By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 24 March 08.

Watching Liverpool games live on television has its good points and bad points when you live in Vancouver, Canada. Due to the time difference we watch the weekend games early in the morning and midweek games at lunchtime. If the Reds win it’s fantastic and we get the rest of the day to celebrate. However when they lose it can ruin the rest of the day. Unlike in England, where you only have a few more hours till you can sleep and forget about it, we have an entire day to be annoyed. Such an occasion occurred on Sunday and to make it even worse it meant that Easter was ruined as well.

The defeat at Old Trafford was the fourth in succession since Rafa became Liverpool manager. It was also the fourth in a row that a Man Utd defender has scored. I thought the game near the start of last season was awful but this was even worse and downright embarrassing. There are a number of reasons why we lost the game such as Mascherano’s sending off or the formation Rafa chose. When it all comes down to it, the players themselves let us all down by simply not turning up. The only player that seemed to be getting stuck in was Mascherano but he barely lasted half an hour on the pitch.

Javier Mascherano sent off v Man Utd

I’m not usually in agreement with the words of Tom Hicks but he has suggested that Liverpool’s players have an inferiority complex when it comes to playing Man Utd. Based on the evidence we see every season it’s hard to disagree with these sentiments. I think we can all agree that we have a first eleven that can compete with any team in the world and we have seen plenty of evidence of this. Yet when it comes time to play Man Utd we simply collapse. I cannot fathom why this is and it really bothers me. I do not blame Rafa for this because he publicly talks up our chances before these games and fill us (and surely the players) with plenty of confidence. Yet as soon as the whistle blows we simply allow them to dominate.

Would anybody else agree that Steven Gerrard did not act like a captain on Sunday? I don’t want to start slagging Stevie off here because I am a big fan of the man and he would be in my starting line-up every week without fail. But I cannot excuse the way he goes missing in games against Man Utd. He had one good shot in the second half but other than that he wasn’t really involved in the match. I understand that he played a lot deeper when we were down to ten men but even before that he wasn’t really doing a lot. I would love to know why he wasn’t involved in getting Mascherano off the pitch when he was sent off. As the captain, I feel that Stevie should have run straight over and done whatever it took to get him to calm down. I understand that he may have wanted to set a good example by not getting involved in the argument, but once Mascherano lost control he should have been straight over.

Anybody who watched the game could quite clearly see that Mascherano was always at risk of being sent off once he had received the first yellow card for the foul on Scholes. I counted six occasions in which the cameras caught him swearing or gesturing at the referee Steve Bennett. It didn’t need an expert lip reader to understand that he was f’ing and blinding. Every time I saw him mouthing off I was panicking and shouting at him to ‘please shut up’. As we were already a goal down at that point we probably would have lost the game anyway, but by getting himself sent off when he was our best player, Mascherano clearly cost us a chance of getting back into the game. I just hope at this stage that he doesn’t get his one game ban increased because of his refusal to leave the pitch once he was shown the red card.

We all knew that we would see dissent punished more harshly this weekend after Cashley’s behaviour in mid-week, but it seems that Liverpool were more harshly treated than others. I watched Chelsea vs Arsenal and saw loads of players giving the referee abuse and yet none of their players were given cards for it. Yet when Torres complains about the constant fouling he received without the referee giving the fouls, he is booked straight away. Bennett should have had a quiet word with him as it was a first offence and clearly Torres was just frustrated. Instead he was immediately yellow carded for it. The inconsistencies in refereeing standards seem to get worse with every week, and Steve Bennett’s performance on Sunday was pathetic. Mascherano was booked for a bad foul and Man Utds players were consistently allowed to kick and pull back our players without punishment. Ronaldo clearly dived twice in the game and was he booked? Of course he wasn’t. I’m not suggesting that Steve Bennett was biased, just incompetent to be in charge of a game of this importance.

I know that it’s easy to say this in hindsight but I think that Rafa got the formation wrong, especially once we were down to ten men. Leaving Torres on his own up front was never going to work with Ferdinand and Vidic playing so well this season. It was even harder for Torres when he was getting no service from the wings and with Gerrard going missing we seemed to be simply playing long balls to him and then expecting him to do the rest. Peter Crouch would have been a perfect player to bring on in this game and once again he was sitting on the bench. It’s quite clear that he’s done something bad to offend Rafa this much and despite talk of him signing a new contract, I can’t see him staying at Liverpool after this season.

Looking ahead to the Merseyside derby next Sunday we simply cannot afford to play like this again. We have a two point lead over Everton right now and we need to be increasing it to five points as we look to maintain fourth place. With no Mascherano for this game, Rafa may decide to revert to a 4-4-2 formation, or he may stick with new one and simply replace Mascherano with Lucas Leiva. I would like to see a natural winger like Pennant or Benayoun play on the right instead of Kuyt so that Torres can get some good crosses. With the amount of hard tackling that is expected of this fixture, especially with the amount on the line this time around, Torres may get more chances to score from the wings instead of passing through the midfield. One thing is for sure this game can’t come fast enough for me and doing the double on the Bluenoses will be the perfect tonic to soothe the pain in our hearts that we’ve been feeling since that terrible Easter Sunday.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 24 March 08.

Anfield and Woodison

Liverpool and Everton are not just two football clubs that are close to each other geographically, they are also interlinked with each other in many other ways. Most families on Merseyside are split in their support between the two clubs, which greatly adds to the competitive spirit, and if anything allows for the rivalry to reach levels that are very high, but not usually dangerously so. After all, we still have to live with each other no matter what the outcome of each season, and especially when we have to face each other as we do this coming Sunday. There’s nothing more satisfying than beating your closest rivals, which is even more so for Everton in recent years where a point or two against us could be the only reason to celebrate all season.

With all of the competition between the two clubs, it would be expected that the managers of each club would be reluctant to allow the transfer of players between them, but in fact there have been quite a few – and a lot more than most would have expected.

Duncan McLean

The rivalry that has existed (and grown) between the two clubs over the past hundred plus years began with a dispute over rent at Everton’s home ground – Anfield. They chose not to pay the increased amount and so moved on to a new location (Goodison) across Stanley Park. That left Anfield owner John Houlding with a ground but no team to play on it, and so he founded Liverpool FC. In fact, he originally proposed naming his new club Everton Athletic, but the Football League refused to recognise that name for his team. One of the first players to be signed was Duncan McLean, who was previously an Everton player but chose to stay at Anfield rather than cross the park with his former team-mates. Duncan was one of the famous “Team of Macs” that entered the Lancashire League in 1892.

Another player to make the switch from Everton to Liverpool in that first year was Tom Wylie. Liverpool won the Lancashire League in their first season, and were then elected into the Football League’s Second Division. By the time they kicked off their second season, they had added another former Evertonian - Patrick Gordon, in 1893. It’s amazing to think of it now, but they added yet another former Evertonian in March of 1894 - John Whitehead. Liverpool’s first season in the League ended with them being undefeated Division Two Champions, and they were duly promoted to Division One for the 1894-95 season. That was not too successful, with Liverpool being relegated at the end of the campaign, managing only seven wins in thirty games played. But, the exodus of Everton players to cross the park and join Liverpool continued as Fred Geary was the next to arrive in May of 1895. Fred was famous as Everton’s top scorer in the 1889-90, 1890-91, and 1892-93 seasons. He is also the holder of a record that no Everton player will ever take from him, as he scored the first ever goal for Everton at Goodison Park in their first season at their new home in 1892. Liverpool paid the sum of £60 to bring Geary’s scoring touch to Anfield (or should I say back to Anfield?) with a record of 86 goals in 99 appearances for Everton. It must have taken some convincing to persuade a top player at a First Division club to join Liverpool who were then down in the Second Division. But, it was not for long as Fred helped the Reds to win the Second Division Championship and put them back in the top flight for the 1896-97 season. That was more successful than their previous experience, finishing a respectable 5th and also reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup.

One more player was to change from Blue to Red before the close of the 19th Century was Abraham Hartley, who made the switch in December of 1897. With six Everton players making the move to Liverpool over the first six years, it might look like there was some plan in place for one Everton player to make the change every season. Of course that’s not true, and it’s probably no surprise that the movement of players slowed down considerably, with the next transfer being almost seven years later, when David Murray became the seventh player in the stream of one-way transfers, joining Liverpool in August of 1904. By this time, Liverpool had won their first League Championship in 1901, and were now being relegated again to Division Two after finishing 17th at the end of the 1903-04 season.

That was another short stay in the lower division as Liverpool finished first and were promoted back to the First Division for the 1905-06 season. That was to be the beginning of a nearly fifty year run in the top flight, and began with Liverpool winning their second League Championship in their first season back in Division One. Don Sloan arrived from Everton in May of 1908, and was followed nearly four years later by Tom Gracie in February of 1912, as the first move that would see a flurry of transfer activity between the two clubs.

Bill Lacey

That’s now nine former Everton players to cross Stanley Park from Goodison to Anfield, and it was only a few days after Tom’s move that the first transfer from Liverpool to Everton took place when Harold Uren made the switch from Red to Blue. That was not the end of the activity either, with Bill Lacey leaving Everton for Liverpool the day after Harold went in the opposite direction. It was only four months later, in June of 1912, that Arthur Berry was transferred from Goodison to Anfield, making a total of four transfers between Liverpool and Everton (3 in and 1 out) in only four months. Arthur Berry was in fact an amateur at the time of his transfer, having been a two-time Olympic Gold medallist, winning in 1908 and again in 1912.

The First World War put a stop to all Football League activity from 1915 to 1919, but it wasn’t long before the trade resumed. In fact it was only a few months after the League re-started that Liverpool bought Frank Mitchell from Everton in December of 1919. It was then not until March of 1927 that only the second transfer from Liverpool to Everton took place, with striker Dick Forshaw leaving behind a record of 124 goals in 288 appearances for Liverpool to join Dixie Dean at Everton. That was a successful move as Dick helped Everton to win the First Division in the 1927-28 season (their third League title).

The next four transfers were all from Everton to Liverpool, with Thomas Johnson (March 1934), Ted Harthill (January 1936) and John Heydon (January 1949) all making the move. The fourth one out of those was Jack Balmer, who arrived from Goodison in May of 1935. Jack was a nephew of Everton players Bill and Bob, and so it was no surprise that Liverpool born Jack signed amateur forms for the Blues. But, having been ignored by Everton, Liverpool came in to sign him in May of 1934, where he stayed until his retirement in 1952. Jack was a prolific striker, scoring a hat-trick of hat-tricks in the 1946-47 season, as Liverpool were once again crowned League Champions. Jack was made captain the following season, and formed a prolific partnership with Albert Stubbins. By the time he retired, Jack had played in 312 games for Liverpool, and had scored 111 goals.

The rivalry between the two clubs had been growing by leaps and bounds as the post-war years progressed. Liverpool were in a position of struggling to maintain the form of the Championship winning season of 46-47, and spent the next few years mired in mid-table mediocrity. But in 1951, the smiles on the faces of Liverpool supporters had little to do with the Reds and more to do with the pleasure of seeing Everton relegated to the Second Division. The pleasure didn’t last too long though, as the Blues were on their way back up in the summer of 1954 after finishing 2nd in the lower division. Now it was the turn of the Blues to smile at our expense as they had the double pleasure of seeing the Reds pass them on their way down! Liverpool’s run in the First Division came to an end in that summer (1954) as they were relegated to Division Two after finishing 22nd.

By the mid-1950’s, player transfer fees were beginning to rise sharply, and Everton paid £5,000 to take Jimmy Payne from Anfield to Goodison in April of 1956, making him only the third Liverpool player to join the blues directly. The next transfer was Tony Macnamara, who moved from Everton to Liverpool for a fee of £4,000 in December of 1957, making him the seventeenth player to change from Blue to Red (or twentieth transfer between the two rivals). That’s quite a few players to have been brought in from any one club, even though it was over a period of sixty five years (i.e. an average of one transfer between them every 3¼ years). The next player to move across Stanley Park to Anfield, was to be the last before the end of the 20th century.

Hickson signs for Liverpool

Ellesmere Port born Dave Hickson signed on as an Everton player in 1948. He spent three years in the army, where he was coached by the legendary Dixie Dean, and then made his professional debut for Everton in 1951. He made his mark in the 1953-54 season, when he scored 25 goals in helping Everton to gain promotion to the First Division. Then, after only one more season he was off to Aston Villa, then Huddersfield where he was top scorer with 22 in their 1956-57 season in Division Two under Bill Shankly. In the summer of 1957 he returned to Everton. He was a fan favourite at Goodison, not just for his obvious talents but also for his commitment and will to win.

Hickson was worshipped by the Evertonians as much as he was despised by the Liverpudlians, and so it was something of a shock that Dave Hickson became the eighteenth player to move from Everton to Liverpool, for a fee of £12,000 (the first to break the £10k barrier). He made an immediate impression on the Anfield faithful by scoring twice on his debut. One more irresistible piece of trivia is that Dave later played a couple of seasons for Tranmere Rovers, and is the only player to have played for all three Merseyside clubs.

Liverpool appointed Bill Shankly as their manager in December of 1959, and soon regained their place in Division One at the end of the 1961-62 season. From that point onward, the rivalry became even fiercer as the two clubs battled for local and national supremacy. By the time Bill Shankly retired in the summer of 1974, the two clubs had claimed five League Championships, three FA Cups, six Charity Shields and a UEFA Cup (with Liverpool having the majority of the success). During those years, only one player made the switch, with John Morrisey leaving Liverpool for Everton in September of 1962 for a fee of £10,000.

The next transfer would not be for almost twenty years, when Kevin Sheedy also left Liverpool for Everton in May of 1982, for a fee of £100,000. David Johnson followed after a few months, and Alan Harper made the same move a year later, both for £100,000.

Liverpool, under the management of Kenny Dalglish, broke the English transfer fee record in 1987 to sign Peter Beardsley for £1,900,000. Graeme Souness then sold him to Everton in a controversial move for a “bargain” fee of £1,000,000 in August of 1991. The Souness clear-out continued with Gary Ablett following Beardsley for £750,000 in January of 1992. That then made a run of six Liverpool players to be transferred directly to Everton over the thirty years from 1962 to 1992. It would then be another eight years before the next transfer, coming in the summer of 2000.

Barmby signs for Liverpool

Nick Barmby spent four seasons with Everton, from 1996 to 2000, and then signed for Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier in the summer of 2000 for a fee of £6,000,000, which remains Liverpool’s fifteenth most expensive transfer fee paid. It had been forty one years since a player had been signed directly from the Blues (Hickson in 1959) and it caused something of an uproar amongst Everton supporters. Nick described the move as a dream come true, which was natural for him as a professed Liverpool supporter since childhood. Houllier was surprised at the reaction of the Evertonians saying, “It’s not as if he’s changed his religion” (which some people may say shows how little Monsieur Houllier really understood the feelings of the fans). Nick scored his first goal for his new club, against his former club, in the Anfield derby after only a handful of appearances. He went on to play a significant part in the treble winning side of his first season as a Red, picking up a career’s worth of medals for his efforts after leaving Everton empty-handed in terms of honours. One final player to make the transfer was Portuguese International Abel Xavier, also signed by Gerard Houllier, in January of 2002 for a fee of £750,000.

That makes a total of no less than 29 players to make the direct move between Liverpool and Everton, with 20 of those being from Goodison to Anfield and 9 in the opposite direction. The most surprising part of this figure is that it turns out to be the greatest number of transfers between Liverpool and any other club, and 10 more than the next most common. Since Everton are our closest neighbours and most common trading partner, it would be natural then to expect Tranmere Rovers to be the next most common club for transfers, which turns out to be correct. What is perhaps most surprising is that there have only been 19 players transferred between Liverpool and Tranmere, with 4 from and 15 to the Wirral club. The next most common is Sunderland with 17, followed by a group of four clubs with 16.

The number of transfers between the two rival clubs is surprising to begin with, but even more so when we realise that there are also a fair number of players who played for both sides without making the move directly. David Burrows, Steve McMahon, and Don Hutchison have all represented both clubs, while a few others such as Dave Watson, Alan Harper, and Mike Newell played for Liverpool as youths and later played for Everton at the senior level. Beyond that, there are a fair number of Liverpool players who grew up as Evertonians. These include Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Ian Rush, and Jamie Carragher. Steven Gerrard was even photographed in an Everton strip as a young lad, much to the delight of the Blues supporters who found a copy of it.

With all of that activity between the two Merseyside clubs, they might look more co-operative than competitive. Perhaps that’s not so surprising when we think not only of how physically close the two clubs are to each other, but also of how the two clubs are historically related. In fact, the analogy could be that the two clubs are like brothers and perhaps should respect each other as such. Then again, is there anything more satisfying than beating your brother?

My thanks to Doug from Bootle for asking some questions, regarding transfers between the two clubs, that eventually led to the writing of this column.

What do you think? Give Keith your comments at keith [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 24 March 08.

I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of money that could be raised, but I was really surprised, and very pleased, by the generosity that was shown by everyone in attendance at the Inter match on March 11th.

We sent out a notice beforehand that we would be collecting money at half-time during that match, and some people just couldn’t wait to start putting money in for the cause. I had several people handing me money before the kick-off, and there was even one lad (Padee) who handed me a bag of LFC baseball caps and said we should sell them or raffle them off, or something to raise money for Ray and for the Parkinson’s Disease Society. At half-time, as advertised, a couple of us went around with the hats and the money just flowed in without any trouble. By the time we were finished, we added it all up and it came to just under $300! That’s amazing considering that it’s a relatively small number of people, which means that the level of generosity was well beyond our expectations. The money collected was topped up with some funds from our club account, and a money order for £200 has now been sent to The Ray of Hope Appeal. The reply from the people at the Ray of Hope Appeal was,

Next month, on April 5th which is the day of the Arsenal match, we’ll be raising money again but in a slightly different way. This time around we’ll have items to be raffled off, including at least one of those baseball caps that Padee gave us, as well as other a few other Liverpool souvenirs that people will be donating between now and then. Of course, we’ll also have a collection during the two Champions League Quarter Final matches to allow anyone who missed the opportunity to donate last time around, or anyone who wants to give again, and that will be added to the total. I don’t like to think too optimistically, but there’s really no reason why we can’t surpass the £200 that we collected first time around. Let’s at least give it a try.

A very big thank-you to all of you who gave generously; every donation is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to raising even more in April. Until then, if you have any items that you would like to donate for a raffle, or any ideas for fund-raising, then please get in touch with us and let us know.

Thanks again, it’s truly heart-warming to know that “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is not just a slogan; it really means something to all of us as we think about others less fortunate than ourselves.

What do you think? Give Keith your comments at Keith [at] lfcvancouver.com.

Standings as of 26 March 08.
After a break, the contest results are now current and being updated!

Rank	Member	Points
1	Dennis	48
2	Pat	45
3	Mark	24
4	Dan	22
5	Glenn	21
6	Richard	17
7	Ste	16
8	Keith	13
9	Kevin	11
10	Andy	1
10	Luvdeep	1
10	Chris	1
13	Blake	0

To enter the members contest see the rules below.

RULES:

• Only open to paid LFC Vancouver Members.
• You list the names of the players you think will start the next LFC match.
• You must submit your list to lfcvancouver [at] gmail.com at least 12 hours before kick-off.
• This contest will include every match that LFC plays this season.
• The member(s) that correctly guess the starting XI will be awarded 5 points.
• At the end of the season the player with the most points will win the prize.
• What is the prize? It is a surprise!
• The standings will be included in each week’s newsletter.

Scoring System:

• 11 Correct picks = 5 points.
• 10 Correct picks = 3 points.
• 9 Correct picks = 1 point.
• 0-8 Correct picks = 0 points.

YNWA/JFT 96,

Andy Neumann