When Tommy Wright Met Joe RoyleIn October's edition of the Everton magazine, we featured an article in which former teammates but close friends Tommy Wright and Joe Royle took at trip down memory lane while catching up at Goodison Park.In light of Tommy becoming the latest Everton Giant, here is that article in full, as two Toffees greats discuss Howard Kendall, their close bond and how a conversation out of the blue with Harry Catterick saw Tommy become a full-back!
Enjoy.
Tommy Wright and Joe Royle were two of four ever-presents in Everton’s glorious 1969/70 title-winning team (John Hurst and Gordon West were the other two) and we brought them back together recently to enjoy once again the atmosphere of the home dressing room.
Two Liverpool-born lads who progressed through the ranks to reach the first team, Tommy and Joe go back a long way and they began their reminiscing by recalling their great friend Howard Kendall, who passed away last October…
JR: I can’t believe it’s almost twelve months since I got that call on a Saturday morning. I had only spoken to Howard on the Friday. We played Manchester United, of course, and you could see the affect that one man had on 40,000 people. It was Goodison Park without atmosphere.
TW: I think about him all the time. I loved Howard. He was a great player and I still can’t believe he didn’t win an England cap. It was a sad, sad day for all football fans not just Evertonians.
JR: We had a great team spirit in our side and we all got in early enough to enjoy it. Sometimes I would go home with sore ribs from laughing! Westy and Labby together were a double act. Everyone would chip in but those two were the mainstay of the humour in the dressing room. Labby would come in every day and give Howard a bang on the head!
EVERTON: For any particular reason?
JR: No!
TW: In those days there were a lot of local lads in the team. I think that’s a problem with today’s game, there’s not enough local players in any of the teams. I used to watch Everton when I was a kid. I would stand in the Boys Pen when it was 9d to get in! I would walk from my house in Norris Green, cut across the cemetery and go into the ground. I’d watch the likes of Alex Young and Roy Vernon.
JR: Of course it makes a difference to have local players. If you look at our side, Tom and I were both from Norris Green, and we had the lads like Jimmy Husband from the north east and John Hurst from Blackpool but they’d only need ten minutes here and they were Evertonians. Bringing your own kids through makes such a difference because they have a passion for the club, an understanding and a feeling for the club.
EVERTON: You two have known each other a long time…
JR: We met for the first time in this very dressing room when we both had pre-season injuries and we were getting the old ‘hot and cold’ treatment. I remember Tommy telling me that it was a big season for him because he was almost 19-years old and he wanted to break into the reserves. Well if you look at the squad pictures in those days there were about 50 professionals on them so it was an achievement to get into the reserves. In one season Tom went from the Everton A team to an England Under-23 international. He’s up there with the best of the right-backs for England and, in my opinion, the best right-back I’ve seen in a blue shirt. I go back to watching the likes of Don Donovan and Alex Parker, I saw Gary Stevens and Earl Barrett and now, of course, we’ve got Seamus. They’re all internationals and Tom’s up there with the best. Certainly the best I played with.
EVERTON: And what about Big Joe, Tommy?
TW: Erm, he’s up there! (laughs). No, he was great Joe. He would always take up positions where you could find him. He’d point to where he wanted you to play the ball and he’d always get on the end of it. And of course he was great from corners and free-kicks.
JR: Harry Catterick was a hard man to please but he was always fair. As long as you didn’t mess with Harry he was good with you. If you were honest, and Tom was an honest player, Harry would see that and appreciate that.
TW: He just pulled me over to one side during training one day and asked me if I fancied playing number two! And I said ‘yeah, I’ll give it a go’. So he told me I was in the team the next day!
EVERTON: It must have been a joy to play in that 1969/70 team?
TW: It was brilliant and everything just clicked. When I played full-back in training, Johnny Morrisey would be opposite me on the wing and he would play every session as if it was a full-blown FA Cup tie!
JR: Johnny only ever played one way! He was terrific and he was another under-rated player. I had a great rapport with him and I always knew whether he was going to cut inside or go outside so I knew whether or not to get into the box and wait for a cross. He was a tough cookie too, nobody messed with him.
TW: Everton always had players like that. I actually thought that Derek Temple was under-rated because he had great skills.
EVERTON: What about the Holy Trinity – they weren’t over-rated!
TW: They were the only three that played that season!
JR: Ha ha! Brian Labone used to say that we were the only team that ever won the Championship with just three players!
TW: It’s very hard to win the league but we had the players to do it. Billy Bingham came in after Harry and he wanted to change things. It was just a shame that it broke up very quickly after that. It all broke up too soon. Players got injured, players lost their form and it was never the same again.
JR: It’s still a mystery. Bally probably went too soon but I think that Harry had it in his mind that Alan was trying to get to somewhere else. Alan always denied that whenever I spoke to him afterwards. Whatever it was, Harry sold him and felt it was good money. We didn’t and we always felt that the situation made us all a bit more vulnerable because Alan was his captain and his main man. Harry had been ill for a while and Billy, as a new manager does, wanted to bring in his own ideas. He inherited a side that was hard to replace. It was a side that was moving on as one or two were retiring, one or two had long injuries, so it wasn’t an easy job for a new manager.
EVERTON: Some people claim that the 1970 World Cup didn’t help Everton – with Keith Newton, Brian Labone, Alan Ball and, of course, Tommy in Mexico…
JR: Harry Catterick did used to mention that summer when four of the lads went to Mexico for the World Cup and three of us got married. He thought that maybe that was why we didn’t achieve the following season what we’d done in 69/70.
TW: It was very hot over there obviously and to play against Pele and Brazil was hard! But it was great playing against those players and playing with Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton. They were great players too and I remember that they welcomed me into the team. Bobby Moore was a great captain and a great fellow. He used to tell us some great stories about his days at West Ham – but none that I could repeat here and now!
JR: I think arguably that England team was better than the side that won it in 66. We had new players coming into it like Tom and Francis Lee alongside the mainstay from the 66 side. The 70 team certainly played some great stuff.
EVERTON: Talking of 1966, it must have been unbelievable for you Tommy, as a lifelong Blue, to play for Everton and win the FA Cup final at Wembley.
TW: It was just a dream. To see all the fans as we carried the Cup around Wembley was magnificent. And then when we got off the train, just around the corner from where I live now in south Liverpool, there were fans everywhere. Celebrations in the night? It was just lemonade for us! (laughs again!)
JR: You’ve got to enjoy the good times – the fans certainly do! That’s what it’s all about…getting down to Wembley or winning the league. I think you got to enjoy it more as you got older because you appreciate it more as it might be the last one.
EVERTON: Is the home dressing room how you remember it Tommy?
TW: Yes, it hasn’t changed much. I always loved the atmosphere in the dressing room. You always felt great when you walked in here to play for Everton. There’s nothing like it.
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