7.Paul Wilson 
Bio (shamelessly lifted from here): Paul Wilson is the Observer’s football correspondent. He has previously worked for the Guardian and the Independent and local newspapers in the north of England, where he still lives, the only Evertonian in a family of Liverpool and Wigan Athletic supporters. No awards, books or television career to speak of, but he once saw a bloke on the tube laughing out loud while reading his column. He lives in hope that in another five years or so he might spot another one. Or even the same one.
Q1. Why Everton?
Because my dad supported them, is the short answer. Or at least he said he did, when I showed signs of sticking up for Liverpool in the 1965 FA Cup final. I don’t come from a blue family, or even from Liverpool, but growing up in St Helens you had a more or less free choice between the two big Merseyside clubs and the two Manchester ones. You could find supporters of each among my schoolmates, and of course Liverpool won the league in 1966, United in 67, City in 68 and Everton in 1970, so success was pretty much shared around. I spent the rest of the Sixties happily watching Ball, Kendall and Harvey with my dad, though he later told me he was more of a rugby league fan at heart and felt we ought to have been watching Alex Murphy and Tommy Bishop at Knowsley Road. I made my first trip to Wembley in 1966 to see Saints beat Wigan. I had to put up with watching Everton win the FA Cup and England win the World Cup on a black and white telly at home. Happy days!
Q2. I remember standing amongst a glum chain gang of fans at Kirkdale train station in the late 90′s, we’d just been beaten soundly at Goodison, the rain was pissing on us, and some cheeky Liverpool fans were laughing and mooning us from the top of the stairs. What is your all time low as a fan?
The Seventies were one long low for me, beginning with Sandy Brown’s own goal and not really getting any better when Liverpool started to thump us on a regular basis en route to becoming masters of Europe. I was shocked and a little bit disheartened at how quickly Everton declined after winning the title in 1970.
Q3.If you could jump into a time-machine which game from the past would you have loved to have seen?
If I had access to a time machine I wouldn’t waste it on going back to watch football matches. I see enough of those as it is, and I am not even slightly curious about Everton’s past before I started watching them. If you insist I suppose I could say the 1966 Cup final, but only because I enjoyed the pitch invasion. I think it might be more fun to take in the 1970 World Cup or a few of Muhammed Ali’s title fights, but surely the whole point of time travel is to find out what is in the future. We know what’s in the past.
Q4.Catterick or Kendall?
I’m going to say Kendall, because I liked him as a player as well as a manager. I liked Catterick too but it always bugged me slightly that he couldn’t be as funny or as engaging as Bill Shankly. Not really his fault. No one could.
Q5.Dixie Dean OR Alan Ball ?
Gordon West, actually. I used to fancy myself as a goalkeeper, before I realised that I wasn’t going to be tall enough and big lads could gang up on me at corners. I’m bound to say Alan Ball, for reasons I have already explained. He was the epitome of my era.
Q6. Favourite Everton kit?
Anything associated with the Seventies was hideous. The first shirt I bought was just plain, unadorned blue, with white trim, so I’ll say that. Not keen on pink or black.
Q7. Our past is full of what if’s, players or situations that never fulfilled their promise. Who or what is your biggest “what if” – Tony Kay, Tommy Lawton (career halted by WWII), Billy Kenny, Joe Parkinson, someone/something else?
Surely everybody’s biggest what if is the same, and relates to the side that won the title in the mid-Eighties. You never know what might have happened, though based on Everton’s exploits in the European Cup in 1970, not to mention subsequent struggles to get the grips with European opponents, there is a distinct possibility that the answer might have been not much.
Q8. Both teams in Merseyside seem to be making positive noises about sharing a stadium, what are your thoughts on a ground share with Liverpool?
I am not automatically opposed to a groundshare. I think that if approached positively and imaginatively Everton and Liverpool could end up with the best stadium in the country, and that is what the city deserves. I can’t see it happening quite like that though. We would probably end up instead with the worst sort of compromise. What I do think, and what I have said on several occasions to lively responses from readers, it that it is ludicrous for Everton to be looking for a new ground at the same time as the city council is planning to bulldoze Anfield. There is a perfectly good stadium less than a mile from Goodison Park, and Everton were the original tenants. Everton won a football league title at Anfield in 1891, a year before Liverpool came into existence.
Q9.Some of our results this season have been dire, but some of our performances have been wonderful. How much can Moyes be blamed for results like Aston Villa; with Pienaar hitting the stanchion and a scuffed Fellaini clearance deciding the scoreline?
I have only seen Everton once this season, the remarkable 3-3 draw with Man Utd. It wasn’t as good as “battering” them the season before (copyright: Sir Alex Ferguson), but Moyes is still in plenty of credit. Everton don’t hand over points without a fight, and that’s about as much as we can expect in present circumstances.
Q10.Is money necessary to compete at the highest level, and if so – should Kenwright step aside?
Yes and no. Money is obviously necessary to compete at the highest level but that does not mean Kenwright should step aside. He should be proud of what he has achieved, and I know he is because he’s an Everton fan. Other clubs have foreign billionaires behind them, Everton have a lifelong supporter, and I quite like that. I don’t think you should sell your soul just to compete.
Q11. The phrase “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemies” certainly applies to what is happening at Anfield. Certain Everton fans are waiting for our rich white knight to come into town, should we be careful what we wish for?
I think I have just answered this question. My hope, perhaps an unrealistic one, is that the fashion for owning football clubs will die down in a few years when a few more people get their fingers burned or do not see results quickly enough. I think football will eventually have to come back down to a more realistic level, or at least I would rather think that than imagine a future where everyone else has to spend to reach the Chelsea/City level.
Q12.And finally, where do you see Everton in 10 years time?
At Goodison Park, in the top flight, with David Moyes as manager. He can be the new Alex Ferguson without having to go to United.
