“There is a bit of me that wants to tell people in Europe that they should not forget that Everton were champions of England, and but for the Heysel disaster they have been denied a chance to have a long run in Europe,” he said.
“People forget that and don’t understand what happened. Everton were unfortunate but I accept it was a tragedy that made football unimportant.
“What happened after Heysel changed lots of careers. Players and managers.
“Since then we have been watching from the outside and the club was denied the chance to grow and benefit from the money in European competition.”For a start – there is a lot of you David that wants to tell the world just how hard done by Everton were following the ban in 85. I am honest enough to admit that the Liverpool team of 84/85 were not the best team to grace a final anyway. Souness was approaching the end of his career (at the top anyway) as was Sammy Lee. An ageing Phil Neal was vulnerable at the back along with a raw looking Jim Beglin and it is doubtful neither Paul Walsh or John Wark would have provided Rushie with the partnership to shoot down a mean looking Juventus defence.
But what happened unfortunately happened and we have had years of ‘afters’ from bitter Evertonians and an unable-to-forgive Michael Platini ever since. That’s fine – we as club have to live with that. If the shoe was on the other foot we may well feel the same towards Everton. But don’t try bull-shitting me that the Everton side of 84-85 were just about to go on and conquer Europe because just as there is now a huge difference in winning the UEFA cup and the Champions League there was just as big a gap back then between winning the Cup Winners Cup and the European Cup.
True – all the top 6 clubs at that time; Everton, Liverpool, Man Utd, Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham etc etc were denied the chance to grace Europe for 5 or 6 years. We were lucky that we lured great British talent such as Houghton, Beardsley and Barnes to our club rather than them been attracted by European football abroad. Football was poor to watch in the 1st Division from about 83-84 through to 87 when only then the players such as these (as well as Gascoinge & Waddle) brought a flair to the top tier of english football.
Who says, apart from you, Mr Moyes that Everton would have had a long run in Europe? About as long as the run in 2005-6 I would have imagined more likely.
Yes, Heysel did change a lot of players careers. People like Lineker, Rush, Hughes, Hoddle etc chose to go abroad and broaden their skills before coming back as better players. If Everton failed to buy or nurture British talent during this time then that is their look out – we were all in the same boat.
What money in European competetion? I know that the last 10 years or so has seen it become lucrative but back in 1986? I’m diving in here without any facts so I may stand corrected but how much money did it earn to make the European Cup back then? Or is he implying that they would have either won the cup or finished top of the league every season from 86 to 96 so therefore been there right at the top when the big bucks appeared?
Heysel made little difference to the progression of our top clubs. The Premier League did – it improved our club sides and gave us chance to compare our homegrown talent with those from abroad who came to experience it. Everton were in favour of everything the birth of the Premier League stood for. They placed their bets as did we and in fact we as a club have had to fight nail and tooth to justify our inlcusion as a top club in recent years. Everton have fought and failed (bar that freaky season of 2004-5).
Keep watching from the outside, Kirkby to be exact.
