Everton dread the glorious past

Maybe it was because it was summer. Maybe it was the thrill of joining a new club, but Evertonians still depressed about another season that ended outside the top 10 - the eighth time in the last nine years - will surely have shaken their heads wearily on hearing their prospective signing, Idan Tal, say last July: "Everton is a massive club with a great history. In fact one of my earliest football memories is watching them on TV at the age of 10 winning the championship back in 1985." Everton's past, again.

Hope Street runs though the centre of Liverpool, but for Everton hope and history have lately not had much reason to collide. Summer was soon out and by November the chief executive, Michael Dunford, was describing Everton as "a mediocre, mid-table club". By six o'clock last Saturday, even after Everton had won a vital relegation battle at Coventry, Michael Ball, one of Everton's best players, was prepared to call his club: "Still mediocre". It was, presumably, a deliberate echo of Dunford's words. The trouble for Everton is that there are too many echoes. And they will hear another today. Coming through the Birkenhead tunnel. "If I'm not mistaken," Idan Tal had gushed, "it means that I might be asked to fill the role of an Everton legend, Kevin Sheedy."

The past. Again.

Tal was right about Sheedy at least. Sheedy became a blue legend in the 1980s, winning two League titles, one League Cup and one European Cup Winners' Cup. He also lost an FA Cup final. Along the way he picked up 46 caps for the Republic of Ireland and, of course, was responsible for the Republic's first goal at a World Cup, the sweet equaliser against England in Cagliari at Italia '90.

Those are just the headlines. What Evertonians remember equally is Sheedy's left foot. Of true international quality, Sheedy played football with a draughtsman's precision. Located on the left flank of an Everton team that could well have proved itself the best in Europe but for the Heysal disaster, Sheedy will provide a gratifying memory when he walks into Goodison Park today as assistant manager to John Aldridge at Tranmere Rovers. Because of the unsure present, it will also be an awkward one for Evertonians. It could be tricky for Sheedy, too. "Peculiar," is his word. Now 41, he has been back to Goodison since he last kicked a ball there, in October 1991 against Aston Villa, but never as a competitor. Kevin Keegan whisked Sheedy off to Newcastle United once it became clear Howard Kendall was no longer keen on his former favourite, and, from Newcastle, Sheedy went on to to have an underwhelming experience at Blackpool. But Sheedy never got the chance to go back home and say farewell properly. Today is a big day.

Sheedy had played for Everton after that Villa match, three more games, all away. But then he had "a few ups and downs with Howard".

"Kevin Keegan had just taken over at Newcastle, it was a great move for me. I could have stayed at Goodison, could've had a testimonial, but I wanted first team football. I needed it to keep my international place." It was always about playing for Kevin Sheedy.

It was the same when his career ended full stop. It was for Blackpool, at Bootham Crescent, York, April seven years ago. He did not know it would be his last game. "It would probably have been nice to announce your retirement. You can do that at the top. But I was always thinking `one more season'."

That day in York was the silent climax to a comprehensive, refined, 18-year playing career that had begun in May 1976 alongside the likes of Terry Paine and Dixie McNeill at Hereford United. It also left Sheedy in the position faced by so many mid-thirties footballers: what now? "With hindsight, a disastrous move," was Sheedy's summary of his Blackpool period. Yet the very deficiencies he encountered there opened Sheedy's mind to the possibility of management. "I hadn't really planned to go into it," he says in his soft Welsh-Liverpool lilt, although he had earned his coaching badges. "But looking at the manager of Blackpool then (Billy Ayre) I thought: `If he can do it, then I can do it'."

Contact with an old Evertonian was soon made, Alan Irvine, now at Blackburn Rovers. Irvine got Sheedy a temporary job as youth team coach. It lasted 18 months. "It was a good opening, a good education." Sheedy was happy. Blackburn were Premiership champions. The feared transition from eager player to restless coach had been calm. It was 1996.

"Then out of the blue I got a phone call from John Aldridge. He wanted me to become reserve coach at Tranmere. I hadn't really kept in touch with John. Obviously we knew each other with Liverpool and Everton and from our Ireland days together, but it was a difficult decision. I knew it would be a stepping stone, but Blackburn had been good to me."

That was four seasons ago. Now Sheedy coaches the Tranmere first team. Today he will try to coach them to beat Everton in the FA Cup. And it could happen. Last season, on the way to the club's first major Wembley final, against Leicester City, Tranmere knocked out Coventry City and Middlesbrough; while en route to their best FA Cup run, the sixth round, Tranmere took two other Premiership scalps, those of West Ham and Sunderland. They also beat Fulham in the FA Cup and only went out 3-2 to Newcastle on a dramatic afternoon at Prenton Park.

"We put Tranmere Rovers on the map," says Sheedy, revealing a first glimpse of quiet pride. "I think we've got a few more supporters in Ireland. It's always been hard for the club living in the shadows, but I think a benefit of the success of last season is that we're now in a position to hold out for the right price when someone wants to buy a Tranmere player. We still don't have the finance to go out and buy ourselves, but we've sold players before for less than their proper value."

The economics are fundamental to understanding what John King achieved at Tranmere, and which Aldridge and Sheedy have maintained. When Sheedy was playing his last game for Everton a decade ago, Tranmere had just escaped the old Division Four for the first time in 10 seasons. This season is their ninth consecutive one in Division One.

All along money has been tight. The club's record buy remains Shaun Teale for £450,000 sterling 4-1/2 years ago. Thus, when Alan Mahon left for Sporting Lisbon last summer on a Bosman-free, it hurt Tranmere all the more. "That's the lifeline for any club like ours, the youth system."

It's a clear example of the Bosman effect on small clubs. For Tranmere, just a tunnel away from Anfield and Goodison, life is tough enough without that. Sheedy understands that better than most. People forget he played for Liverpool before Everton.

It was to be only "four games in four years" and Sheedy calls his Anfield days "a mistake". Bob Paisley's Liverpool had paid £80,000 for the Hereford teenager. It was 1978 and Sheedy had just been to Wembley to watch Kenny Dalglish win Liverpool the European Cup against Bruges. A teenager could be flattered by such attention. Sheedy was. "I didn't really want to sign for them because they had a policy of keeping young players in the reserves. But once you get to Anfield and look around, you let your heart rule your head." On his first day at training Sheedy sat beside Dalglish.

But Sheedy's young suspicions proved correct. He never did get his chance at Anfield. Once his contract ended, however, Everton jumped in. Sheedy stayed 9-1/2 years. Gradually they took over from Liverpool. Neville Southall, Kevin Ratcliffe, Trevor Steven, Peter Reid, Andy Gray. Far from mediocre. Very far.

Sheedy thinks the Everton decline set in a long time ago. "The turning point was when Howard Kendall left for Atletico Bilbao (1987). Colin Harvey came in and he showed the jump from being a very good coach to being a manager isn't easy. He replaced a championship winning side very quickly. Peter Reid with Stuart McCall, Trevor Steven with Pat Nevin. The players he brought in weren't better than the ones he let go. "Instead of doing what Man United did, getting stronger from a position of strength, Everton didn't do that. It's difficult to blame individuals. Maybe there was a lack of foresight at the club generally."

Everton have paid a high price for their failure. Mediocrity. It could get worse today. And it could be what Evertonians dread most: another blast from their glorious past.