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Thank You for the Memories, Tim

"I just cannot comprehend that Tim Cahill is no longer an Everton player"

I still can’t believe it. I just cannot comprehend that Tim Cahill is no longer an Everton player. I have seen the videos of him meeting Thierry Henry and his new manager in New York, but I can’t take in that I will never see him punching a corner flag in front of the Street end again.

Deep down, I knew Cahill’s time in the Premiership was over when Vincent Kompany nailed him at Eastlands. Those two have been having ding dongs for a while now, but three seasons ago Cahill would have got up and smashed Kompany all over the pitch - and then scored the winner. But this was one hit too many, and Cahill limped out of the game. City steamrollered us that day and Cahill was helpless to prevent it. I reckon that hurt him.

The factor that undoubtedly caused Cahill’s star to fade was the part of him that made him shine so brightly in the first place; his absolute commitment to the cause.

I remember a Chelsea game at Goodison a few seasons back and Cahill went up for a header against Terry and Carvalho. It was a header he simply never had any chance of winning. He conceded a daft free kick and got a warning off the ref and I thought why the hell did he even bother contesting it? I went into work on the following Monday morning and one of my redshite colleagues showed me a picture in one of the broadsheets. When I saw it the penny dropped I laughed out loud. The photo was of that very header. Terry and Carvalho were both visibly in some discomfort as Cahill’s elbow connected with the England captain’s neck, and an Aussie knee crunched into a Portuguese ribcage. The ball had long gone. They say a picture can paint a thousand words; that one certainly did.

Every Evertonian must see this YouTube video that chronicles Cahill’s Everton goals, well 67 of them at least (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30JTRH04TDA).

Watch that video and then you realise when he said he would have gone through a brick wall, he really would have. At the start of his Everton career he was not perceived as a threat and got far too much space from his opponents. After that the secret was out and Cahill was more closely marked, but as we all know, Tim Cahill was never one to let opponents stop him.

The goal that caps it all for me was his eighteenth goal for us on the 30th March 2006. You can see it in the YouTube link in the three seconds from 0:56 to 0:59. Those three seconds encapsulate everything that made Tim Cahill what he was to us. After a characteristically weak McFadden effort bounced off a post, the ball broke loose and Cahill, characteristically, decided where it was going. And he didn’t care what happened to him, Liam Ridgewell or Richard Dunne. That day Cahill was everywhere, and at his horrible, harrying, unrelenting imperious best. It was perhaps his best display in an Everton shirt. He just battered Villa off the pitch.

Within the space of a few weeks Cahill had put his old club out of the FA Cup, singlehandedly demolished Villa and scored his first goal against the shite at Anfield. I truly believe this is the time that Everton got under Cahill’s skin and he got under ours.

Sadly all good things come to an end, and this is the end of era for us, and him. Tim Cahill has a place in our hearts, as we have in his. I need an excuse to go to New York to watch him play one more time.

Like a few blues that have gone before him, I will always love Tim Cahill. Gentleman, Evertonian, man for the big occasion, inspiration, legend.

Good luck on your next adventure Tim and thank you for the memories.

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