Goodbye Howard Kendall - A very human champion
It speaks volumes that characters like Santiago Bernabeu de Yeste, Johan Cruyff and Kenny Dalglish have a powerful hold over the respective imaginations of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Liverpool. Despite their supposedly alien provenance, they are on a plane of existence afforded to very few. Not only can they not be defined without their clubs, the clubs themselves are incomplete without these towering figures.
We lost another of those towering figures on 17th October 2015.
Howard Kendall’s passing is responsible for the sombre mood around football at the moment. He was truly an incredible personality – dependable, successful and affectionate. A player and manager who, by rights, should be remembered as an emblematic symbol of the game but against whom questionable calls can also be brought.
Everton through and through
By the time he arrived on Merseyside in 1967, Everton already boasted the exquisite Colin Harvey and World Cup winner Alan Ball. The party was completed by Kendall - the final piece of the jigsaw.
The three quickly became the components of Everton’s greatest strength – their wonderful midfield. Nicknamed ‘The Holy Trinity’, the trio played in a manner consistent with their sobriquet. Full of style and steel, they were the masterminds behind Everton’s cerebral and attractive side of the late 1960s.
They got the big one as well – the league title in 1970 – but sadly, that’s where the bulldozer impersonation ended. With their young squad, Everton were expected to kick on and establish a new era of dominance.
Instead, they fell shockingly down the table.
To make matters worse, Liverpool were again in an ascendancy, winning trophy after trophy while Everton could only stand by and grind their teeth.
While a player-manager with the Toffees upon his return, Kendall formally called time on his playing career in 1981 but decided to stay on as manager.
Defining an era
Thus, the 1980s truly began on Merseyside – an era of great cultural revival in the port city, matched by Liverpool and Everton trading blows on the pitch as they battled for major honours.
Without him, it never would’ve been a contest. Of all the great team building exercises undertaken by anyone, Kendall’s has to rank somewhere near the top.
It genuinely was that good. And it happened when one of Everton’s finest ever players successfully rebuilt the side into the best since the one he had frisked around the pitch as a part of.
A warm up session in the 1984 League Cup final, then.
Everton took Liverpool all the way in two grim encounters, which the Toffees eventually lost. They, however, had every reason to feel aggrieved when Alan Hansen’s hand thwarted a goal-bound strike but nothing was given before Graeme Souness struck the killer blow in the replay at Maine Road three days later.
No matter. A couple of months later, the critical first trophy came. And it was Watford who were downed at Wembley – a 2-0 verdict in the 1984 FA Cup final.
The subsequent 1984-85 campaign remains one of the finest ever for an English club.
The impossible treble
It must have looked impossible at the beginning. But by spring 1985, Everton were gunning for a historic treble – the league, the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Everton, ravaged by self-doubt and underachievement in years past, wouldn’t have thought it possible.
But Kendall almost pulled it off. Two famous games did it for them in the league – one, an excellent 1-2 win at White Hart Lane in April. The other, confirmation – 33 days later, a 2-0 win over Queen’s Park Rangers brought home the league championship after 15 long years.
Everton finished a full thirteen points clear of Liverpool in second.
Europe was even better. The second leg of the semi-final, a 3-1 gutting of Bayern Munich at Goodison Park, set up a final against Rapid Vienna. Featuring Michael Konsel, Hans Krankl and Zlatko Kranjcar, Rapid were expected to pose a stern challenge, but Everton reprised that 3-1 result to win their first European trophy in magnificent, historic fashion.