Alan Ball.

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mahermi1 said:
You Know what, that post makes me both happy and sad, because I reckon I know just how your dad felt.
Think quite a few people know, that Shankly was good friends with Alan Ball and was always trying to sign him...he always said no, thank god.
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I know it still hurts him just by that reaction. He'll sit talking for hours on end about any other player from any other era, both good and bad.

Bally? Kills him every time
 

Toast said:
My dad said he cried when he left the club.

It must have been a week or so before his death that i saw Alan doing some shopping. He lived round the corner. I went up and told him that he made my dad cry and I got the impression he got told stuff like this a lot.

I bought me dad a signed photo of the holy trinity years ago and it's still hanging in his house today.
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I saw many a man and boy cry when he left. Mom In a World Cup final when Geoff Hurst had scored a hatrick just about says it all. The best I have seen in an Everton shirt
 
Catterick didn't like individual heroes, that's why he sold him I think. The Catt was the same with the golden vision. If he'd have embraced those heroes and built teams around them like his adversary across the park did we'd have won a lot more trophies. IMHO.
 
After the 5th round FA cup game 1967 (can't credit it as don't know who the author was)

“Said Shankly to Yeatesy, come listen me boy.
I’ve devised a great plan that you’re sure to enjoy.
Those Everton Toffees their progress we’ll stop
And a great celebration will be held on the Kop.
We’ll cripple young Alex and Harvey as well
We'll make those Toffees think that they're in hell
The only man standing will be Brian Labone
And he can’t beat 11 reds all on his own.

But Shankly, oh Shankly your plans they went wrong
And the downhearted Kopites could not raise a song.
For you had forgotten the greatest of all
The red-headed dynamo they call Alan Ball.
In the 44th minute of goalless retort
Smith, Yeats and Lawrence flat-footed were caught
The ball travelled from Husband and with great force was met
by the boots of young Ball to the back of the net.

So, remember Bill Shankly our team is supreme
and yours is the dirtiest that ever was seen.
Those Liverpool yard-dogs Smith Yeats and St. John
are a poor second best to the great Everton.”

Armaghtoffee said:
I remember being told by an older Blue at a game years ago that he could also look after himself on the pitch. Was this more tackling or more snide?
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He was just 5'5" but took no shabite from ANYONE. He could look after himself and had the fiery temper to match his hair.
 

kev said:
Alan Ball was one of only a very small handful of truly world class players to have ever played for us.
On his day he was simply unplayable and would dictate games. Even on his rare off days you could always guarantee 100pc effort.
The term 'perpetual motion' could have been invented for Bally.
Why was he sold? I've asked myself that every day for the past 49 years
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Joe Royle was also up there. It was a great time to be alive. Ball was an absolute inspiration. Excellent in a very good team, in every position in 1970. His joining Arsenal was heartbreaking
 
kev said:
After the 5th round FA cup game 1967 (can't credit it as don't know who the author was)

“Said Shankly to Yeatesy, come listen me boy.
I’ve devised a great plan that you’re sure to enjoy.
Those Everton Toffees their progress we’ll stop
And a great celebration will be held on the Kop.
We’ll cripple young Alex and Harvey as well
We'll make those Toffees think that they're in hell
The only man standing will be Brian Labone
And he can’t beat 11 reds all on his own.

But Shankly, oh Shankly your plans they went wrong
And the downhearted Kopites could not raise a song.
For you had forgotten the greatest of all
The red-headed dynamo they call Alan Ball.
In the 44th minute of goalless retort
Smith, Yeats and Lawrence flat-footed were caught
The ball travelled from Husband and with great force was met
by the boots of young Ball to the back of the net.

So, remember Bill Shankly our team is supreme
and yours is the dirtiest that ever was seen.
Those Liverpool yard-dogs Smith Yeats and St. John
are a poor second best to the great Everton.”


He was just 5'5" but took no shabite from ANYONE. He could look after himself and had the fiery temper to match his hair.
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Wow.

To have made it to the upper echelons of the game with that limited stature speaks volumes about their talent.
 
Eggs said:
...very good question. I always think he was a ‘tiki taki’ player before Barcelona tiki taki was invented. Graeme Souness was some midfielder and he said he played against Ball when he was nearing the end of his career and couldn’t get near him, it was touch and always on the move.

He’d also get in great goalscoring positions and score. He’d score in the big games, he’d score when his team most needed. Great mentality, with the ability to sit on the ball during a game because he could.

Scholes/Iniesta hybrid perhaps.
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My arl fella had always said he was similar to Scholes.
 

At the time, the 'word on the street' was that John Moores had baled Alan Ball out of his gambling debts a few times, and said, basically, no more. Ball got in massive debt again through gambling, so Moores baled him out one last time and moved him on.
 
Armaghtoffee said:
I remember being told by an older Blue at a game years ago that he could also look after himself on the pitch. Was this more tackling or more snide?
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....neither a tackler or a snide particularly, but he played in an age of real tough men and he’d never go missing. He’d play around opponents, so it was difficult for them to nail him. Don’t particularly remember him having serious injury.

I think it was St John who chinned him in a Derby once, Gordon West flattened St John. It was the way it was, but nobody stopped Ball playing. He wasn’t big, he wasn’t bulky, he just kept on running.
 
Eggs said:
....neither a tackler or a snide particularly, but he played in an age of real tough men and he’d never go missing. He’d play around opponents, so it was difficult for them to nail him. Don’t particularly remember him having serious injury.

I think it was St John who chinned him in a Derby once, Gordon West flattened St John. It was the way it was, but nobody stopped Ball playing. He wasn’t big, he wasn’t bulky, he just kept on running.
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Untouchable due to his movement then, Messi/Iniesta like.
 
Now don’t berate me for this but this is from my dad who was YTS with Everton at the time. He told me that Ball liked to bet, he ran up a debt to someone in Liverpool and in the end Catterick persuaded John Moore’s to pay the debt off and Moores docked his wages. Not long after that Ball did it again and Moore’s told Catterick to sell Ball. Catterick didn’t want to sell to rivals other than his mate at Arsena.

my Dad has told me this story many times, I don’t know if it was just a Bellfield rumour or what
 

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