Everton 1966 to Alan Ball's transfer..

Interesting post biscuits Arsenal won the double in 71 which wasn’t as common back then but yes Everton did seem to go away quietly.

Memory serves, Panathanaikos knocked us out in the qf of the European Cup, to which point
Everton had only stumbled through via two draws with Moenchengladbach.

After Arsenal served up the double, Johan Cryuff and Ajax destroyed Panathanaikos at Wembley. It was the coming to success of a new way of football - in tandem with the decline of the English national team and its club-sides (England not even making the '74 World Cup).

So maybe it was part of a wider malaise.

I had Alan ball football boots

White, and I loved them, and made me play better
than the massive boats not boots I'd been used to.

Everton just missed out to those three and arsenal,
but Busby and reevie and shankly were genius managers
so far ahead of the game back then.

England fell apart as club rivalries took hold,,
And of course Scotland were very strong in that era

Very few had even heard of panathankos back then and now we have 2 generations who wouldn’t know how good Ajax were.

Ajax changed football.

Rinus Michael's leads us onto pep.

Michels

i remember watchng harvey ball and kendall at goodison in the 60,s called the school of science. they were top notch.

reasons for the decline... they never moved on after that peiod until kendall came manager..had an upsurge and then declined mostly ever .

i like your brother madethe wise choice of following livepool afer my dad whoplayedfor liverppol boys and was tried to be signed on by shankley.

all my mums side of the family were/are evertonians despite the fact hat they only lived avbout 3 miles apart in norris green.

Dec 29, 2025 -- 6:58PM, ----you-have-to-laugh--- wrote:

I had Alan ball football bootsWhite, and I loved them, and made me play betterthan the massive boats not boots I'd been used to.Everton just missed out to those three and arsenal,but Busby and reevie and shankly were genius managersso far ahead of the game back then.

Ha ha I wanted them but Santa had other ideas ..

Alan Ball hated them apparently, and took to painting regular boots white to fulfil his contract. But he was always a bit insecure about his finances, Lester Piggott could have had the same Dad.

You're right about Ajax. For the first time, as a watching adolescent, one thought that what they doing was just unfair. But Ajax had outstanding players and one genius to cut through opposition like Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

Both Ajax and Bayern won 3 on the bounce I think if both met at there strongest Bayern would have won .

Did the bottle finally get Kendall, The Dragon?

It never is as good as the first time ..

Dec 29, 2025 -- 7:12PM, jimnast wrote:

Both Ajax and Bayern won 3 on the bounce I think if both met at there strongest Bayern would have won .

I don't think even Beckenbauer would say that, jimnast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHhO-7H90pc

I can’t get them YouTube links biscuits what did he say ?

Beckenbauer was a very modest man

The Everton team that won the League in 1985 had a good chance of winning the European Cup if we hadn't been banned. They were a fine side.

Ajax played bayern in early 70s, won 4-0, then small loss away.

Bayern likely improved and German team spirit would
always counter Dutch individual genius to level
the playing field.

Der bomber levelled it even more as he was deadly


Then Germany mugged Holland in 1974 World cup

Tcat

Great Everton side that don’t think they carried anyone

Jack Taylor awards a penalty after about 1 minute in the hosts stadium in a World Cup final

Dec 29, 2025 -- 7:18PM, jimnast wrote:

Beckenbauer was a very modest man

It was a European Cup qf Ajax 4 Bayern 0


I remember the '74 World Cup final. Beckenbauer was a great player to have on your team but wasn't a rival to Cruyff in terms of what he could do on a football pitch.

Contenders for the world's greatest player rarely big-up their rivals, even if they precede them by decades: Pele and Maradona would never cede their place to each other, neither would Messi and Ronaldo. Pele feted George Best as the greatest player in the world but only when he knew he wasn't a rival.

Pele was right

Well, see, that's why Pele said it, because it can't be backed up..

i reckon so UB

After Ajax came along it seemed ridiculous that Everton - the so-called  "school of science" - relied on a big, burly centre forward in Joe Royle. Then Bob Latchford, who was even less talented. 

Was the football club then still intimidated by the figure of their all-time greatest former player sitting in the stand?

Till a few months ago, we lived round the corner from Colin. Saw him most mornings walking the dog. Nice fella, bit unsteady on his feet now but probably escaped more unscathed than most from a professional sports career.. Seems mad that we now live in a house that's worth more than his. Something wrong when there are so many absolute nobodies in the game nowadays earning untold millions when you have a true Everton all time great in a nice detached house that's a fraction of the size and value of Tsimikas's house about 500 yards away. He's far too decent to say it himself, but there must be days when he's consumed with rage that his generation missed out on so much that the later ones take for granted.

Yes absolutely, P&P.

Particularly glaring with today's new tactics of playing for the set-piece. Incredible wages, all the gear, no idea.

England going the same way under Tuchel.

Alan Ball's transfer to Arsenal in December 1971 came completely out of the blue (pun intended). Evertonians were dismayed at the news. I was a primary school lad at the time and it completely ruined my Xmas !!

Alan did not want to go, it was all done without his knowledge. Manager Harry Catterick saw it purely as a business transaction - the fee was a British record at the time (£250k) and Everton were getting double what they paid for Alan after six very good years. Sod the fact that the supporters loved him and Alan loved the club just as much.

The 70's were to say the least up and down for the club. Often looking very average but also a couple of good seasons, including  74/75 when they really should have won the league in what was an incredibly tight division, but somehow managing to lose home and away to Carlisle who finished bottom of the league. Derby won the league with 53 points, Everton finished 4th with 50 points.  The top seven were only separated by five points.

Given the excellent championship winning teams of 1970 and the mid 80s, it seems strange to say that my favourite season to actually watch the toffees was 1977/78 under
Gordon Lee , Dave Thomas brilliant on the wing,  setting up many of Bob Latchford's 30 league goals, in midfield Duncan McKenzie , Andy King, Martin Dobson. A very entertaining team.

At Easter that season they had to play on Good Friday , Saturday and Easter Monday (3 games in 4 days) due to fixture congestion. And they won ALL THREE, 2 nil away at Newcastle,      2 Nil at home to Leeds then 2-1 away at Man Utd.  And they only made one change to the starting line up all weekend !  Bob L scored in each game.  I wonder what the likes of Pep and Arteta would have to say about having to do similar today ?

Not sure Alan Ball ever played against Johan Cruyff .. Ball wasn't much senior but it was like they represented different eras.

Cruiff played v England in 1970...0-0

Ball didn't play... Injured? Colin Bell played.


Cruiff again played v England in 1977 Holland stuffed us 2-0
no Alan ball whos last England cap was 1975

UB - You were a bit unfair on Bob Latchford earlier, not many players scored 30 league goals in a season back in the 70s  !
He had a knack of being in the right place at the right time, 138 goals in all competitions makes him third on EFC's ALL TIME list of goal scorers, only my illustrious namesake and Graeme Sharp are above him.

Vancouver Whitecaps v LA Aztecs 1979 National Conference Semi final -  Ball V Cruyff ?

He had 2 brothers who were keepers.Peter,can't think of the other,played in Scotland.

Dave latchford played for birmingham

TREBILCO

The first black (mixed heritage) player  to score in an FA Cip final String !

Amazingly he only played 11 league games for EFC.  Thank god he was playing on that great day otherwise i could have ended up a Sheffield Wednesday fan
That was one thing Harry Catterick did get right, picking Mike instead of the prolific Fred Pickering that day. Very few agreed with him but fair play it was an inspired selection.

Am I right in thinking a daily newspaper put up a bonus if anyone scored 30 league goals in a season which latchford achieved ?

And of course we must remember Alan Ball's greatest contribution to our culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MYXl0Q3k38



Alan Bawl: Going down, Going down little Franny Lee,
     Down to division three,
     We`ve only one lad who isn`t half bad,
     And that`s little George Kinkladze.

     And at first the crowd roared,
     But now they`re just bored,
     They go la la la la la, la la la la lee,
     This is the ballad of Franny Lee.

Franny Lee: I can`t go down and I won`t go down,
     I`ve spent twelve million quid on city,
     Of the money I`ve made in the bog paper trade,
AB:  Well bloody hell, don`t blame me.

     And at first the crowd roared,
     But now they`re just bored,
     They go la la la la la, la la la la lee,
     Bring me the head of Franny Lee.

FL:  Call yourself a manager you little toss pot,
     Your voice hasn`t broke and your balls haven`t dropped,
     You won the world cup in your stupid white boots,
     Now you turn up for work in flat caps and shell suits.

AB:  Now here`s a home truth you puddin-basin-haired twonk,
     Deeply ironic it is,
     From that profitable caper wholesaling bog paper,
     You`ve landed us deep in the siht.

     And at first the crowd roared,
     But now they`re just bored,
     They go la la la la la, la la la la lee,
     The King of the kippax is Franny Lee
     They go la la la la la, la la la la lee,     
     King of the **** house is Franny Lee.

Iirc the 30 goal thing was sponsored by a national newspaper
and gained traction via match of the day.

Quite a huge thing at the time.

Daily Express put up the £10k for any player to get 30 league goals, Franny Lee had been the last to do so 5 years earlier.

Everton were playing Chelsea in the last game of the season, Bob needed two goals to get the cash. He scored his first after 72 minutes and then with ten minutes left the toffees were "awarded" a penalty which the big man hammered past Peter "the Cat" Bonetti to hit the 30 mark and secure the loot. He was not a regular penalty taker funnily enough. Final score was 6-0 !

Half the winnings went to the PFA benevolence fund and Bob shared the other half with his team mates, leaving him with the princely sum of £192 for his efforts.
And he was chased by the Inland Revenue for ages for a chunk of the winnings, which probably left him out of pocket

Thanks Dixie a good read

Dec 31, 2025 -- 12:18AM, DixieDean60 wrote:

Daily Express put up the £10k for any player to get 30 league goals, Franny Lee had been the last to do so 5 years earlier.Everton were playing Chelsea in the last game of the season, Bob needed two goals to get the cash. He scored his first after 72 minutes and then with ten minutes left the toffees were "awarded" a penalty which the big man hammered past Peter "the Cat" Bonetti to hit the 30 mark and secure the loot. He was not a regular penalty taker funnily enough. Final score was 6-0 !Half the winnings went to the PFA benevolence fund and Bob shared the other half with his team mates, leaving him with the princely sum of £192 for his efforts.And he was chased by the Inland Revenue for ages for a chunk of the winnings, which probably left him out of pocket

Great story, Dixie Dean.

A lot of football fans - like me - were notionally adults but hopelessly naive in those days. Even when Grobbelaar was exposed, it took me ages to believe a footballer would do that to his team-mates and his fans but of course - just like jockeys - a few of the players were in on it.

In some ways, those days were worse for deliberately inflicting injury. A team that could "take care of itself" being something of a badge of honour. Almost every team had a feared enforcer outside its defence, someone whose "mistimed" tackle from behind could put an opponent out of the game for months. Johnny Morrissey for Everton, reportedly.

Stoke held Ajax to 2 draws, eliminated on the away goals rule. Rudi Krol was their star player. (ajax not stoke)

18 Sep 1974First round1st leg
Stoke City StadiumStoke-on-Trent
Stoke
Stoke City FC
1-1
Ajax
AFC Ajax

    Smith 78'

    Krol 27'

Stoke vs Ajax
Stoke
Stoke

    1
    Farmer (GK)
    6
    Dodd
    2
    Marsh
    3
    Pejic
    5
    Smith
    8
    Greenhoff
    7
    Haslegrave
    10
    Hudson
    4
    Mahoney
    14
    Robertson
    11
    Salmons

Ajax
Ajax

    1
    Schrijvers (GK)
    3
    Blankenburg
    4
    Dusbaba
    5
    Krol
    2
    Van Dord
    7
    Haan
    11
    Keizer
    9
    Mühren
    6
    van Santen
    8
    Geels
    10
    Rep

Substitutions
25'
Stoke
Geoffrey Salmons
Midfielder
James Robertson
Midfielder
Substitutes

    9
    Conroy


And away leg 0-0

https://www.besoccer.com/match/ajax/stoke-city/19755267/lineups

..


Johnny Rep was some player, destroyed Newcastle whilst
playing for Bastia of France.

Great thread with some smashing posts.

UB - Johnny Morrissey was certainly one of the games hard men back then, and stood out as such even though the likes of Tommy Smith, Johnny Giles and co were around.
Bit unusual for a winger  to be bracketed as such, he was of course a very fine player and a cracking crosser of the ball from the left. He won two League titles with the blues and played in 41 of the 42 games in the 1970 triumph, what a fine side they were - Ball , Harvey, Kendall et al.

He actually played for Liverpool before signing for Everton and it caused quite a stir when he crossed Stanley Park to Goodison, not least with Bill Shankly who apparently was apoplectic as he knew nothing of the transfer, it was all done behind his back.

Dec 31, 2025 -- 7:28PM, DixieDean60 wrote:

UB - Johnny Morrissey was certainly one of the games hard men back then, and stood out as such even though the likes of Tommy Smith, Johnny Giles and co were around.Bit unusual for a winger

Short story: great insights, DD.

Do you know anything about the claim that the gate at Goodison Park was cut by 5-10% through the early seventies?

UB - There were gradual reductions in capacity at Goodison during the 70s and the crowds were up and down, the biggest drop was in the early 80s when often under 20k attended, hard to believe i know. In 1983/84 the average attendance was only 19,300 and we finished 7th that season (and won the FA Cup), even that figure was skewed by a 51,000 attendance for the merseyside derby.   

I recall NYE 1983, Everton 0 Coventry 0 was on Match Of The Day, very poor game and only 13,600 were in attendance, the commentator (Tony Gubba i think ?) was basically asking how much lower this great club could sink.  Thankfully things turned around pretty pronto thanks to the cup runs in the new year ending up in two Wembley appearances including that FA Cup win.

77/78 Goodison capacity was cut from about 52 thousand to about 36 or 38 thousand for safety reasons. Think it happened to other grounds as well.

We played Forest first game after they came up and got battered 3-1.They went on to win the league and then the 2 european cups in the next 3 seasons.

I remember queing up outside the street end and the queus were massive about half 1.

It was either that pre season or maybe the next one that the semi circles behind the goal were removed to increase the capcity.

I also remember the official figure for the Forest game being given as a few hundred over what the capacity had been set at for the safety reasons.

Everton got a fine for it.

What was the original purpose of the semi-circles do you think?  Athletics/long jump sand pits maybe?  Their existence made Goodison unmistakeable and ever-linked in my brain with Portugal and Eusebio in the ‘66 World Cup and Hungary and Portugal kicking Pelé out of it.

Jan 1, 2026 -- 11:09AM, LoyalHoncho wrote:

What was the original purpose of the semi-circles do you think?

Sorry LoyalHoncho my full response didnt load for some reason. It is a good question and one I wondered myself, consequently I have just googled it and found this response, possibly DixieDean60 or other could confirm.

The semi-circular barriers at Goodison Park were installed to protect the goalkeepers from being pelted with objects by the home supporters during matches. This was a response to incidents where supporters had thrown darts at goalkeepers, such as the one involving Bill Brown, the Spurs custodian, in a match against Tottenham Hotspur in November 1963. The barriers were a measure of safety and security for the goalkeepers, ensuring they could perform their duties without being hindered by the crowd.

Thank Gazza.  I had pondered that possibility but sort of dismissed it in the belief that the horror of “bovver” etc really didn’t rear its ugly head until the late sixties/ early seventies.

Googled and found this:

Bill Brown, the legendary Tottenham Hotspur and Scotland goalkeeper, was involved in a notable incident at Goodison Park in November 1963, where he reported that
a dart had been thrown at him from the crowd.
The Dart Incident
During a match between Everton and Tottenham Hotspur in November 1963, Bill Brown informed the referee that a dart, allegedly thrown by a home supporter in the Gwladys Street end of the stadium, had landed in his goalmouth.
This event caused a stir and highlighted safety concerns for visiting players at the stadium, which was known for its vociferous atmosphere. Following this and other incidents involving missiles being thrown, semi-circular barriers were installed at both ends of Goodison Park to protect opposition goalkeepers from being pelted with objects by fans. These initial barriers were made of scaffold and wood before concrete ones were installed late

Im Sure I can remember Joe Corrigan or Pat jennings getting Bottles lasshed at them as well.The game was definetly stopped.

Anyone else remember the pitches being being covered in the toilet rolls launced on to the pitch, I know it was every game at GOODISON , think it happened other grounds as well.

https://www.facebook.com/TheFourSquares/posts/alterations-at-goodison-park-t...

Thanks 1830.  I remember the obsession with toilet rolls.  I never took part please understand but you came to note the differing skills some had.  The best throwers had unrolled a “tail” in advance of the throw which flew behind it looking good whilst others, in less skilled hands, flew through the air whole and never unfurled at all.  Every so often, as they were being cleared to allow play the picker-uppers would be aimed at and any hits cheered loudly.
Better than bottles which used to be the curse of the Scottish game for a while.