Everton History

The End: From Glory to a Whole New Ball Game. Everton 1985-1994

The concluding instalment of Gavin Buckland’s trilogy covering Everton in the Moores era, from the summer of 1985 to 1994 with the Blues in relegation peril

Review of Gavin Buckland's latest book

In the summer of 1986, I attended a surprisingly stormy Everton FC AGM. The Toffees has seen dreams of a league and cup double evaporate – made all the worse by our close neighbours achieving that feat. Then had come the news that Howard Kendall and the board had sanctioned the sale of leading goalscorer Gary Lineker to Barcelona, after just one goal-laden season on Merseyside.

Philip Carter was, as a rule, the consummate meeting Chairman, able to swiftly shut down vocal dissent; however, I vividly recall one irate shareholder stating that we had gone ‘From champions to chumps’. In reply, Howard Kendall, sought to offer reassurance that, in spite of signing no replacement for the prolific England marksman, the Toffees could win more silverware. A year later, the league title had, indeed, returned to Goodison Park, but the mastermind of this considerable achievement had boarded a flight to Bilbao. From there on, it was a gradual, if not linear, seven-year slide to the edge of catastrophe.

The above came back to mind when reading The End, the concluding instalment of Gavin Buckland’s trilogy covering Everton in the Moores era, from the summer of 1985 to 1994 with the Blues in relegation peril. The title is a knowing nod to the conclusion of the Moores era at Everton, plus to the iconic Merseyside magazine of the same name.

As with preceding instalments, Money Can’t Buy Us Love and Boys From The Blue Stuff, Buckland eschews interviewing those who were involved at the time – whose memories may have been distorted by the passage of time and their own opinions. Instead, he primarily draws on contemporary reporting plus some of his own recollections as an avid Blue. It is full of original takes on what went wrong and right at Everton under various managers and board members, often going against the established narrative. The copious footnotes are choc-full of interesting asides and titbits of trivia.

Chronologically, the book begins with the manager of the 1984-85 Champions struggling to keep Adrian Heath and Graeme Sharp happy when only one could play alongside new arrival, Gary Lineker. A theme throughout the book was how quickly dropped players would go public (via print journalists) with their frustrations and stated intentions to seek a transfer. Tony Cottee appears to spend significant chunks of his time at L4 on the transfer list of his own volition) explores why the Blues’ fell at the last in 1986 to the Reds coming up on the rails (spoiler: it wasn’t all down to the Manor Ground and a stray Gary Stevens clearance).

As described in the prelude, the Blues may have lost Kendall’s services in the summer of 1986, had suitors Barcelona followed through after getting the Everton man to sign paper. Had this possibility of taking this high-profile role coloured Kendall’s apparent willingness to sell Lineker to the Catalan club is one intriguing question.

The description of the 1986-87 season emphasises Kendall’s ability as a wheeler-dealer (bringing in the likes of Paul Power and Kevin Langley) and the collective effort of the management team (with Colin Harvey and Mick Heaton) to overcome a daunting series of injuries to key players. A depleted squad had no less than seven first-choice players missing significant chunks of the campaign – with Paul Bracewell never kicking a ball in anger. In this season of make do and mend approaches to team selection and tactics, many players, like Alan Harper, Kevin Sheedy, Paul Power and Kevin Ratcliffe enjoyed some of their finest moments in a blue shirt. The author argues, cogently, that the football played over the festive season is some of the best seen from an Everton team in living memory. 

Basking in the glory of this hard-earned title, Evertonians were stunned at the departure of Kendall for Athletic Bilbao. The probable reasons for his shock decision are considered, including a desire to manage in Europe, financial security, and an enduring memory of how tough things had been for him at Everton prior to the turnaround in late 1983 and early 1984. From there, Everton’s fortunes under Colin Harvey (Philip Cater being quick to promote him, in the style of Liverpool’s boot room),  the returning Kendall and Mike Walker, diminish, albeit with some bright spots and near misses.

Was Harvey an unlucky manager or the wrong choice? – The End proffers the view that there is truth in both. Trying to rekindle the magic with the Kendall-Harvey axis from late 1990, when both men had changed, was probably doomed to failure, despite the romance of it. Blending newcomers with championship-winners who had, perhaps, stayed at the club too long, was a challenge that both Harvey and Kendall faced, with limited success. Mike Walker was a rare case of the Everton directorate looking beyond former players to be gaffer, yet he seemed unable to cope with the leap from Norwich City, where he’d developed an exciting, attacking side.

Events off the pitch get almost equal billing – as the nonagenarian John Moores faded into the background – with his sons showing no great inclination to becoming hands-on with the club. Philip Carter, a Littlewoods man himself, is described as becoming distracted from the Toffees by his role as President of the Football League (and involvement in moves towards the formation of the Premier League). The installation of the lovely but wholly unqualified David Marsh (a GP steeped in golf) as his successor seems even more baffling, in retrospect, than it was at the time. A sure sign of inertia and a lack of forward thinking at Goodison, just as domestic football was about to enter a new era.

The book leads us inexorably to that fateful day in May 1994, with the Blues hanging onto their First Division status by the thinnest of threads, and the Crazy Gang coming up the M6 to cause chaos. The events of that match at Goodison Park and other stadiums around the country still give me the shivers, 30 years on. Against this backdrop, the Moores era was officially coming to an end, as rival bidders fought to buy the family’s shares in the wake of Sir John’s death in September 1993. Bill Kenwright’s consortium thought it had the edge but, ultimately, Wirral businessman and Tranmere Rovers’ saviour Peter Johnson won through. The Johnson era, and what followed it is another story, for another time – but I can’t think of a better person to narrate it than Gavin Buckland.

Full disclosure, I am in a publishing collective with Gavin Buckland, James Corbett and Simon Hart, so my opinion could be seen as being less than impartial – therefore people should reach their own conclusions after reading The End. However, my personal view is that it is a fitting final chapter of a trilogy spanning 34 years in which Everton, turbocharged by John Moores and his organisation, changed the face of English football, but ultimately found itself on the hard shoulder as others powered into the Premier League fast lane. You may not agree with every well-argued point put forward, but nowhere else will you find such a detailed and thought-provoking analysis of the Blues’ journey from the Mersey Millionaires to mediocrity. 

The End: From Glory to a Whole New Ball Game. Everton 1985-1994, written by Gavin Buckland, is published in softback and hardback by Toffeeopolis, an imprint of Mount Vernon publishing. It can be purchased from the publishers at this link, via other online retailers, plus through your local bookstore.

Rob Sawyer

 

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