IT is the season to be jolly – and there can’t be a happier man in football than Everton chairman Bill Kenwright, who is wearing a smile that would require surgery to remove it. And I couldn’t be happier for him, for Bill is treasuring every minute of Everton’s superb first half of the season, which I see as reward for his unfailing loyalty and dedication to the club he loves. Bill, so often under fire from some sections of the fans as he wrestled with the financial restraints at Goodison in recent years, stuck admirably by previous manager David Moyes for 10 years and must have been devastated when David got the irresistible call to go to Manchester United. When Moyes’s successor Roberto Martinez walked through the door with the FA Cup under one arm and a relegation certificate under the other, a lot of people were edgy. But Roberto has built upon the foundation he inherited from David and taken the team to a new level with a more adventurous style of play. And I am sure that he, like Moyes before him, is finding that Bill Kenwright is a manager’s dream chairman. Certainly, I would have enjoyed working under him.
It was wonderful to watch Everton, inspired by the fabulous midfield play of World Cup squad cert Ross Barkley and the rampaging right flank runs of ever-improving right-back Seamus Coleman, sweep to another win, at Swansea, to climb into fourth place and maintain the great Merseyside revival. Liverpool, of course, went top on Saturday after yet another Luis Suarez-inspired romp, this time against strife-torn Cardiff. We are almost at the halfway stage and, though neither Martinez nor Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers will want to say so, their teams have to be considered as potential champions, never mind Champions League qualifiers. Everton now have the longest unbeaten run in the top flight, 10 matches, and have still lost only once, at goal-mad Manchester City. Players such as Barkley, Gareth Barry, Steven Pienaar, Kevin Mirallas, Leon Osman and James McCarthy – who reminds me more and more of the often underrated but so important Paul Bracewell in Howard Kendall’s excellent team of the 1980s – have fused to form one of the best midfields in the Premier League. Coleman has developed into arguably the second best full-back in the division, behind City’s Pablo Zabaleta, Bryan Oviedo has proved a worthy replacement for injured Leighton Baines and centre-halves Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin are playing their best football in years. Same goes for goalkeeper Tim Howard, who has been tremendous ever since Sir Alex Ferguson decided he wasn’t good enough for United and Moyes snapped him up. And there are some more than useful guys waiting for their opportunity to gatecrash the party. My one concern is that a serious injury to either of the centre-halves or to striker Romelu Lukaku might derail the runaway train. But I won’t dwell on the negative, preferring to hail the Blues for their terrific, entertaining first half of the season. Everton have not won a trophy since my team claimed the FA Cup in 1995 and I would love it if they put that right this season.
