Tony Cottee - Sheffield Wednesday v Everton
Hillsborough, February 6, 1993
While Everton’s summer paralysis in the transfer market has been depressingly familiar, the last few weeks have been livened up no end by the efforts of newly formed organisations such as The People’s Group to have the media throw some attention on the running of the club, resulting in debates on both Radio 5 and TalkSport, as well as articles – albeit by Liverpool fans – in the now defunct News of the World and Daily Mirror. The result of this pressure has been, if the message boards are any barometer, to produce the most vociferous split within supporters since the failed Kirkby move.
While much of the debate has been depressing abusive and missed the key issues, excellent blogs on both sides (and in the middle) of the divide have appeared from the likes of Mark O’Brien, Biff Bifferson, Juice Terry Journo and Colin Fitzpatrick. The section of the media to really let itself down has been the local media, which has largely ignored the issue, claiming implausibly that the club are ‘continuing to monitor’ or ‘keep tabs’ on £12 million-rated players and giving fascinating nuggets about the players’ Twitter activity. When it has looked at the issue, it has largely dismissed concerns and followed the club’s official line, with only the chastised Dave Prentice recently offering any semblance of criticism. If the campaign achieves nothing else, it will hopefully force more meaningful and clear dialogue from the club to those it expects to consistently hand money over in increasingly hard financial times. Having petulantly cancelled AGMs after some legitimately tough questioning, the current system of a fans parliament with no minutes produced would only seem inclusive and open by 1970’s East German standards.
It seemed ironically appropriate then, to feature a player who represents a time when Everton’s financial muscle was as strong as anyone’s. On his arrival at Goodison in 1988 for a British record £2.2m (a fee probably beyond the club in 2011), Tony Cottee represented Colin Harvey’s key effort to wrestle the championship from back across the park. Despite a hat trick on his debut, ultimately his career at L4 was a succession of fits and starts and he eventually suffered the ignominy of leaving the club as part of the deal to bring in David ‘f*cking’ Burrows, although his 70 odd goals in 180 odd games is respectable given the mediocre sides he played in. This effort came in a 3-1 defeat toward the end of a season in which the team finished an underwhelming 13th.
