When Anthony Gordon recently left Everton, a closely guarded secret was revealed.
Gordon was not the blue supporters of his childhood who had been encouraged to believe when he stormed onto the Goodison Park scene. As a youngster he followed his favorites Liverpool to the cup final, photographic evidence circulating on social media as proof of the ‘betrayal’.
For some, it was grist to the mill in explaining Gordon’s motivation for seeking a move last summer and getting it in January.
‘He was never one of us’ was a common expression in the days before Gordon’s transfer to Newcastle United.
In recent years there have been other Goodison academy graduates who have shuffled uneasily when asked about childhood allegiances, publicly declaring themselves Evertonians while privately admitting they switched sides for professional reasons at Stanley Park.
It suggests there is still concern about how the most tribalistic fans will react to the reasonable assumption that not everyone at Everton viewed Liverpool as a rival in their youth and in some cases held them in high esteem.
Amidst this history Sean Dyche enters for his first Merseyside derby, the newly appointed coach finds himself tap-dancing through a minefield before leading his team to Anfield, admitting that as a child he watched Bob Paisley’s all-conquering team of the 1970s and supported eighty.
“I don’t mind telling you,” Dyche said.
“At the age of seven I am in Kettering, which is not exactly the metropolis of football. I was actually a Kettering fan. I actually had a season ticket and I always went to see Kettering. The sideline is that there are a lot of kids inside [Kettering] also supported Liverpool in the 1970s. My buddy had the yellow Liverpool kit. You know that yellow one with the stripes underneath? We have a picture of me and him together. I thought ‘that’s a nice kit, who’s that?’ and he said ‘Liverpool’ so I thought ‘from now on we are Liverpool fans’. He still is. So that was my first point of reference to support Liverpool.
“I actually just came to Anfield [once] with Phil Neal because he was from Irchester, a town near Kettering. We were invited as a local team if you like to play half an hour before kick off. I actually almost scored an own goal. I threw it off the line. I put it past my own keeper, ran after it and brushed it off the line.”
Suffice to say, 51-year-old Dyche’s feelings couldn’t be more different from those of his seven-year-old self, and his many battles with Liverpool – especially Jurgen Klopp – during his reign at Burnley provide as strong a testimony as the mature answers to questions about childhood heroes.
While Kop fans have had fun arousing their opponents for ‘pointing red’, Evertonians might consider the time when a childhood Liverpool supporter wreaked havoc on the opposition, given the long history of blues from the childhood that successfully switched colors; Ian Rush, Steve McMahon, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher never hid their childhood and it was never a problem, the latter even showing up for Liverpool training as a teenager in his Everton kit.
That used to be the case at Everton. One of the most successful Liverpudlians of his youth turned Goodison legend – Peter Reid – was a weekday visitor to the club’s training ground and there is no greater symbol of what it means to passionately represent the club on Derby day.
Yet there is still reluctance across the country before a Manchester United or City starlet, or those from Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Newcastle or Sunderland will openly admit to switching sides.
Supporters like to chant “he’s one of us” when a player moves up to the first team, so Premier League clubs’ more savvy PR teams are reluctant to break the facade. With some justification, they fear it will be a stick to beat in tougher times.
Witness the painstaking attempts to explain why a young Harry Kane was once pictured in an Arsenal kit. The idea of him even flirting with Tottenham’s north London rivals was seemingly too much for some to accept.
“I was at Arsenal for a year and obviously I was a kid,” Kane explained when he was a Spurs hero.
“I wanted to wear a Tottenham kit, but I don’t think it would have gone well. I was eight years old.”
If a player from Kane’s class feels compelled to explain, what chance does an underperformer have when a photo of his younger self in a rival’s kit appears on social media?
Whether Dyche’s acknowledgment of his past will encourage the next Gordon to be as fair as the manager will probably depend on how much admiration the player immediately receives from the Gwladys Street. Unfortunately for Everton, not enough of their recent graduates have found and maintained such commitment or confidence. Gordon followed Francis Jeffers, Wayne Rooney, Jack Rodwell and Ross Barkley as they were linked with a big money move shortly after their debut.
Rooney naturally introduced himself to the football world with the t-shirt ‘Once a blue, always a blue’. On Monday, an Everton derby win inspired by an ex-Liverpool fan would be most welcome at Goodison Park.