Superman Bradley

Jul 23 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

LIKE his alter ego Superman, city council leader Warren Bradley has just seven days to save the world, well at least the world as Everton fans see it.

The Goodison army is aiming to march across the city boundary and seek asylum in a new nowhere land, known as Knowsley.

When he is not running the £1.4bn town hall machine, or fighting fires in Toxteth, Warren is an Everton fan.

Such is the passion among many Evertonians about staying within the city boundaries that many have expressed a willingness to share with their cousins across the park.

Everton has jumped into bed with Tesco and Knowsley Council with plans for a new stadium, alongside a monster-sized supermarket in Kirkby town centre.

Kirkby Town Centre is such an unappealing place to visit that many inhabitants prefer to jump on a bus and head into town – Liverpool town that is.

So a goodie – or is it Goodison – bag of a showpiece footie stadium, one of the biggest Tesco stores for miles and all the add-ons must be like a dream come true for those grateful burghers of Knowsley.

Civil war between Liverpool and Knowsley could be declared over this issue, such is the passion to grab the prize at the end of a Premiership rainbow.

Essentially, Everton is skint and if somebody comes along with the equivalent of a multi-win lottery scoop, they are hardly likely to be shown the door.

Everton needs, desperately, a new modern home. Tesco wants to rule the world – even the bit that takes in Kirkby – and Knowsley Council wants to give a leg up to Kirkby’s rather depressing town centre. Job done, so why bother with a ballot? If the deal is done the super-efficient Knowsley Council (this is a compliment by the way) will fast track the project – faster than it takes Clark Kent to transform into Superman. Everyone turns out to be a winner, except fans wanting to stay loyal to a club based in Liverpool, and of course Liverpool as a city loses out big style.

Superman Bradley has his work cut out. He has to come up with a potential deal that not only rivals the Kirkby solution, but is even better. He has to convince Everton fan and Tesco chief Sir Terry Leahy that his big store should be built within the city of his birth. Such is the importance of this issue that the leader should put everything else on the back-burner, including Capital of Culture, to fight the blue corner. He should gather a team of guerrilla officers to work flat out on this enterprise and produce a battle plan that will see Kirkby waving the white flag.

If, at the end of the day, Kirkby becomes the new home of Everton FC, Warren and his war cabinet can say they left no ball unkicked, then so be it. But half of the population of the city will not forgive him if he doesn’t try hard enough.