THE RECENT death of Tommy Wright, the former Everton and England’s right back, reminded us that there was a time when the blue half of Liverpool produced young players like a production line. The Everton team of 1969-70 was a combination of home-grown talent and selected acquisitions that cost a combined amount of just under £ 400,000.
Sadly, Wright is the ninth member of that team to die, but each and every member of that squad will never be forgotten. Harry Catterick’s side had been gradually developing over a period of four years. The team that won the FA Cup in 1966 had been dismantled by the Everton manager with the likes of Jimmy Gabriel, Brian Harris, Mike Trebilcock, Alex Young and Derek Temple all released or sold off before 1968. Ray Wilson of the 1966 World Cup winning England side, had succumbed to a plethora of injuries. By 1968, only five members of the team remained.
The 1968 side included Gordon West, the goalkeeper, had been signed from Blackpool in 1962 for £ 27,000. He was a member of the England squad but was third in the pecking order behind Gordon Banks and Peter Bonetti. Tommy Wright, Colin Harvey, Joe Royle, Jimmy Husband and John Hurst were all youth team products that had graduated to the first team. Brian Labone, the captain, was also a lifelong Everton player and an England international.
While the hub of the team was very young, Catterick had also made some important signings. Johnny Morrissey, an underrated player, was signed in 1962 from Liverpool for just £ 10,000. A year later, Sandy Brown, a Scottish full back, joined Everton from Partick Thistle and became famous for a spectacular own goal against Liverpool in the Mersey derby.
Just weeks after the 1966 World Cup final, Everton paid a record £ 110,000 for Alan Ball of Blackpool, the youngest member of the triumphant England team. Ball made his debut at Fulham on the opening day of 1966-67 and scored the only goal. He was Everton’s top scorer that season. Royle, a tall, powerful striker, was introduced to the team gradually from the age of 16 and in 1967-68, he made the breakthrough, scoring 20 goals in 41 appearances.
In March 1967 Howard Kendall was signed from Preston North End for £ 85,000. Kendall had made his mark in the 1964 FA Cup final for Preston, scoring one of their goals as they were narrowly beaten by West Ham. Kendall as highly-rated but never played for England and was widely regarded as the “best uncapped player” in the game. But he soon formed a lethal partnership with Ball and Colin Harvey, the so-called “Holy Trinity” of Everton.
Everton were red-hot favourites to win the FA Cup in 1968 against West Bromwich Albion, but were beaten 1-0. The Everton team included no less than seven players under the age of 24, including 19-year-old Royle, 20-year-old Husband (who missed a golden chance to save the game) and 21-year-olds Hurst and Kendall.
Between 1966-67 and 1968-69, Everton improved each year, finishing sixth in 1967, fifth in 1968 and third in 1968-69. They were rather unluckily beaten in the FA Cup semi-finals in 1969 by eventual winners Manchester City.
The team was approaching its peak in 1969 and were considered among the favourites for the league title in 1969-70. West was an established keeper, Wright and Harvey were now on the radar with England, Labone had taken over from Jack Charlton in the heart of Sir Alf Ramsey’s defence and Ball was one of the best in the land. Husband and Royle were virile young attackers and there were others, like Hurst, Alan Whittle and Roger Kenyon who were key to the overall strength of the squad. Catterick added more options in December 1969 when he signed England full back Keith Newton from Blackburn Rovers for £ 100,000, a record for a defender at the time.
The league title was won in some style; Everton won 29 of their 42 games and had a margin of nine points between themselves and second-placed Leeds United. Everton conceded fewer goals than anyone else, just 34, and only Leeds scored more than their 75. Joe Royle scored 23 goals in the first division, the second highest behind Jeff Astle’s 25, and they lost just once at Goodison Park, a 3-0 humbling at the hands of Liverpool.
The signs were that Everton would dominate football in the years that followed, but strangely, the team failed to live up to expectations. In 1970-71, they finished 14th and a year-later, Ball was sold to Arsenal for £ 220,000, a transfer that was almost unthinkable two years earlier. Labone retired in 1972, Newton moved on in 1973 and Husband was sold to Luton in 1973-74. In 1974-75, with Catterick gone, Royle (Manchester City), Kendall (Birmingham), Wright (retired) and Harvey (Sheffield Wednesday) all departed Goodison Park. A few months later, West joined Tranmere.
Nobody has really explained what happened at Everton in 1970-71, a young, exciting side suddenly stopped working properly for no apparent reasons. Maybe 1970 represented the peak of their ambition rather than the start of something very big?