HUGHTON: WE NEED MORE BRITS
EIt is a distant memory to some – but just like yesterday to a generation of Toffee fans who revelled in an era when their club won four trophies, a tally that would have been more but for the Heysel ban, when English clubs were kicked out of European football.
But had UEFA been more lenient then something extraordinary could have happened, Sheedy believes.
Everton were on a roll, winning the FA Cup in 1984, the old First Division and Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1985, reclaiming the league in 1987.
But the chance to join Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa as just the sixth English side to win club football’s biggest prize was taken away by UEFA’s top brass.
And Sheedy is convinced it could have happened in 1986 – the year Romanian champs, Steaua Bucharest did it.
The former Ireland and Everton winger said: “There is no doubt in my mind we could have won a European Cup, just going by the fact we beat Bayern Munich over two legs in the 1985 Cup-Winners’ Cup semis. They won the Bundesliga that year.
“We could compete with anyone and that is the one regret I have, that we didn’t get the chance to go for the European Cup.
“That was the start of the decline – when we were denied the chance to go for the big prize. The manager,
CHRIS HUGHTON would love to see more home-grown managers given a chance in the Premier League.
Brighton’s boss fully accepts the whole dynamics of football has changed with the influx of foreign owners but rues the absence of English, Welsh, Scots and Irish throughout the game.
The Essex-born Irish international spoke in a week Manchester United sacked Jose Mourinho and appointed Howard Kendall, left a couple of years later for Athletic Bilbao, the team split up far too soon (Andy Gray, Trevor Steven and Gary Stevens were all gone within four years) and even though we were Everton’s most successful team, we did not maximise our potential.”
And the price is still being paid today. Had Everton not headed into decline, then their status in 2018 Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as caretaker boss and Southampton replacing Welshman Mark Hughes with Austrian Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Now Hughton is one of a small club in the Premier League, alongside Sean Dyche, Eddie Howe Neil Warnock and Roy Hodgson as home-grown managers.
He said: “It would be nice to see more Scots, English, Welsh and Irishman in the Premier League. I accept there aren’t enough.
“It’s not something I speak to the likes of Roy, Sean or Eddie about, but we’re all conscious of the fact the game has changed, the higher echelons of clubs have changed – and the ownerships have changed. With that comes the type of managers there are now managing in the Premier League and lower leagues as well.
“It’s life, I suppose.”