11.David Prentice
Bio: David Prentice is Chief Sports writer of the Liverpool Echo, author of several books on Everton, and as you can see below, a passionate blue.
Q1. Why Everton?
I genuinely couldn’t tell you why – my dad was never a football fan and always thought they were overpaid prima donnas even in the 70s! I suppose the credit – or blame! – should go to two uncles, one a Blue (my Uncle George who was a match-going True Blue) and one a Red (my Uncle Sid who was an armchair fan who loved to wind me up . . . you know the type!) When I was at that very impressionable age of about eight or nine Uncle George gave me a huge wedge of football programmes. I was at the age when I read everything and anything and these programmes (which I still have all from the 1971 and 1972 seasons) made a big impression on me. I started following Everton and when my Uncle Sid started trying to lure me over to the other side by telling me how awful Everton were I dug my heels in. My brother, Stephen, was taken in and became a Red. I remained resolute, but had to wait until I was 11 and old enough to go to the match with pals before I properly embraced the Blues (Easter Monday 1975, Everton 1 Coventry City 0. Martin Dobson). From that point on I’ve never stopped going. Maybe that saying is true after all … Evertonians are born not manufactured, we do not choose we are chosen etc etc.
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?
I cried buckets when David Fairclough scored the winner in my first Anfield derby, and again when Brian Little put that last minute winner past David Lawson right in front of me in the League Cup Final second replay of 1977. The semi-final replay defeat to West Ham in 1981 was a crusher too. But the lowest personally was when Bradford beat us in the FA Cup in 1997. I had a huge amount of affection for Joe Royle as a person, and also rated him as an Everton manager. But I knew that result would pile the pressure on him. My colleague at the Echo, Philip McNulty (also a Blue), had a differing opinion of his abilities. It was a tense post-match atmosphere in that press room and I ended up delivering a hugely supportive article on why Peter Johnson and Evertonians should stick with Royle. Phil took the opposite tack. A month or so later Phil got his way, but I still think the turbulent four or five years which followed could have been avoided if Johnson had shown more faith in Joe Royle. (He later sent Joe a letter in which he signed off ‘Oh me of little faith!’)
Q3.If you could jump into a time-machine which game from the past would you have loved to have seen?
It would have to be Dixie’s 60th. But on the way back to the present day maybe we could take in the 5-2 hammering of Chelsea in the 1969/70 season, just to see if Ball-Harvey-Kendall really were that good.
Q4.The 1970 team or the 1985 team?
The ’85 team all day long. I never saw the 1970 side and while the stats show how good they were, I left Goodison walking on air so many times that wonderful 1984/85 season. Having supported Everton through an era when they won nothing, to see Everton hailed as undeniably the best team in England and probably Europe was life enhancing stuff. Andy Gray, Kevin Sheedy, Reidy, Brace, Big Nev, Tricky Trev, Sharpy I love them all.
Q5.Dixie Dean OR Alan Ball ?
McNulty again would argue otherwise. (Bally’s the only person I’ve ever seen him ask an autograph from) but for me it has to be Dixie.
Q6. I wonder if prospective Liverpool buyer (and Boston Red Sox owner) John W Henry, has heard this: I have gleaned from various sources that Dixie Dean turned down a hefty offer to play baseball for the New York Giants in 1928, can you shed any light on this?
I’ve never come across that nugget but it sounds intriguing. Babe Ruth famously met Dixie in London but I think that was in the 1930s, Dixie was an incredibly talented all round sportsman (scratch golfer, excellent tennis player, wonderful athlete, liked to box etc) and I’m told he was also a decent baseball player too so maybe there is some truth in it. I have come across cuttings in the 1930s where Real Madrid desperately tried to sign Dean, but nothing about the New York Giants. . . . yet!
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?
WHAT if Bobby Robson, one of the most talented managers of our time, had taken charge of Everton on one of the THREE occasions we tried to make him our manager! I wrote a column about it. Link below. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/everton-fc/everton-fc-news/2009/03/27/david-prentice-brian-clough-was-the-greatest-manager-everton-never-had-100252-23246567/
The other one is if all those rumours and reports in the 70s had been true and we actually had bought Peter Shilton. Perhaps we’d have won the league in 1975, the FA Cup in 1977 and the league again in 78 when Forest knocked us into third.
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?
Genuinely torn. I’m certainly not totally against the idea as some Blues are, but it would have to be a genuine ground SHARE, not one party leasing to the other with one party ending up very much the poor relations of the deal.
Q9.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?
Obviously results have improved markedly since that game at Villa. Moyes can’t be blamed for the result that day, but perhaps he could have addressed the lack of potency and firepower in front of goal issue in the summer. Having said that, where can you get natural goalscorers for no financial outlay?
Q10.Is money necessary to compete at the highest level, and if so – should Kenwright step aside?
Sadly, yes, money is necessary. But it’s easy to say Kenwright should step aside. Somebody has to want to step in first and despite all the ridiculous conspiracy theorists claiming Kenwright is beating away would-be investors left, right and centre – no-one has come forward since Paul Gregg’s deluded bid with a serious offer to buy the club.
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?
Most definitely. Despite his critics, Bill Kenwright is a Blue who cares about the club.
Q12.And finally, where do you see Everton in 10 years time?
Ten years ago players like Gascoigne, Blomqvist and Joe-Max Moore were scoring goals for Everton and we were embroiled in another grim battle at the wrong end of the table.
Then contrast what happened between 1981 and 1991.
So things can happen dramatically in a decade.
I’d like to think that in 2021 David Moyes has taken Everton into that top echelon and we’re finally challenging for trophies again. But in 2021, God willing, I’ll be 57 and have been watching the Blues for nearly 50 years. I’d rather not think of that thanks. It’s depressing. Let’s just enjoy the now!
