear.  We always seem to be hard done by.  We never quite make it.  My father is a big Evertonian now.  I have now moved to the Norwegian capital, Oslo, to continue my studies and one thing that keeps up the contact with my father is Everton.  Hw watches the televised games alone up in the far north of Norway.   He never cared much for football before (a little though).  Now he cares, and he cares a lot for Everton.  He doesn't know all the names of the players and he doesn't understand the way the curse works — that we were destined to lose once Newcastle equalised amongst other things —but it doesn't matter.  He loves Everton, like so many others. I t is a special club.

The fear is that Everton FC will never quite be able to fulfill it's rightful potential, get where it deserves and where we all deserve it to be.

I have given up on Big Dunc.  Disappointment.  I still desperately hope that Franny Jeffers gets his career going, be it back at Everton or somewhere else; he is an Evertonian.  Why can't it work out completely for an Evertonian for a change?

I fear desperately that Wayne Rooney won't live up to his potential.  I fear it because he deserves it so much.  He loves Everton and he has a heart for football.  It is guys like him who deserve to make it in football.  I fear that may be what finally takes him down.  The desire to make it, to make it for Everton FC and all their great supporters will be too big.

The disappointment in Unsie and Stubbs' faces at Newcastle said it all.  They want to make it, for Everton FC and all their great supporters.

We deserve to make it so much that it hurts like hell that we may not, and the fear that we won't is major.

Come on you Blue bellies, please don't slip up this time, you deserve to get it right.  Please for once, don't prove the fear right.  Go on, don't slip up, beat Liverpool in the derby.  Don't let in those let goals, don't fall victims of dodgy penalties and giving up the lead.  We've done that so many times before...

We are the greatest football club on earth beyond doubt.  It's time we made it so.

Lars Edissen
December 2002