EFC's failure to capitalise on the success of the late 80's and start of PL

[Lmc2016]

The waste of the Park End is always annoying to think of, could easily of been doubled or tripled it's current capacity, paying for itself many times over years ago

 

[Tubey]

This has been done before many times, but it all comes back to one word - Heysel.

It's not a case of irrationally blaming Liverpool for our own failings; Heysel and the subsequent club ban from Europe decimated us. We clung on until the early 90s with a semblance of what we were in the late 80s, but the momentum had gone completely as a result of having been banned from elite competition for four years of deserved qualification, with none hurting more than 1985-86.

So it can't be underestimated how much harm that ban did to us. Yes, the subsequent failure of the board to capitalise on the dawn of the Premier League was absurd, but by that point momentum really had gone - by the time the Premier League started, we hadn't 'qualified' for Europe anyway for three whole years.

We all saw what United did with momentum in the 90s; we were denied that by Heysel.

 

[blue62]

Didn’t we do this to death in another thread, or maybe it’s just a recurring bad dream of mine........

We did indeed, but there's nothing finer than a moan about our misfortune and a good thread resurrection.

If anyone is really interested you can go back to how our beloved club was denied total domestic footballing dominance by the outbreak of a World War, a few years later there followed the bemusing break up of the fantastic 1970/71 team, thereafter the 'Carlisle United' factor and then onto our beloved neighbours killing off our chances of total European dominance in the 1980's, strange to think that most of our talent left for Scotland and Spain.

I believe we are cursed, but I bless the fact that I can just about remember the early 70's (I cried when my dad broke the news about Bally) and i lived it up in the 1980's and despite what anyone says, not many footie fans have enjoyed or endured what we have. COYB

 

[Toffee in Jandals]

...... in terms of performances on the field, we had a fantastic core of players through 1985-1987; and by the turn of the new decade barely the only survivors were an ageing Southall, Sheedy, Sharp, Ratcliffe (who, Southall aside, would all be finished with Everton before 1992). Even Dave Watson was already 28 by 1990 and no spring chicken.

Lots of reasons for losing all of those quality players in the late 80's; the European ban obviously a major factor. But if you take that amount of experience out of any champion team, regardless of the sport, it will take a while to re-build.

There were a lot of mis-fired signings in the late 80's /start of the 1990's to replace them who for various reasons just didn't quite work out for us.

 

[Ballymoney1]

A couple questions for all if you may indulge:

Why? Was it the disillusionment with the ban that caused it to be low attendances? Regardless of the "why", what would you say was the cause for it to rebound to where we are back today?

Second, why/HOW did simply renaming the First Division into the "Premier League" cause more money to be put in to clubs? I'm just confused as to what actually transpired that made the Premier League more financially viable than what it was simply the year before?


I started following Everton in 2002 so I am well after all this and have limited knowledge about what why and how all this happened.

It's a good question regarding the instant success of the premier league compared to the old football league. Basically sky were prepared to risk a massive 300 million quid ( huge money at the time) that there would be sufficient numbers of the British public who would not be able to go without regular live football on their telly. This correct prediction meant an increase in the number of sky subscriptions and ultimately the survival of sky as a TV network ( this was under threat at the time). Sky owes its long term success to the premier league. In turn sky made the Premier league an instant money pit and within afew short years had the finances to attract European and world stars who would never have entertained coming to these shores and leaving the then dominant Seria A. These days the Premier league is the most glamorous and financially lucrative league there is. Sky TV is largely to thank for this, back in the early 90s they recognised the potential of top flight English football at a time when no one else did.

 

[peteblue]

Let’s be honest the club even before the premier league has not been set up for success for a long time. We’ve always relied too much on this mythical position of the manager. Let’s be honest even the success of the 80s was down to the genius of Kendall not the club creating the conditions for success. It’s noy as though the Mersey millionaires were reborn and Kendall cherry picked the best players, he scraped together an all conquering team on scraps that was preceded by mediocrity and followed by it. Meanwhile Liverpool and United changed managers but stayed successful largely. Had Kendall not worked wonders we would be looking back to the holy trinity team as the last time the club was actually at the forefront of the English game.

Kenwright has done exactly the same as his predecessors. He made a good choice in Moyes who gave him an opportunity to build for success but instead of laying the groundwork for continued ‘success’ like Spurs have done (recruitment, stadium, commercial deals) he did nothing and then just spun the dice again on another manager ‘maybe Roberto can bring success back to Goodison’. If he had done it would have been as fleeting as Kendall’s but Martinez wasn’t a miracle worker.

We are now seeing the futility of this approach to running a club. Walker, Smith, Martinez and Koeman have shown that when Everton don’t have an excellent manager at the helm we are in relegation scraps. When other clubs have poor managers they finish 8th or 9th. Successive Everton boards have sat on their hands waiting for another Kendall figure to pull a miracle out. Moyes gave them a decade of survival in the richest league in the world and they managed to mortgage everything and have no long term plan.

Say what you want about Moshiri but he is the first person at Everton for a long time to finally look to modernise us. Whether Walsh is a clown or not he recognises that top quality recruitment is vital and there needs to be another figure other than the manager for continuity in this. He’s made strides with the stadium and we’ve improved commercial deals. It all feels too much too late but it’s better than operating like a club in the 70s hoping that the next man in the hot seat will do a Kendall on a negative net spend and we’ll suddenly rule Europe.

This is of course correct. The age of amateurism has gone, we need a wholly professional approach, which I believe Moshiri will bring. The days of Bill are gone......

 

[peteblue]

We did indeed, but there's nothing finer than a moan about our misfortune and a good thread resurrection.

If anyone is really interested you can go back to how our beloved club was denied total domestic footballing dominance by the outbreak of a World War, a few years later there followed the bemusing break up of the fantastic 1970/71 team, thereafter the 'Carlisle United' factor and then onto our beloved neighbours killing off our chances of total European dominance in the 1980's, strange to think that most of our talent left for Scotland and Spain.

I believe we are cursed, but I bless the fact that I can just about remember the early 70's (I cried when my dad broke the news about Bally) and i lived it up in the 1980's and despite what anyone says, not many footie fans have enjoyed or endured what we have. COYB

Indeed, on two occasions we won a title before war broke out.... the Ball news kills me to this day, I will never forget the gut wrenching feeling when I heard it.......but hey, some of us have seen 4 titles won, a few cups......I can’t complain.....

 

[sheedys left foot]

We only produced good football during glorious summer days. As soon as the summers started to get rubbish, so did our football.

‘84-87 scorchers.

‘95 scorcher.

Basically, we’rena Fair-weather club. What we need is another heatwave.

In all seriousness though financial mismanagement is the reason for our demise. The other shower, Arsenal & United we’re also thrown out of Europe but they capitalised on the “whole new ball game” of the premier league while we signed a crocked Norman whiteside and a bang average mike Newell. I hated his face.

 

[TraffordBlue]

This has been done before many times, but it all comes back to one word - Heysel.

It's not a case of irrationally blaming Liverpool for our own failings; Heysel and the subsequent club ban from Europe decimated us. We clung on until the early 90s with a semblance of what we were in the late 80s, but the momentum had gone completely as a result of having been banned from elite competition for four years of deserved qualification, with none hurting more than 1985-86.

So it can't be underestimated how much harm that ban did to us. Yes, the subsequent failure of the board to capitalise on the dawn of the Premier League was absurd, but by that point momentum really had gone - by the time the Premier League started, we hadn't 'qualified' for Europe anyway for three whole years.

We all saw what United did with momentum in the 90s; we were denied that by Heysel.

I imagine that was the main knock on effect of the ban. The RS always seem to try and play it down and say 'well we were banned too' but they were in a completely different situation, having already enjoyed sustained success and made their mark on the European stage. I can only imagine that for us to have put in all that hard work and then have the chance to go further taken away from us must have had a huge impact on the fans, the current players, owners and manager.

That said, we were still a huge club at that time, and it doesn't explain why we weren't able to find the right players to take us forward in to the early to mid 90's which Liverpool and Arsenal managed to do. Obviously Man United took advantage the most but Arsenal had a similar title haul and a similar sized ground at that time so we should have had similar opportunities to them.

 

[Kev The Rat]

Reading Kendall's autobiography he mentioned there were factions in the dressing room when he arrived for the second time - the old guard Southall, Ratcliffe etc - and the newer players like Newell and Keown.

A number of key men left at the end of the 80s as well. How could we not have been affected the loss of the likes of Reid, Gary Stevens and Trevor Steven?

How much of a factor that was in disrupting the team is hard to say but it's clear we were unable to successfully make the transition from the title winning years into the 90s.

 

[peteblue]

I blame the kit, that gold one we had in the 60’s done for us, just like this shiite grey kit we wear now......

 

[macdog]

Indeed, on two occasions we won a title before war broke out.... the Ball news kills me to this day, I will never forget the gut wrenching feeling when I heard it.......but hey, some of us have seen 4 titles won, a few cups......I can’t complain.....

Stymied by the Kaiser, Hitler and the RS. What a trio of horrors.

 

[Blues Harp]

We only produced good football during glorious summer days. As soon as the summers started to get rubbish, so did our football.

‘84-87 scorchers.

‘95 scorcher.

Basically, we’rena Fair-weather club. What we need is another heatwave.

In all seriousness though financial mismanagement is the reason for our demise. The other shower, Arsenal & United we’re also thrown out of Europe but they capitalised on the “whole new ball game” of the premier league while we signed a crocked Norman whiteside and a bang average mike Newell. I hated his face.

Spot on. Total lack of ambition and financial acumen from an incompetent board is the crux of our present situation....yet some of us are still clapping...

 

[peteblue]

Stymied by the Kaiser, Hitler and the RS. What a trio of horrors.

Bad people always come after our success........

 

[d34noj]

Stymied by the Kaiser, Hitler and the RS. What a trio of horrors.

I don't know which is worse.