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My recollection of Bally is pretty slim as I was a mere nipper standing on an R.Whites wooden lemonade box in the Gwladys street. But what we saw was a human dynamo running the games , small in stature but a Giant on the field.
My dads younger brother ( our kid) & his mates took me the game in an old army truck , parked the other side of Stanley park ( we all took a leak up the wall at Anfield
)
All the talk was about Bally even with all the greats of that side .Like many ive always felt I never saw enough of him in a blue shirt ,never seen a player since to match him & the Reds hated him ....he was that good.
I was lucky enough to get Bally's white boots and a pair of the iconic Stylo matchmakers ( birthday & xmas i think )
Needless to say the white ones were worn till they dropped off my feet.
The Stylo's rightly came 2nd.
My dads younger brother ( our kid) & his mates took me the game in an old army truck , parked the other side of Stanley park ( we all took a leak up the wall at Anfield
)All the talk was about Bally even with all the greats of that side .Like many ive always felt I never saw enough of him in a blue shirt ,never seen a player since to match him & the Reds hated him ....he was that good.
I was lucky enough to get Bally's white boots and a pair of the iconic Stylo matchmakers ( birthday & xmas i think )
Needless to say the white ones were worn till they dropped off my feet.
The Stylo's rightly came 2nd.
I’ve watched the blues since the 62/63 championship season, I’ve seen some fabulous players over the years, but, none of them were as good as Alan Ball. He was tireless, blessed with a great first touch, a superb finisher, as hard as nails and, above all, a true winner.
As to why he left us when he did, the only 3 people who knew the reason for that are all dead, the Cat, John Moores and Bally himself, all the rest of us can do is speculate. All I can say is that I cried when I heard the news.
To this day I am convinced it was the day we ceased to be a truly big club. Before Bally, players only left Everton when the Club considered them to be past their best and when they no longer commanded an automatic place in the team. Since then we have never been quite at the same level, yes there have been big signings, but, there have also been big sales.
We have seen plenty of great players since then, and, as we all remember, had a team in the 80’s which was more than a match for anyone.
In my opinion, however, we have never been a truly huge club since Alan Ball was sold.
As to why he left us when he did, the only 3 people who knew the reason for that are all dead, the Cat, John Moores and Bally himself, all the rest of us can do is speculate. All I can say is that I cried when I heard the news.
To this day I am convinced it was the day we ceased to be a truly big club. Before Bally, players only left Everton when the Club considered them to be past their best and when they no longer commanded an automatic place in the team. Since then we have never been quite at the same level, yes there have been big signings, but, there have also been big sales.
We have seen plenty of great players since then, and, as we all remember, had a team in the 80’s which was more than a match for anyone.
In my opinion, however, we have never been a truly huge club since Alan Ball was sold.
Far better than Scholes......imo
Oh he got stuck in - just called Moggsy over to help him out .......no one could deal with him most times ......in a tackle. ...... I seen Bally splits defence with the modern gaboa scissor pass he was so cocky & that great he knew it himself!
orly
Please check with me for Blammo criteria
What I love about these clips is that in certain respects, the game hasn't really moved on despite the blag MENSA pseudo-science of the modern banter pub bore. Our second and third goals here are superb bits of football that if City scores them today, everyone would be going nuts about the skill and passing
Debate on why he left, heard gambling debt, falling out with management..
dont know. What I do know is I was devastated. Amazing player and lovely.bloke who signed an autograph for me at Liverpool.Airport after a Euro game. He was the main reason England won the world cup.
Just possibly put together by an Arsenal fan, but Everton games 2/3 through. And lots of England performances. Treats Brazil as if they were Newcastle...
And against Chelsea after winning the league in 1970. Great team. Ball is the White boots (and that is what an away kit looks like!)....
I burst into tears in the street when I saw on a newspaper sellers board that he’d been sold. Absolutely world class, no one comes close, my all time favourite.
How good was he? - very good indeed, you don't get to be some peoples MotM in a world cup final for nothing.
Why was he sold - is more complicated, a number of factors to take into consiseration - not all listed below because I don't know them all. Known unknows in rumsfeldspeak.
Catterick's 'known knowns'
1) We doubled our money from £110,000 to £200,000 - there was a new stand debt on the books? who knows.
2) Rumours of off field gambling related problems. Ball needed his cut of the fee to pay off debts? who knows.
3) Catterick thought Ball was at his peak age-wise? who knows.
4) Catterick didn't like 'boat rockers' - you were OK while you brought more to the team than Harry's perceived list of your faults upset him and his need to be No1. Collins, Vernon,Young and Gabriel and others were all were victims of this.
Harry was a man of his times and his times were the 40s and 50s.
The game had and was still changing. Better nutrition, training techniques, sports medicine, player attitudes, the general increase in the health of the post war population (from a low baseline obvs) all this meant that speedy wingers and box to box players were lasting longer.
They no longer had the physical attributes of a 23yr old, nobody does at 27 28.
But they had football brains, good engines and their legs weren't gone at 30, as it was previously (and still is the case eh Mr Rooney)
They came 'inside' and became not wingers or ball playing inside forwards, but proto midfielders.
Basically, without really knowing it Harry and others helped invent, the modern midfield and midfielder.
He could see the value of an Alan Ball aged 24
He couldn't see the value of an Alan Ball aged 30
As he couldn't factor in, for obvious reasons, the 'unknown unknown' of the changing midfield and midfielder
He balanced all his known knowns...The Alan Ball aged 27 plus 1-4 above = SOLD
KaiserEFC
Player Valuation: £70m
I believe he was sold because no matter who the manager is at Everton FC it is written in the blood of a thousand virgins on the scroll next to the sacrificial goat that they must make at least one inexplicably mental decision regardless of their experience, reputation or track record anywhere else.
Westend Blue
Player Valuation: £15m
Makes sense at the time of him leaving us, pool and arsenal where on 7 titles each
....no doubt, Joey, but we’re just trying to define a ‘type’ of player he was for the majority on here who didn’t see him. Iniesta/Scholes hybrid perhaps.
The clips are brilliant, a few of us were fortunate to be at those games. What a goal from Alex Young against United, such a great mover with a football and what a player Bobby Charlton was but there was only one Alan Ball.
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