97/98 season

[Brendan Janus]

My first year watching us, was really hard to understand it all really.

I remember the Derby win as if it’s the Norm, John Oster having a blinder against Barnsley in a 4-2 win, and lads walking out saying we’d got a new Gascoigne.

Then I remember games against Spurs and Southampton, two home games on the run, where they both leapfrogged up and we went bottom.

Then I remember seeing grown fellas cry, when Cadamateri went down in the 90th minute and Speed slotted the winner away to Leicester, just before Xmas and that got the ball rolling.

We pulled out 4 huge results before the end of the year 3-1 against Chelsea and Palace, then Leeds and Blackburn at home.

The likes of Duncan and Speed were top drawer, but smattered with a little bit of Graham Allen, John O’Kane and Viv Busby, we were always going to struggle.

That 4-0 to Arsenal, I don’t think one Everton fan thought we’d stay up, felt like we’d thrown in the towel.

Bilic in centre midfield, Howard was always pissed that season !!

 

[Alan Whittle]

I remember Palace being talked of as potentially being the team of the 80s under Venables what happened to that team ?
I am not taking the Mick as we.were going to be the team of the 70s and it was a decade of failure

We won the FA Youth Cup two years running and the bulk of that squad quickly became the first team; Sansom, Hilaire, Gilbert, Nicholas, Walsh, Murphy, Fenwick, plus 2-3 comparative veterans; Burridge, Cannon, Swindlehurst, Kember. We won the Div 2 Championship in 79 and went top of Div 1 in October 79. Heady days but to be honest we were running on adrenaline. I once interviewed Vince Hilaire and Billy Gilbert for a Palace fanzine and we chatted about why it didn’t last. Vince reckoned that they had been so used to winning since they were kids once they lost 3-4 on the bounce their confidence was shot. Then Sansom was sold to Arsenal, Venables left for QPR taking a few more with him. And that was that.

 

[Drico]

Then Sansom was sold to Arsenal, Venables left for QPR taking a few more with him. And that was that.

Ah yes, there we have it. QPR ARE bigger than Palace.

 

[Gilbert..]

My work has taken me all over the country over the years. I worked in barnes for 7 years. Never ever met a chelsea fan i didnt want to end up giving a slap. Up their own arse. Bigoted racist beauts. Im sure there are one or two who are not. I never met any of those though.

 

[BornBlue76]

Fantastic thread and well timed as it allows me to ask my thoughts on how the Everton fans truly view other clubs and specifically Aston Villa. Spent the other night reading up their forum on Barkley and they made the statement that Everton fans wanted to see them go down. Others stated that’s a few as they know many that actually wished him luck ... etc...

Seems by and large they like Everton as much as any club could like an opposition team or fans base, but they not so sure how we feel about them.

When I read through their thread they actually seemed pretty positive yet realistic bunch, much like our thread comes across most times. Compared to Warford who always seem vaguely annoyed about everything, seemed a good bunch with good humor in the threads. Palace also seem a decent bunch of fans.
Newcastle on the other hand I don’t know why, but I just can’t seem to do anything except dislike them (ok I do know why and it’s Souness.. tainted)

so how do AV stack up in Everton estimates? They a club with a rich history and solid fan base..never really gave them much thought before as I don’t know any AV fans.

 

[Alan Whittle]

Ah yes, there we have it. QPR ARE bigger than Palace.

They may have been in 1981, for a couple of months at least tbf.

 

[SpongeBob brown shoes]

Fantastic thread and well timed as it allows me to ask my thoughts on how the Everton fans truly view other clubs and specifically Aston Villa. Spent the other night reading up their forum on Barkley and they made the statement that Everton fans wanted to see them go down. Others stated that’s a few as they know many that actually wished him luck ... etc...

Seems by and large they like Everton as much as any club could like an opposition team or fans base, but they not so sure how we feel about them.

When I read through their thread they actually seemed pretty positive yet realistic bunch, much like our thread comes across most times. Compared to Warford who always seem vaguely annoyed about everything, seemed a good bunch with good humor in the threads. Palace also seem a decent bunch of fans.
Newcastle on the other hand I don’t know why, but I just can’t seem to do anything except dislike them (ok I do know why and it’s Souness.. tainted)

so how do AV stack up in Everton estimates? They a club with a rich history and solid fan base..never really gave them much thought before as I don’t know any AV fans.

I like Villa, always have, I want to try and get to Villa park one day because I've never been and their fans are definitely not in the same category as Newcastle or Watford fans, delusions of grandeur with them two

 

[voodoobloo]

Not sure what Charlton's support was like in the 1950's but during the 00's when they had a prolonged PL status they attracted a lot of fans from Kent. Kent is a big county with a large population (approx 1.5M) but only really Gillingham as a regular team in the top 4 divisions. Charlton really exploited this and drew a lot of fans from Kent as a whole during this period. They laid on free coaches on match days for supporters who lived as far away as Thanet and Canterbury. Kent also has big support for the other London clubs but I always felt West Ham had a big presence along with Spurs and Arsenal.

Charlton aren't in the ideal top biggest 20 PL clubs though. Not sure if they've ever been over the last 30-40 years. I would say the same for QPR. QPR are one of the smaller London clubs from my perspective. Bit like Fulham.Traditionally I'd say Arsenal the biggest by a fair bit, then Spurs then West Ham and Chelsea equal. Chelsea are obviously a bigger club now but in my experience West Ham seem to have a huge supporter base across east London, Essex and Kent.

The other 2 teams that have bigger supporter bases than expected are Ipswich and Norwich. Whilst both are in towns/cities of a reasonable size they are also based in big counties with no other professional football teams. Ipswich have the London clubs closer plus the likes of Colchester and Cambridge within 30 mile proximity. However, they drew huge support from all over Suffolk. Almost certainly the best supported clubs in the likes of Haverhill, Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds despite being 30-50 miles away from Ipswich itself. Really is the Suffolk club. Norwich are the same in Norfolk. I'd say both have bigger supporter based than the likes of QPR, Charlton, Middlesborough, Palace, WBA. Maybe similar to the likes of Derby and Forest - though Forest are the most successful out of the 3.

Charlton’s recent problems are down to the fact that it’s stadium and academy sit on potentially incredibly valuable real estate with some tricky issues to realise the value. That’s why it’s attracted a host of interested parties from around the world who see it purely as a property play.

 

[voodoobloo]

Fantastic thread and well timed as it allows me to ask my thoughts on how the Everton fans truly view other clubs and specifically Aston Villa. Spent the other night reading up their forum on Barkley and they made the statement that Everton fans wanted to see them go down. Others stated that’s a few as they know many that actually wished him luck ... etc...

Seems by and large they like Everton as much as any club could like an opposition team or fans base, but they not so sure how we feel about them.

When I read through their thread they actually seemed pretty positive yet realistic bunch, much like our thread comes across most times. Compared to Warford who always seem vaguely annoyed about everything, seemed a good bunch with good humor in the threads. Palace also seem a decent bunch of fans.
Newcastle on the other hand I don’t know why, but I just can’t seem to do anything except dislike them (ok I do know why and it’s Souness.. tainted)

so how do AV stack up in Everton estimates? They a club with a rich history and solid fan base..never really gave them much thought before as I don’t know any AV fans.

They are all called Dean I think?

 

[Cork Evertonian]

I like Villa, always have, I want to try and get to Villa park one day because I've never been and their fans are definitely not in the same category as Newcastle or Watford fans, delusions of grandeur with them two

Everton and Villa have a lot in common i think.Both are huge clubs with great history and tradition, and both have fallen on hard times in recent years.Although under papa Carlo it looks like Everton, are hopefully returning to former glories again.But i was delighted that Villa stayed up last season, and hopefully they will build on that going forward.Irrespective of whether they are bigger than Everton or not, Villa are english footballing royalty.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Fantastic thread and well timed as it allows me to ask my thoughts on how the Everton fans truly view other clubs and specifically Aston Villa. Spent the other night reading up their forum on Barkley and they made the statement that Everton fans wanted to see them go down. Others stated that’s a few as they know many that actually wished him luck ... etc...

Seems by and large they like Everton as much as any club could like an opposition team or fans base, but they not so sure how we feel about them.

When I read through their thread they actually seemed pretty positive yet realistic bunch, much like our thread comes across most times. Compared to Warford who always seem vaguely annoyed about everything, seemed a good bunch with good humor in the threads. Palace also seem a decent bunch of fans.
Newcastle on the other hand I don’t know why, but I just can’t seem to do anything except dislike them (ok I do know why and it’s Souness.. tainted)

so how do AV stack up in Everton estimates? They a club with a rich history and solid fan base..never really gave them much thought before as I don’t know any AV fans.

Not got a problem with Villa, easy though when they aren't direct rivals at the moment.

 

[sam domingo]

We have form for that. Didn't we do something similar to Ipswich, I think it was, in 1985 or 86? Of course, if a team puts themselves at the mercy of others it is their own fault really. But Vialli owed us nothing and, as you say, thought that the integrity of the league was worth playing for. How lucky for us that he was the Chelsea manager on that day. His own fans were baying for a Bolton goal but he defied them. A winner.

We lost 4-1 at Coventry in 1985,they stayed up and Norwich who had completed their fixtures (not like these days when everybody finishes the season at the same time)went down. Norwich fans were obviously angry that the league champions couldn't do them a favour,but having a nose on Everton results website,it was our 9th game in a little over 3 weeks,which included clinching the title,the ECWC and the FA cup finals,so it's no wonder there was nothing left in the tank(and we still had to play one more game after that at Luton which we also lost!). A more notorious one we were involved in,relegating Sunderland when we beat them in 1977. I was only a kid at the time so don't have the clearest memory of it,but wasn't there some shenanigans on the same night between Coventry v Bristol City,who both stayed up at Sunderlands expense? Maybe a bit similar to the notorious Austria v West Germany game in the world cup in 82?

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Say if we had to rip it all up and start the premier league all over again, here would be my 20 teams.

1 Everton
2 The RS (perhaps i should withdraw that invitation?)
3 Man United
4 Man City
5 Arsenal
6 Chelsea
7 Spurs
8 West Ham
9 Aston Villa
10 Leicester City
11 Nottingham Forest
12 Derby County
13 Coventry City
14 Blackburn Rovers
15 Middlesbrough
16 Sunderland
17 The Geordies (again like the rs should i withdraw the invitation?)
18 Leeds United
19 Sheffield Wednesday
20 Sheffield United

I think that's how the traditional top flight should look anyway.

 

[Juddablue]

I like Villa, always have, I want to try and get to Villa park one day because I've never been and their fans are definitely not in the same category as Newcastle or Watford fans, delusions of grandeur with them two

Great ground ! Was rocking in the semi in 84

 

[Wolf8312]

We owe Gianluca Vialli a huge debt of gratitude. He had a Cup Winners' Cup final versus Stuttgart to prepare for that week, and still he made a point of telling his team to go out, give their all, and win.

The attitude of a winner.

That Everton team had all the worst attributes of Howard Kendall's mini-midget side from the early 90s - and none of the Beardsleys: tidy, small, generally ineffective, and easily bullied.

This was probably the lowest point of Evertonianism in my 40 years supporting the club. In 1994, we still felt that the last-day survival drama was an aberration - and in some ways it was as we won the cup the following year and had a very good side for 18 months or so. By '98, reality had set in that this was our lot for the forseeable. Walter came in soon afterwards, and after a promising period the rug was soon pulled from him financially and we fell into what was probably the bleakest period in my time as a fan, supporting a team that was utterly joyless. The last Kendall side had some tidy, technical ability, but the end-of-days Walter side (and this dragged on for at least 18 months too long) was an abomination.

Ould fellas like me - I am 48 - always bang on about the classic Everton side of the 1980s, but that Walter team really is the one that puts this summer's renaissance into full perspective. Bar those four ecstatic years under Kendall in the 80s, we really haven't had it so good. This current team appears to have the one ingredient that all intervening teams lacked: fantasy. Even the brief giddy months of the boy Rooney were always put into relief by the fact that the team was dire and that he'd be sold off as soon as he threatened to make us worth watching - which is what happened.

While I am sure the current positivity will collapse around our ears in the coming weeks, just savour the moment. We are genuinely on the rise. We have an ambitious, wealthy board, a world-class manager, and a beautiful, visionary playmaker pulling strings in the same direction. Basically: we are competitive again. That's been the exception rather than the rule over the last four decades.

Wayne should have given us more than he did and we should never have taken him back when his premiership career was in decline. I got that eventually like Ronaldo he would go onto bigger and better teams but what a disappointment when he left.