Friedkin Group can solve overdue Everton problem at new stadium to make perfect first impression
Over in Rome, Dan Friedkin is facing fan protests with allegations that his ownership is failing to reflect the values and history of the club but with an Everton takeover deal agreed, the Texas-based billionaire could avoid similar ructions on Merseyside with a special addition to the new Everton Stadium. As cinemagoers will soon be finding out with a sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 blockbuster starring Russell Crowe, hitting the big screens next month, huge crowds in the Eternal City cheered on battling heroes long before AS Roma were formed relatively recently in the summer of 1927 (by which time Everton were gearing up for their third League Championship in their golden jubilee year, spearheaded by Dixie Dean’s record-breaking 60 goals).
When it came to facing the lions of the most-prolific marksmen in football for over 16 years though, Neville Southall, who made his debut on this day in 1981 in a 2-1 home win over Ipswich Town, was Goodison’s Gladiator. If the Friedkin Group wants to tap into the Evertonian psyche, then honouring Southall at the Blues’ 52,888 capacity future home at Bramley-Moore Dock would be the ideal move.
In 1984/85, Everton romped to their eighth League Championship with 90 points, leaving runners-up Liverpool some 13 points in their wake (both records at the time). They also lifted in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup and in an era when English clubs had triumphed in the European Cup over seven of the eight previous seasons, they looked primed for continental domination had it not been for the post-Heysel ban.
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Yet Southall was still their star man, being named the FWA Footballer of the Year and almost four decades on, remains the last goalkeeper to be awarded the prize. As the man who played in front of him, his captain and Wales international team-mate Kevin Ratcliffe would recall on Match of the Eighties: “When you’ve got a keeper like that, you can gain an extra 14 points.”
What is also telling is that out of the four goalkeepers to have been recognised as the finest footballer in the land by the scribes who cover the game, Southall is now the anomaly in terms of being given a permanent tribute to his achievements. Bert Trautmann of Manchester City (1956) has a statue at the Etihad Stadium; Gordon Banks of Stoke City (1972) has one at the bet365 Stadium and Pat Jennings of Tottenham Hotspur (1973) has one on Kildare Street of his home city of Newry.
Perhaps Everton should build a statue at their new stadium for the club’s record appearance holder?
Perhaps they should build one for the player who won the most trophies for the club?
Perhaps they should build one for a player who was the best in the world in his position at the peak of his powers?
All three of those feats should be enough to qualify you for such an honour by the banks of the ‘Royal Blue’ Mersey but ultimately only one statue would be needed for them because they were all achieved by Southall. Llandudno’s greatest son donned the gloves on some 751 occasions for Everton – that’s 217 more games than his closest rival in matches played, legendary captain and one-club man Brian Labone, ‘The last of the Corinthians.’
How many Everton players can genuinely claim to be the best on the planet in their position?
Probably Dean in the Inter-War years but that was an era before European competition and before England even bothered to enter the World Cup. Also, English football’s record-breaking marksman was virtually ignored by his national team selectors in a seemingly arbitrary fashion after the age of 22 anyway.
Another prolific Goodison centre-forward, and team-mate of Southall, Gary Lineker, earned the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup finals but by his own admission, the now Match of the Day host was a great goalscorer rather than a truly great player. Prodigal Son Wayne Rooney won everything in the club game with Manchester United between his two Everton spells, as did Samuel Eto’o before his brief sojourn at Goodison but while both are all-time greats, neither could be considered the doyen in the field over a particular period in time like Southall.
For sure, his outspoken nature and strong beliefs have ensured this individual who once made an infamous half-time sit-in gesture against a Goodison goal post has never been one to toe the party line when it comes to sugar-coating his thoughts about matters at Everton or any of the many other topics he feels passionate about, whether it’s politics or championing the rights of groups within society he wants to stand up for.
But if a Tory government can dish out an MBE to ‘Big Nev’ in the 1996 Birthday Honours List then surely the Blues can erect a permanent tribute to the man who while wearing their badge with both unparalleled success and endurance was also for several years the best at his job among all those in the human race.
Southall might brush off the clamour to build a statue of him with typical modesty, but others need to speak up on his behalf. After all, take his breath-taking save to deny Mark Falco of Tottenham Hotspur in 1985 as Everton closed in on the League Championship and their goalkeeper towards his Footballer of the Year gong.
Steve Curry in the Express proclaimed: “Not since the steamy afternoon when Gordon Banks kept out a header from Pele in the 1970 World Cup has a goalkeeper produced quite such an astonishing save as Southall conjured at White Hart Lane last night,” while Stuart Jones in the Times described it as “astonishing.”
Spurs boss Peter Shreeves revealed: “The talking point in my dressing room has been that world-class save,” while Falco admitted: “I thought it was in. So did our players and even Everton thought we had equalised. No-one on the pitch could believe it.”
At the time, Southall claimed: “It was a bit of a fluke – the ball just hit me,” while recalling the iconic moment years later in his autobiography The Binman Chronicles, he simply remarked: “What more can I say? It was straight at me and I’ve saved plenty like that on the training ground. I always knew I was going to get it.
“My team-mates certainly didn’t congratulate me. Ratcliffe yelled at me: ‘Why didn’t you catch it? Why are you f****** giving a corner away?’”
Evertonians are pretty unanimous on the subject anyway. Even when Peter Johnson first mooted a new stadium in 1997 with his heavily slanted glossy brochure called: “It’s your move,” asking Blues fans: “Do you want to stay with poor facilities and obstructed views (illustrated by photographs of Goodison urinals and one of the Main Stand’s chunky pillars) or enjoy an unhindered panorama of the ground,” offering them a 60,000 capacity bowl (bigger than any other Premier League venue at the time), he only got a yes of 84% on his plebiscite but when the ECHO put the Southall statue question to fans back in May this year, some 93% agreed.