EVERTON fans are notoriously hard to please. You only have to look at their reactions to England squads to know that those who follow the Toffees just to see how contrary and, well, downright pessimistic they can be sometimes.
For months now, every line-up that Steve McClaren has picked has drawn incredulous gasps from Blues as Joleon Lescott has been overlooked for seemingly just about any other big lump who is eligible.
Even when the ex-Wolves man was operating at left-back he was one of the best in that position in the country, yet his Everton team-mate Phil Neville continually got selected for the national squad’s defence despite the fact that he has been playing most of his club football in midfield.
And when Sol Campbell was hauled out of retirement, Lescott really must have wondered what he had to do to get his first senior call-up.
Lo and behold though, injury to the Portsmouth stopper has resulted in one of Everton’s best players finally getting the nod.
And still many of the fans aren’t happy. Why? Because legend would have us all believe that our players, happy and contented plugging away at Goodison, will be ruthlessly seduced as soon as they set foot in Burnham Beeches or wherever it is they stay for England games these days.
Martin Keown, Nick Barmby, and of course Wayne Rooney, are cited as the obvious examples of our stars who have been hijacked by other clubs while playing head tennis with Terry Venables or having a bit of treatment from Gary Lewin.
The accepted wisdom is that players from, say, Manchester United or Chelsea, are sent with a set of top-secret instructions to recruit our stars.
Presumably Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand leave flattering photographs of United’s Carrington training ground lying around, while Frank Lampard and Joe Cole talk in stage whispers about just what a ‘great laugh’ Jose Mourinho is.
More likely though is that in the past an England call-up was simply a signpost on a player’s journey towards thinking that he was too big for the club anyway.
Things have changed a lot lately though, hopefully, and players are more likely to want to stick around at an Everton playing in Europe and intent on strengthening the squad, not sell their key assets.
Who knows, with all this mysterious new money coming into the club, perhaps David Moyes will send Lescott, Neville and Andrew Johnson with copies of the plans for Kirkby, an artist’s impression of Finch Farm and strict orders not to return without Frank Lampard.
Africans are at home
THE news that Alex Nyarko finally retired this week brings back memories of the sullen Ghanaian with the upturned collar struggling badly in English football.
Nyarko, the Ivorian Ibrahima Bakayoko, and to a lesser extent Daniel Amokachi, looked like fish out of water for much of their time on Merseyside and as a result none of them really justified the substantial fees the club paid for them.
It shows how much more cosmopolitan the Premiership has become then, and how better equipped clubs such as Everton are at getting players acclimatised that the Blues, for instance, had three Africans in their starting line-up for the game at the Reebok on Saturday and they all looked completely at home.
Indeed, Yakubu is the club’s record signing by some way while the ever-improving Joseph Yobo has all it takes to become a bona fide Everton legend. Steven Pienaar made light of his slight frame to play his part in a great Everton win too.
It’s safe to say then that no one is going to be getting on the pitch to offer their shirt to any of these lads.
