They had a famous FA Cup run in the early 1990s, eventually being knocked out by Crewe 3-1 in the 3rd round. Roly Howard was manager for a record 33 years (1972-2005), although he will always be remembered by some fans as Kenny Dalglish's window cleaner. TV presenter Ray Stubbs once asked: "How's business, Roly?" to which Roly replied "Oh you know - ups and downs."
Former players include Michael Ball (Everton and Rangers) and Stephen Wright (Liverpool and Sunderland). The club motto is 'To Enjoy, Not Destroy.'
TOUCHLINE Dad turned pundit at the start of the season with previews for both Liverpool and Everton.
Of course, making predictions is a surefire way of making a fool of yourself. So, how are the predictions doing? Alternatively, how big a fool am I?
Let's toss a coin to see who goes first. It's tails. The Blues.
Everton...
"It's been a long time since Everton enjoyed a cup run to make the floorboards of Goodison Park thunder. But 2008 could change all that."
Well, the Blues are still in all three cup competitions. They booked their place in the last eight of the Carling Cup with a late winner against Luton; they similarly scraped into the group stages of the UEFA Cup and, of course, the FA Cup third round beckons in the New Year.
A win over West Ham in the Carling Cup quarter finals would set up a possible semi-final cup clash over two legs with Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal, something Goodison Park hasn't witnessed for years.
Their two perfomances against Metalisk suggest Everton will struggle in Europe without shrewd tactics to complement David Moyes's blood and thunder. The display against Larissa (3-1, Cahill, Osman, Anichebe) was more composed, however.
Thursday nights watching Five will be exciting for me and Jack over the next few weeks.
Oh, and someone needs to remind skipper Phil Neville that sides line up for European games and shake hands, not just leg it out of the tunnel when Z-Cars plays and have a warm-up. Very embarrassing.
On the Premier League front, the Blues are flirting with 'mid-table mediocity' behind in-form Portsmouth, Blackburn and Man City. Some of their wins (Spurs and Bolton away) look good on paper but they are put into perspective by the fact that all six league wins to date (Spurs, Wigan, Middlesborough, Birmingham, Derby and Bolton) have been against teams currently in the bottom seven.
Everton play the 'seventh' team Sunderland on November 24, but also face high-flying Chelsea, Portsmouth, Manchester United and Arsenal between now and New Year when they will do well to notch up a win.
Yakubu has proved as disappointing as most Blues and everyone else (especially Middlesborough and Portsmouth fans) feared.
The Yak looks heavy and cumbersome and despite scoring against Bolton just ten minutes into his Everton career, he was put on the bench a few games later against Villa when Moyes favoured Johnson and Anichebe. A couple of goals against Derby and Birmingham have boosted his reputation but he's got a lot to prove.
Now that James Vaughan is back, Moyes could do worse than cut his losses and sell the £13m Yak at a 50% discount in the New Year sales, if the board let him. With rumours circulating that Moyes wasn't too keen on him in the first place (but chairman Bill Kenwright was) this is unlikely.
My prediction of 7th looks about right providing Arteta, Cahill and Lescott stay fit. I still feel there's a chance of domestic cup glory for the Blues this season.
Liverpool...
"Up front. Balls out. Here it goes. Liverpool will win the Premiership."
A blistering start to the league campaign including a memorable demolition of Derby County and a 2-1 win over Everton, came to an abrupt halt with dropped points against Portsmouth, Birmingham, Spurs and Blackburn. Reds fans are worried. Many are rightly peeved with Rafa's meddling.
Torres was rested for two of those games but he baled out Liverpool against Tottenham. He's the key to Liverpool's success (or lack of it) this season and Rafa needs to dump his crazy rotation policy and use Torres to get points on the board. His selection against Reading in the Carling Cup (ok, he scored a hat-trick but so what?) after he was rested for the more important league match against Birmingham at Anfield was unwise, perverse and costly.
Unfortunately, Benitez is the epitome of stubbornness. He makes Maggie Thatcher look like Mary Poppins. One of the most intriguing and possibly bitter decisions of the season so far was Rafa subbing skipper Steven Gerrard for the rookie Lucas Leiva in the Merseyside derby. It can only have had the aim of humiliating Gerrard in front of his home city.
Rafa said he was playing with too much passion. That's nonsense, senor. Benitez was making a point, clipping his wings. Perhaps Gerrard had dared to question the manager's team selection?
There doesn't appear to have been much public fallout from the decision yet, but I strongly suspect it marks the beginning of the end for one of their Liverpool careers unless the Premier League trophy heads 'home' to Anfield in the summer.
On the other side of the coin is someone Benitez clearly rates despite a poor run of form. Dirk Kuyt is a honest, hard-working player who struggles in front of goal. But, as we saw against Blackburn last weekend when he was chosen as the sole striker, he just hasn't got that indefinable, perhaps instinctive ability which great marksmen have.
The second half of the season may well see Babel cutting in to play a more central attacking role alongside Torres with Kuyt dropping off as a provider or even being relegated to the bench.
In terms of the league, Liverpool are not out of it. Far from it. But, they need to hit top gear quickly. Can Babel or Lucas emerge as the missing link?
The Champions League campaign has been very poor so far with defeat at home to Marseille, a draw in Porto and another defeat in Istanbul to Besiktas.
Reds fans love this competition and they will be hoping the team sneaks through to the last 16 by winning their remaining three group matches, but they will not mourn a season away from the sharp end of the Champions League IF (note, it's a big IF) the team can crack the Premier League.
The Reds play Chelsea in the Carling Cup at Stamford Bridge a few days before Christmas to kick-off the season of goodwill. What odds John Arne Riise to lash one in? The Carling Cup may not be a priority now, but its importance may grow if Liverpool's Champions League and Premier League odds lengthen over the next few weeks.
So, can Liverpool be league champions in 2008? Yes...if Torres can avoid further injury and he's allowed to score his 20 league goals by a talented, respected, stubborn and not-always-right manager. If not, it's surely 'Adiós Benitez.'
Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal...and the rest
I predicted Chelsea would crack first - not realising it would take only a handul of games for the club to implode when Mourinho was sacked. They're back in the chasing pack though and scoring lots of goals, something they always struggled to do under The Special One.
Man Utd are showing the hallmarks of champions by winning eight on the spin in the league, without looking that impresive in most of them, after a woeful start. They must be favourites for the title.
Surprise package so far is Arsenal. They look exciting across the board. Mind you, north London rivals Spurs look exciting (especially Berbatov) but they just can't win. Man City look good at home but average away.
Meanwhile, down at the bottom I'm sticking with Fulham, free-falling Wigan (who were top after two games) and Derby for the drop.
What do YOU think? Post a comment, anonymously if you like...
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »