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I'd be like Phil Foden or Bukayo Saka if I played for Everton now
Everton FA Cup winner Anders Limpar recalls it was “a dream” having ‘The Dogs of War’ as his on-field minders but reckons he’d have been a more prolific player if he was at the peak of his powers in today’s Premier League. After helping the Blues to beat Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 1-0 in the 1995 FA Cup final, the Sweden international found himself paired with the prolific Andrei Kanchelskis on opposite wings the following season after Joe Royle broke Everton’s transfer record with a £5million raid on Old Trafford.
Speaking on the Goodison Park: My Home series, Limpar told the ECHO: “That was lightning, I can tell you. If I was quick, I didn’t have any chance against Andrei.
“He had two good feet and scored 16 goals. He’d won everything at Manchester United over the five years before that.
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“I was rooming with him. He was so funny, because he’d be talking to his wife in Russian for two or three hours every night so I can pretty much speak better Russian than English now!
“Andrei was a funny character and a good man, a sweet man, and a hell of a football player. He did great for Everton.”
One of the pair’s highlights was a 2-1 Merseyside Derby win over Liverpool at Anfield on November 18, 1995, with Kanchelskis scoring his first two goals for the club and Limpar setting him up for his second.
Limpar said: “In recent years I’ve been to Anfield when we got knocked 5-2 – that wasn’t fun – and another one when Liverpool won 2-0. For some reason we play well against Liverpool at Goodison but struggle going there.
“I remember once we had a chat at Bellefield ahead of a derby and Andrei said: ‘Liverpool? That’s nothing!’ That’s because he’d come from Manchester United who seemed to beat them every time.
“For him it was nothing but for an Evertonian like Dave Watson, it was a really big deal. The rest of us were all s******g ourselves but we still enjoyed a great game at Anfield when we won 2-1, that game stands out for me from my time at Everton, along with the 4-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup semi-final.”
Although Limpar had been deployed as a foil behind the striker when playing for Cremonese, where he was named Serie A’s third best foreign player in 1989/90 behind Diego Maradona and Lothar Matthaus – who would contest the World Cup final that summer – when Arsenal brought him to England he was told his role would have to change. Limpar said: “For me, as a skilful, quick, winger who couldn’t tackle or couldn’t defend, to have players like Barry Horne, John Ebbrell and Joe Parkinson, or (at Arsenal) Mickey Thomas and Paul Davis, that’s the dream for Andrei and me.
“If they do their job with hard tackling as good players and provide us with the ball on the wings, it’s easy to play then.
“I played as a number 10 in Italy against centre-halves but that was different as I’d never tackle. In my first conversation with George Graham when he wanted to sign me, he said ‘I’m going to play you as a winger.’ I told him: ‘I’m a number 10, I’m going to play in the middle.’
“Straight away he goes: ‘Anders, you can’t tackle, in England you’ll have to play on the wing.’ It was as simple as that as it was much tougher back in those days.”
Although Royle described Limpar as “a footballing genius” and the most-talented player he ever worked with, in 82 matches for Everton, his total of six goals was hardly prolific. Although the former wide man’s role was – by his own admission – more about laying on chances for others than finishing himself, the 59-year-old reckons he’d have a lot more joy in today’s Premier League.
Limpar said: “Playing in the Premier League now would have suited me much more because I was a player who was really good at passing and receiving the ball. I had a good touch, good vision.
“The style of play now would have suited me much more. I could see myself like a Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli, who always attack, and they don’t have to defend.
“I had to do a little bit of defending because it was different football then. It was much quicker, we were launching the ball from the full-backs up to the forwards back in the ‘90s.
“You hardly don’t see that with the top teams anymore. They play from the back four up through the midfield and out to the wingers.
“I’d have probably scored more goals if I was playing now and I’m sure I’d have produced more assists too because you hardly see a Foden or Doku cross the ball, it’s very rare. The same with Saka, he goes for goal, so it’s a different game altogether.”
Goodison Park: My Home episodes currently available to watch on YouTube are as follows
