CHELSEA WAIT ON TRANSFERS PLEA
FOR Marco Silva in November 2019, read Howard Kendall in November 1983.
Andy Gray can see parallels between Silva’s plight at Everton and the situation facing Kendall when he arrived at Goodison Park back in that winter of discontent.
Kendall was facing fan boycotts and calls for his head because the Blues were going nowhere.
The then chairman, Philip Carter, stuck by Kendall and Gray, coupled with Kevin Brock’s infamous backpass in the League Cup, helped spark Everton’s remarkable revival.
The rest, as Evertonians joyfully know, is history with Kendall embarking on the club’s most successful era, winning two league titles, the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Gray says Everton must also stand by Silva and break the cycle of hiring and firing managers.
“When I arrived at Everton, Howard was under huge pressure,” said the former striker. “There were petitions saying ‘Kendall must go’. Philip Carter, in fairness to him, stuck by him.
“It was staggering we could turn from what we were to what we became in such a short period, unbelievable.
“I hope Silva can also turn it round. I don’t want Everton to become a club that sacks managers every 18 months. At some time, someone has to be given time. Since
ANDY GRAY will never forget the day Howard Kendall broke his heart.
Gray was still buzzing from winning the league title and European Cup Winners’ Cup when Kendall visited him at home in July 1985 to tell the striker he was selling him back to Aston Villa to make way for Gary Lineker.
As gutted as Gray was, he will always be grateful to Kendall for delivering the bad news personally.
“Howard felt really awkward when he came to my house to tell me,” he said. “I knew I was going because the manager doesn’t come to your house
Roberto Martinez left, who got almost three years, there has been a collection of managers who have come and gone, like Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce, so somebody has to be given a chance.
“If they feel Silva is the man, then they’ve got to stick with him.”
Gray, who won the FA Cup, league title and Cup Winners’ Cup (celebrating below with Neville Southall in 1985) in his 20 months on Merseyside, made up a feared frontline along with Graeme Sharp and Adrian Heath. What Evertonians would give to have one of them now, and Gray was reunited in pre-season unless something’s afoot. He told me they’d had an offer from Villa and that if I went, he had a chance of buying Lineker.
“I didn’t want to leave.
There were petitions urging the club not to sell me. The club gave them to me.
“One
Evertonian wrote,
‘I love Andy so much that if I came home one night and saw him in bed with my missus, I’d tuck him with Sharp and his old teammates for the launch of the film Everton – Howard’s Way, which chronicles that golden era under Kendall, who died in 2015.
Sitting beneath a picture of himself holding the Cup Winners’ Cup in The ’85 Lounge at Goodison, Gray lamented Everton’s need of a proper No.9.
“They’re lacking a genuine goalscorer,” said the Scot. “That’s a big problem. “We don’t know if Moise Kean is going to be good enough yet. He’s still young, they’ve taken a gamble on him and he’s going to need time.
“Dominic Calvert-Lewin does a lot of good things, maybe works too hard – if that sounds stupid – outside the box trying to make up for his deficiencies inside it.
“If he’s going to be top bracket, he needs to up his up and make sure he didn’t catch cold’.
“Howard handled it like he was going to a mate’s to tell him some bad news. He didn’t handle it like an employer and an employee.
“If it had been just a player-manager relationship, he wouldn’t have come to my house. He would just have called me. But he came because he felt he had to.” That decision goal ratio dramatically. Cenk Tosun, his goalscoring record was good. But that was Turkey and this is a different league altogether.”
Gray, 63, warns Everton must follow up their win over Southampton, only a second in eight league games, by beating Norwich on Saturday.
“It has to change some time, there has to be a turning point this season for Everton or else they’re going to struggle,” he said.
“I just hope we can put back-to-back wins together now. We had a good win before the international break against Southampton.
“If we could beat Norwich, that would be a good six points. It would move us up the league and then things might begin to look a bit better.” never diminished Gray’s huge respect for his former manager and he is sad Kendall does not get the credit he deserves as one of Britain’s finest coaches.
Kendall’s drinking blighted his later career but for Gray (left, with Kendall) that should not tarnish his reputation. “We know alcohol can be a problem for anybody and it’s certainly not something that should be used to beat Howard Kendall with, because his attributes as a football manager were second to none,” he said.
“I think anyone in that team would say Howard was the best.”
CHELSEA could find out within two weeks if their transfer embargo has been lifted.
Their appeal was heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport yesterday, with the findings expected to be announced in the first or second week of December.
If successful, they will be free to buy again in January.
The Blues were found guilty by FIFA in February of breaking rules on academy players and given a two-window ban, which ends in February. Boss Frank Lampard (above) turned to youngsters such as Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount after being unable to make any summer signings.