IAN LADYMAN: To see Everton, a super, storied club, in such a sorry mess is just deeply sad

Every time I sit in the press box at Goodison Park my gaze is drawn across the field to a billboard at the front of the Lower Bullens Road Stand.

It was where the late great Ray Wilkins perched during a break in play when QPR played Everton in November 1993.

Reports from that day say he actually signed before taking a corner kick. I don’t remember that, but I do remember him talking to the supporters while my dad and I were there a few rows back.

I’m not a fan of Everton but I used to go there occasionally when I was younger. It was 40 minutes from our house and Everton always played decent football. Or at least they tried.

So I was there when Howard Kendall’s buccaneer team of future champions beat Sunderland 4-1 with that bravura performance in 1985 and, even more sombre, the foggy night Jim Beglin broke his leg in a Merseyside derby less than two years later. I was even there the day Efan Ekoku scored four in the 5-1 win at Norwich City. A chap named Chris Sutton scored the other.

It’s, at least in part, because of these memories of a throbbing, humming Goodison Park that I feel so sad watching Everton now. That super old stadium – packed on all sides with houses, a school, a main road and a street full of pubs and chip shops – still looks the same.

It still so unashamedly hints at that storied past. But Everton won’t be playing there for long. Sometime next season, they hope to have the keys to what promises to be a beautiful new waterfront home. But what will become of Everton between now and then? I actually shudder when I think about it.

They play Wolves at home on Saturday and are at the bottom of the table after two games of the new Premier League season. Two games? Usually it means nothing, but I think at Everton it means everything. 1-0 at home against Fulham and 4-0 away against Aston Villa are the numbers on the board so far.

Everton are a club that do so many things right. Off the pitch, they do as much for their community as virtually any club in the country, and more than most. But things around football often feel so desperate these days. And when their name appears on the sports pages, it’s often bad news.

On Thursday, for instance, when defender James Tarkowski defiantly tried to raise the team’s prospects in an interview in the Times, it emerged that potential US investors had backed out of talks about taking a 25 per cent stake in the club.

Sean Dyche is the man currently tasked with keeping Everton afloat as this all swirls around him. He was hired last season to keep Everton afloat and on the last day he did just that. He averaged 1.16 points per game for a 44-point season. Given the circumstances, that was more than enough.

But Dyche was so successful all those years at Burnley because he was able to slowly build a side that was able to do the things he wanted to do and play the way he wanted to play. Dyche has no chance at Everton for that. He arrived on 30 January thinking he might be able to bring in another striker at the last minute. It didn’t happen. This summer the club has been trying to sell fringe players to give their manager something: something – to play with. The net result of that is Ashley Young on the loose, Jack Harrison on loan from Leeds, another loanee from Spain and one buy, a teenage striker from Portugal who is ‘for the future’.

So as he tries to avoid the same fate that has befallen Frank Lampard, Rafa Benitez, Marco Silva, Sam Allardyce, Ronaldo Koeman and Roberto Martinez – the dismissal – he must take a tune from a squad he knows is in dire need of an injection . of energy, freshness and life from the outside.

Will Dyche make it? I wouldn’t support him, but he faces increasing opportunities. This season’s roster is worse than last season’s and it almost went down. So go figure.

His best shot remains Dominic Calvert-Lewin. But the striker will be absent again on Saturday, this time with a facial injury. Everton’s top scorer last season was Dwight McNeill with seven. The year before it was Brazil’s Richarlison with 10. Calvert-Lewin’s contribution over those two campaigns? Seven.

So the Evertonians will pray for their attacker’s condition and pray that Dyche can turn water if he’s not quite into wine yet, then into something with a little life in it.

That stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is waiting for you. Leaving Goodison will be a heavy blow. Another part of English football will disappear and a city will change forever.

I just hope Everton are still playing top flight football when they leave. Because if they aren’t, I wouldn’t be very optimistic about seeing them again anytime soon.

Pacey Foden flies under Pep

Watching Phil Foden paint magical pictures of a new central position for Manchester City against Newcastle was thrilling and reminded me of a lunchtime conversation nearly five years ago.

When Pep Guardiola resisted pressure to use a teenaged Foden more often in his first team in early 2019, the man who oversaw his early days at City had an explanation and a prediction too.

“Philip is only missing one thing,” said City youth academy head Jim Cassell when Foden was discovered. “He just needs that next growth thing, that speed boost to take him away from the players. “The kind of pace that Lionel Messi and Paul Gascoigne had. When it comes – and it will – you’ll see it fly.’

It’s fair to say that speed has been reached and the player Jack Grealish believes to be the club’s most skilled player is indeed flying. Guardiola will have to make a decision when Kevin De Bruyne is fit again. Cassell, meanwhile, was chased out by City ten years ago.

It seemed strange then and it seems strange now.

Lionesses owe fans

It was not the choice of the England women’s team to leave Heathrow by the back door after coming home from the World Cup. Nevertheless, it happened and left many young fans waiting for them in the arrivals hall feeling disappointed and ignored.

England midfielder Georgia Stanway says the team will “engage with fans on social media” but that doesn’t feel good enough.

As the 24-year-old said on This Morning, there is a game coming up soon, next month against Scotland at Sunderland. An open training session – or some such public access – would feel good.

Chris Wilder’s five years at Sheffield United ended bitterly in March 2021, but time heals.

Club owner Prince Abdullah recently said: ‘If I needed a consultation now I would call Chris and ask. In this year’s promotion, part of the credit goes to Chris.’

United has a very good manager in Paul Heckingbottom. However, if it fails, who would the smart money benefit?