Random great Everton goals #12

James Vaughan - Chelsea v Everton
Stamford Bridge, May 13, 2007

As funny as the sight of Carlos Tevez encamped on the bench with all the determination of a Dale Farm occupant was on Tuesday (and incidentally why the surprise/shock? The man is a gobshite whose understanding of English extends as far as “Ladies and Gentleman, flight BA425 to Buenos Aires is now boarding”), it provided a grimly jarring contrast to the sight of James Vaughan being helped from the pitch in distress the previous evening. If there is any justice, the next time a serious injury is being handed out, it won’t be to a player whose career to now has been marred by a frustrating catalogue of injuries and who must be desperate for as much match time as he can get his hands on. As easy as it to dismiss many of the current crop of footballers as self-obsessed irritants, Vaughan’s almost anachronistic all action style and enthusiasm generated a lot of warmth for him amongst the Everton crowd. One of the best aspects of the FA Cup semi final win in 2009 was his return from long-term absence to coolly slot away his penalty, coupled with his post-match celebratory dash across the pitch, mirroring much of what was going on in the stands.



This flowing breakaway goal came on the final day of the season during arguably Vaughan’s best run of form in a blue shirt after he had finally displaced James Beattie in the first team, during a match in which he ragged John Terry, England’s permanently sobbing Lionheart, all over Stamford Bridge. Fingers crossed he starts to get the career he wants.

September Playlist - A Rose for Emily

I'd intended to do a follow up to May's mix sooner, but for a few reasons including the arrival of my daughter (hence the title) I haven't. Prompted and inspired by a walk round Sefton Park yesterday with the iPod on shuffle though, I have created the following. Bit of a mix of stuff, so as with the average buffet, pick and choose as you see fit... (tracklisting is revealed when play is pressed)

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A Rose for Emily by Davespowart on Mixcloud

Random great Everton goals #11

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.

Death or Glory: The Dark History of the World Cup – Jon Spurling

There’s nothing like a topical review. And this is nothing… etc etc. A Christmas present I’ve only just got round to reading, Jon Spurling’s work should be required reading for those – generally motivated by finance – who justify competing against questionable regimes, or in questionable locations, with the trite “we shouldn’t mix sport and politics line”. The central theme running through the book is the extent to which governments and leaders (predominately autocratic) have used the World Cup to attempt to rally support behind their regime, often having identified its potential usefulness early on. Spurling uses this idea to cleverly provide a different perspective on some of the more almost clichéd, iconic images of the tournament; the 1970 triumph of Brazil and Argentina’s tickertape triumph of 1978 are set in the context of the Medici and Videla dictatorships taking hold and seeking legitimacy in those countries, while the cartoon footage of Zaire’s Mwepu Ilunga clearing the ball uninvited against Brazil in 1974 is partially explained by the extreme pressure the players had been put under by President Mobutu.

With a cast list including the aforementioned Mobutu, Mussolini, Erich Honecker, North Korea’s Kim Il-Sung, Haiti’s ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier, the Medillin drug cartels and Idi Amin, there is no shortage of interesting insight into the various methods, often brutal, used by these individuals to internally punish or repress and externally influence events to their own ends (although if I were to offer one criticism the closing chapter of the book, devoted to Uganda and Amin, is a bit thin and weak, and seems to have been included more due to the dictator’s notoriety).

Overall this is an excellent research piece that provides a bit of welcome shade to the blinding light of good that the World Cup has historically been assumed to provide. And just as an aside, given how frothy mouthed and pious some of the coverage of the selection of the host country was for the 2018 and 2022 tournament, it would be interesting to see how the press would have reacted if England had been in the same situation as Honduras in 1969. As recounted in the book, with relations between Honduras and El Salvador on the brink of breakdown into war, the former arrived in San Salvador for a World Cup play off, defending a 1-0 first leg lead. With the pitch surrounded by an armed National Guard, the playing of the national anthems and raising of the home team’s flag was followed by not the raising of the Honduran flag, as was customary, but “a dishrag covered in shit”. That right there is your dictionary definition of intimidation.

Paul Trevor’s “Like You’ve Never Been Away”

Probably the most discussed exhibition of the current Liverpool International Photography Festival is Paul Trevor’s “Like You’ve Never Been Away”. Trevor spent five months in a flat in Everton in 1975 taking photos for a project studying inner city deprivation, and the full result of his efforts are now on display at the Walker Art Gallery. Trevor’s black and white photos, largely based in Everton and Toxteth, tend to fall into two categories; a selection of staged individual and family portraits and, more interestingly for me, unguarded shots of predominately children going about their business. These latter shots emote in the same way as the work of the likes of Robert Doisneau or Willy Ronis, albeit in a markedly different setting.



Some have tried to draw far reaching conclusions about the photos providing us with evidence of some Life on Mars panacea where kids made their own entertainment, everyone knew everyone else and ‘health and safety’ wasn’t ruining our lives, ignoring the associated but unseen risk and danger that was potentially around the corner for the subjects (a taste of which is covered in the brief documentary about Trevor’s recent return to the area that forms part of the exhibition). For me it is what it is: a beautifully shot reflection of a period in time, especially as a non-native of the city who has seen much change in the past 14-15 years, but has little conception of the look of Liverpool in that earlier decade. Carrying on at The Walker after the end of the Festival and running until the end of September, there is no excuse not to get along and have a look.

Random great Everton goals #10

Anders Limpar - Leicester v Everton
Filbert Street, March 4, 1995

At the conclusion of a wildly schizophrenic season that saw about as many points picked up against the top six as bottom six, and which culminated in a well earned win against the always repellent Chelsea, there are a few things I’d rather not see at Goodison next season. John Heitinga and Phil Neville together in midfield. Kevin Nolan being made to look like Socrates. ‘Rossy la’ on the mic. Lee Mason refereeing. Or Peter Walton for that matter.

There are certain things it would however be nice to see. With the inevitable departure of messrs Yakubu and Vaughan, a centre forward ready for first team action with a decent record of scoring goals and avoiding the treatment table. Cover at left back that isn’t Phil Neville or Tony Hibbert. And most importantly for me, a winger with pace. Central to our problems over the first half of the season was an inability to use width to break down sides coming to L4 seeking only a point. And with alluring continental free agents with dubious appearance records (Vicente) joining their mundane British equivalents (the all too plausible, given our spending power, Kieron Dyer) on David Moyes’ supposed watch list to solve this problem, it all begs the question: what would we now give for Andrei Kanchelskis in his prime?

With a deftness of touch that even the Fernando Torres of Sunday afternoon would regard as heavy and unsubtle, I hamfistedly venture we would also benefit from the presence of the scorer of today’s random goal: Anders Limpar. Limpar’s relatively brief Everton career was bookended with disappointment; indifferent early displays headlined by THAT handball against Wimbledon and disappearing almost unnoticed out of the door after a period in the cold to Birmingham in 1997. For the majority of his time in a blue shirt however he was a personal favourite of mine, particularly as the artisan in the otherwise wonderfully industrial 1994-5 side.

His treatment at the hands of Joe Royle was curious. Having been part of that cup winning side and lauded by his manager for resembling Platini at times, he seemed to link up well with Kanchelskis after the Ukranian’s arrival in the summer of 1995, the glorious highlight of which was the pair’s combination for the second goal at the Tin Mine as Uncle Roy’s side exposed its oft-present glass jaw in big games. As things started to go wrong the following season and Kanchelskis departed amid myriad rumour, the increasing criticism appeared to entrench Royle into a more negative and paranoid attitude and Limpar seemed to become a luxury he felt the side (now featuring Claus Thomsen) could no longer afford, leading to his departure. Or maybe the Swede had only himself to blame; his career post 1997 certainly suggested someone with a waning interest in competing at the highest level. Whatever the truth, his Everton career ultimately flickered rather than shone, but when it was good it was ace.

This goal came toward the end of the 1995 season when Royle felt secure enough in the club’s continued status in the league to give future hatchet man of Spanish football Vinny Samways a run out at Filbert Street. Charity Shield hero Samways duly notched, but the highlight of the 2-2 draw was Anders’ effort from distance.

A May Playlist - The Rise and Fall of Alain Perrin

No overarching theme to the title, the picture or running through the selection, just a collection of records that seem to sound great in the sunshine. Enjoy. Or don't. It's up to you...

Tracklisting:
Beach Boys - Our Prayer
Strawberry Alarm Clock - They Saw The Fat Man Coming
Allen Clapp - Whenever We're Together
Shaun Harris - Colour of Your Eyes
Aluminum Group - Chocolates
Stephen Fretwell - Bumper Cars
Nicole Crosille - We Got a Thing
La's - Was it Something I Said
Tyrone Davis - Can I Change My Mind
Alzo Fronte - That's Alright (I Don't Mind It)
Del Shannon - Runaway (1967 version)
Cosmic Rough Riders - Move Along
Cranebuilders - Just Idleness
Great Northwestern Hoboes - Upon my Shelf
American Spring - Fallin' in Love
Faces - You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Even Take the Dog for a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away the Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings)
Emitt Rhodes - Really Wanted You
Isley Brothers - My Love is Your Love
Jimmie Spheeris - I am the Mercury
John Grant - Fireflies
Mark Eric - Build Your Own Dream
Martha Wainwright - When The Day is Short
Air - Californie

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The Rise and Fall of Alain Perrin by Davespowart on Mixcloud