For those younger fans Everton football club may just seem like the also-rans of English football, never really challenging for the league title or domestic cups. In fact their 2-1 FA cup final defeat to Chelsea in 2009 is the closest they have come to silverware since winning the cup in 1995.Managers like David Moyes and Roberto Martinez have built strong and entertaining sides with limited resources, even qualifying for the Champions league in 2005-06 season where they were knocked out before the group stage by Villareal of Spain.
But the history of this famous club could have been so different. The late Howard Kendall took over as the Toffee’s manager in May 1981. He rebuilt the team and guided Everton through their most successful era.
He brought in younger players such as Peter Reid and Trevor Steven from smaller clubs, stole free kick specialist Kevin Sheedy from Liverpool, promoted apprentice Kevin Ratcliffe to captain and found a real gem in goalkeeper Neville Southall, a £150,000 signing from Bury. He also added big names such as Paul Bracewell, Pat Van Den Hauwe and Andy Gray, the latter going on to cement a potent strike force with Graeme Sharp.
Kendall’s first piece of silverware was the 1984 FA cup, beating a good Watford side managed by Graham Taylor 2-0 with goals from Gray and Sharp. Watford had pushed Liverpool all the way in the title challenge the previous year with stars such as John Barnes and Luther Blissett.
However, it was the next season, 1984-85 where Kendall’s team really exhibited its true strength winning the First Division with 90 points (13 more than runners-up Liverpool) and the Cup Winners' Cup with a 3-1 win over Rapid Vienna, knocking out German giants Bayern Munich comfortably in the semis. They were unlucky not to win a treble with a narrow 1-0 FA cup final defeat to Manchester United with a great goal by Norman Whiteside in extra-time.
Everton would surely have been amongst the favourites to lift the 1985-86 European cup, with only city rivals Liverpool and maybe the Juventus team of Platini, Boniek, Rossi et al with a chance of competing against them. But it wasn’t to be, the Heysel Stadium disaster and the subsequent ban of all English clubs from continental football, meant that Everton lost the chance to compete for more European trophies.
The 1985 team scooped all the awards, with Howard Kendall winning manager of the year, PFA Player of the Year going to Peter Reid and FWA Player of the Year was Neville Southall.The following season Gray was sold to Aston Villa and Kendall replaced him with Leicester City striker Gary Lineker, who scored more than 30 goals to win top scorer award, but Everton narrowly failed to win both the League and the FA Cup, coming runners up in both competitions to Dalglish’s Liverpool. They lost the title by two points and surrendered a lead in the first ever Merseyside FA cup final, eventually losing 3-1.
The Toffee’s battled back in 1986-87 season and won the League again, nine points clear of Liverpool, as the Merseyside clubs continued their stranglehold on the English game. Once again Howard Kendall was voted Manager of the Year for guiding Everton to their second league title in three seasons.
However, Kendall’s frustration with English football worsened. A large proportion of the title-winning side was broken up because of the ban. Kendall himself moved to Athletic Bilbao, quoting hindrance at not being able to compete in Europe as the main reason for leaving his beloved Everton.
Despite spells in Greece and Spain Kendall never reproduced the magic his Toffee’s had displayed in conquering domestically and on the continent. Back in England he turned Manchester City’s fortunes around and built a strong team that was nearing the top of the First Division table, only to resign and return to Everton. He famously justified the move by saying that Manchester City was just an affair, but Everton was his marriage.
Kendall was unable to return the glory days to his beloved Everton and a series of rows with then chairman Derek Pavis led to Kendall being sacked in April 1995. There will always be cloud over his reign at Everton in the 80’s, despite the success the team had, and that is the question of just how good they could have been. Surely a European title was only a season or two away. But we’ll never know. RIP Howard Kendall. Below is a list of his achievement with the Toffee’s side of the 80’s era.Everton under Howard Kendall:
Football League First Division champions: 1984–85, 1986–87
Football League First Division runner-up: 1985–86
FA Cup winner: 1983–84
FA Cup runner-up: 1984–85, 1985–86
FA Charity Shield winner: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87
European Cup Winners' Cup winner: 1984–85
Football League Cup runner-up: 1983–84
Screen Sport Super Cup runner-up: 1985–86
English Manager Of The Year: 1985
English Manager Of The Year: 1987
Source: DSG
