Everton in 1990s

The decade started with Everton finishing 9th in the First Division in 1990/91. Neil Pointon was swapped for Andy Hinchcliffe, Mike Milligan & Polish winger Robert Warzycha were also added to the numbers. The opening home defeat by newly promoted Leeds United provoked Neville Southall into a half-time sit in as he sat against the goalpost to reflect on the 1st half problems. Howard Kendall was brought back to Goodison and Colin Harvey reverted to assistant manager. Kendall making his famous ‘With Manchester City it was a love affair – with Everton it is a marriage’ phrase as he took over the Goodison hot seat. In Kendall’s first full season back in charge 1991/92 Everton finished 12th this was to be the last season in the old First Division. Kendall made some signings Mo Johnston, Mark Ward & Gary Ablett all came in. 1992/93 saw the start of the new Premier League and saw Everton drop a place to finsih 13th. £2.3 million was spent on new signings Barry Horne, Matt Jackson, Paul Rideout & ‘Preki’ Predrag Radosavljevic all came in with Kenny Sansom on loan and Billy Kenny Jnr. making his senior debut. 1993/94 Everton finished 17th in the new premiership. Howard Kendall resigned in December of that season and was replaced by Mike Walker from Norwich city. Everton struggled and only stayed up on the last day of the season by beating Wimbledon at home in a nerve racking 90 minutes of football. Players coming in that season were Anders Limpar, Joe Parkinson & Brett Angell. In 1994/95 Everton improved to finish 15th but only after changing manager once again Mike Walker being replaced by former Blues striking legend Joe Royle who coined the phrase ‘Dogs of War’ when asked about his tactics in the Merseyside Derby, a game in which Duncan Ferguson scored his first goal and so began the legend . The end of the season Everton won the FA Cup for the 5th time in their history a Paul Rideout goal deciding the matter against Manchester United. 1995/96 saw Everton finish in 6th with Joe Royle getting his chance to ‘Shop at Harrods’ compared to his time at Oldham Athletic when he bought Craig Short, Gary Rowett, Marc Hottiger and Andrei Kanchelskis who cost a club record £5 million. 15th was all Everton could manage by the end of the 1996/97 season. The blues moved on Gary Ablett, Vinny Samways, Anders Limpar, Matt Jackson, Barry Horne, John Ebbrell, Paul Rideout, Jason Kearton & Daniel Amokachi bringing in Gary Speed, Paul Gerrard, Mike Phelan, Nick Barmby (another club record of £5.75 million) & Claus Thomsen. Joe Royle also gave debuts to two blues youngsters Michael Branch and Richard Dunne. Andrei Kanchelskis left the club and unfortunately Joe Royle also left. Dave Watson became caretaker manager brining in Slaven Bilic for £4.5 million. Howard Kendall would take over permanent control in June for the 3rd time.