Harry Catterick.

[Dario Terracotta]

I didn't see Cattericks teams its only on heresy from the likes of my old fella,was privileged to follow Howards great side up and down the country and into Europe,at the risk of being controversial I'd suggest the Catt edges HK as our greatest manager,yep Howie won one more trophy,however Catterick kept us in and around the mix for the big prizes for virtually a full decade.

 

[Groucho]

Excellent, I'll have that.

My nan loved Catterick. Met him a few times, said he was nice.

"Now Harry Catterick, there was a proper manager".....

She was talking in relation to Moyes c.2008

 

[roy vernon]

Ruled by fear the Cat, but you could get away with it in those days. He built basically 3 teams the 63 champions, the 66 cup winners and the 70 champions, he was a dour strict disciplinarian, but I'll tell you what, his teams were anything but dour.

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was selling Alan Ball, that for me was the day we stopped being a truly massive football club. Up until then players like Bally did not leave the blues until they were at the veteran stage of their careers.

 

[Pabbers]

I absolutly love reading and hearing about how great and how a big club we used to be.

Then you got that Moyes era.....was like a different club.

 

[1966efc]

Ruled by fear the Cat, but you could get away with it in those days. He built basically 3 teams the 63 champions, the 66 cup winners and the 70 champions, he was a dour strict disciplinarian, but I'll tell you what, his teams were anything but dour.

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was selling Alan Ball, that for me was the day we stopped being a truly massive football club. Up until then players like Bally did not leave the blues until they were at the veteran stage of their careers.

Alienated a hell of a lot of fans. Might have helped pay off the main stand but ripped the heart out of the place ... the home matches after that December were not a happy place to be.

I don't think the bloke could handle "stars" very well and if a player had a bit of gumption, he was out. Just like Vernon & Collins.

 

[royalblue66]

Ruled by fear the Cat, but you could get away with it in those days. He built basically 3 teams the 63 champions, the 66 cup winners and the 70 champions, he was a dour strict disciplinarian, but I'll tell you what, his teams were anything but dour.

His biggest mistake, in my opinion, was selling Alan Ball, that for me was the day we stopped being a truly massive football club. Up until then players like Bally did not leave the blues until they were at the veteran stage of their careers.

Yes mate that was one big big mistake, he upset thousands of Evertonians with that decision I never understood, but moving players on was something The Catt never worried about,he was defo is own man

 

[dave abrahams]

Harry Catterick was the best manager Everton ever had by far. Howard gave us our pride back over three or four
seasons but never did anything special before or after that.

Catterick was always looking to improve the team player wise tactically.He made mistakes over Alan Ball and also
maybe with Bobby Collins. in. collins's case he signed Dennis Stevens from Bolton a great signing who helped
Everton win the league in 1963 and was made an extra midfielder the first time an English team had played like
this.Just after Catterick used Stevens this way Shankly used Tommy Smith in the same way.
Harry was as good as any manager at that time and in my opinion was better than most.

 

[AndyC]

Yes mate that was one big big mistake, he upset thousands of Evertonians with that decision I never understood, but moving players on was something The Catt never worried about,he was defo is own man

Yes, we were indeed massively upset by Bally going, but if memory serves me correctly there were rumours that Bally - God bless him - allegedly had debt issues and in a nutshell, the cut of the fee that he received not having requested a transfer, straightened out the alleged debt. I might be wrong on this, but I'm sure I recall rumours to that effect at the time.

I also think that the European Cup exit to Panathanaikos and semi-final loss at OT to the RS in the space of four days possibly hit Bally mentally more than any other player at that time. Leaving OT that afternoon and the League Cup replay loss to Vanilla there are my worst two memories of losing at OT.

 

[artetas_biggest_fan]

,at the risk of being controversial I'd suggest the Catt edges HK as our greatest manager,yep Howie won one more trophy,however Catterick kept us in and around the mix for the big prizes for virtually a full decade.

Catt had lots of money to spend though? Mersey millionaires. Possibly why he gets overlooked among the greats. HK did it on a shoestring

 

[Dario Terracotta]

Yes, we were indeed massively upset by Bally going, but if memory serves me correctly there were rumours that Bally - God bless him - allegedly had debt issues and in a nutshell, the cut of the fee that he received not having requested a transfer, straightened out the alleged debt. I might be wrong on this, but I'm sure I recall rumours to that effect at the time.

I also think that the European Cup exit to Panathanaikos and semi-final loss at OT to the RS in the space of four days possibly hit Bally mentally more than any other player at that time. Leaving OT that afternoon and the League Cup replay loss to Vanilla there are my worst two memories of losing at OT.

Quater final in 1983 was pretty gut wrenching too mate!

 

[Joey66]

Catt had lots of money to spend though? Mersey millionaires. Possibly why he gets overlooked among the greats. HK did it on a shoestring

Yes he bought in star players, but also played/ merged youth home grown players like -Tommy Wright - Andy Rankin {in stages} John Hurst via Blackpool in the youth team, and reserves, Brian Labone captain - best centre half you could ever see - Roger Kenyon, Alan Whittle, Colin Harvey, Joe Royle all were used in his 1969 / championship side - he also made great bargain buys Johnny Morrissey, Mike Trebilcock, Sandy Brown, and Jimmy Husband all players who played key roles won us trophies - different era but the game was harder and the pitches were mud baths - I seen the opposition the great teams around us were LFC - Leeds - Spurs - Arsenal - that Leeds side were the dirtiest talented team you could ever see,
Brian Clough was correct when he stated they had won their medals unfairly - EFC won them with pure football

 

[degsy]

Harry Catterick was the best manager Everton ever had by far. Howard gave us our pride back over three or four
seasons but never did anything special before or after that.

Catterick was always looking to improve the team player wise tactically.He made mistakes over Alan Ball and also
maybe with Bobby Collins. in. collins's case he signed Dennis Stevens from Bolton a great signing who helped
Everton win the league in 1963 and was made an extra midfielder the first time an English team had played like
this.Just after Catterick used Stevens this way Shankly used Tommy Smith in the same way.
Harry was as good as any manager at that time and in my opinion was better than most.

Not exactly true, once or twice Harry got Dennis to man mark, Vs Blackburn 64-65 comes to mind, after Bryan Douglas ( and Fred Pickering ) had ripped us a new one the season before. Smith was one of the first ( but not the first ) to be brought into make a back 4 with 2 Centrehalves. Harry was pretty astute, but like most had his blind spots, especially if players had a mind of their own... and he hadn't signed them...and they were getting near the magical 30yrs ( in his mind ) sell by date. Harry was a child of the 40's and 50's, by 1965 the game was changing at an ever increasing rate.
Still a legend though.

 

[dave abrahams]

Johnny Morrissey must have been one of the greatest and cheapest signings ever and it also nearly drove fish and
chips over the edge.

He Shankly was away at the time and Morrissey was sold behind his back.

Fish and chips was Shankly called this name because he was never out of the paper.

 

[dave abrahams]

degsy Everton signed Stevens in1961or 1962 way before 1964-5 ,alongside him were Gabriel ,Harris later Tony Kay
and up front Vernon and Young Stevens covered back and front for all these players .

Shankly used Smith this way a good season after Catterick utilised Stevens this way.

 

[Toffeelover]

Alienated a hell of a lot of fans. Might have helped pay off the main stand but ripped the heart out of the place ... the home matches after that December were not a happy place to be.

I don't think the bloke could handle "stars" very well and if a player had a bit of gumption, he was out. Just like Vernon & Collins.

That is being a manager, standing no nonsense from players unlike today, many are whingers these days and players rule.