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Can Everton return to the top?
- Updated: September 7, 2016
As Everton enter a new era under Ronald Koeman, Johnny Phillips rewinds the clock with author Simon Hart to the 1980s to compare the current crop to the club’s glorious past…
A new manager, a new owner and fresh investment – these are exciting times to be an Everton supporter.
Ronald Koeman has made a promising start to his tenure at Goodison Park. It has the feel of a new era there and fans are once again talking about their aspirations for the future after the frustrations of the previous two campaigns.
But for many Evertonians, it hasn’t just been the last two years that have brought barren times. Think three decades, to the last time Everton won the league, in the 1986/87 campaign.
In this, the 30th anniversary of the last title-winning season, Blues supporter and author Simon Hart has written ‘Here We Go’, the story of Everton in the Eighties, told by the players themselves.
It was the most successful decade in the club’s history as the team stepped out of Liverpool’s shadow to lift two league titles, an FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup, as well as contesting four other Wembley cup finals.
“It feels like ancient history today,” says Hart. “Since 1987 Goodison Park has witnessed just one new etching on the honours’ board – the 1995 FA Cup. In other words, in the past 29 seasons, the blue half of Merseyside has seen as many major trophies as Birmingham, Luton, Portsmouth, Swansea and Wigan.
“Everton were a great team then, with a great story,” says Hart. “It was a young team that came from nowhere. Everton were in the doldrums in late 1983 – lowest scorers in the English pyramid, lowest attendances since World War One – and yet 18 months later were named the European Team of the Year. The pity is they never had a chance to play in the European Cup.”
Among those interviewed are Everton’s star players of the day, naturally including captain Kevin Ratcliffe and big Neville Southall, the decade’s greatest keeper.
But it is the …
