Everton's recent spending has come under intense scrutiny as they were handed a 10-point deduction last Friday after being found to have breached the Premier League’s financial rules. But back in 1966 manager Harry Catterick admitted he would have been prepared to break the bank to sign World Cup Golden Boot winner Eusebio.
Eusebio was the top scorer on the only occasion that England have hosted the tournament, netting six of his nine goals in his two appearances at Goodison Park and Catterick revealed he would have been prepared to bring the prolific marksman back to Walton on a permanent basis. As covered in an ECHO article to mark Black History Month, before the arrival of fan favourite Daniel Amokachi in 1994, Everton entered the Premier League era with an all-white playing squad. But had the FA been more accommodating towards allowing its clubs to snap up overseas talent then Blues boss Catterick, who had a reputation for big deals in an era in which Everton were nicknamed ‘The Mersey Millionaires’ thanks to John Moores’ generous financial backing, was prepared to splash the cash to land global stars like Eusebio.
The striker – who was the first major football talent from sub-Saharan Africa to shine on the big stage having been born in the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique – netted 41 goals in 64 internationals and enjoyed a phenomenal scoring rate at club level with Benfica, plundering 473 goals in 440 matches for the Lisbon giants, with whom he won 11 domestic titles and the 1962 European Cup. Eusebio never forgot his exploits at Goodison Park though and when returning to Everton's home for a Europa League match in November 2009, he said: “Sorry, I don’t speak good English. But today for me, for my family, it’s a good day, for Benfica to play here. This stadium for me is the best stadium in my playing life.”
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Unlike the current situation, with Sean Dyche's side having been plunged to joint bottom of the table following the harshest sporting penalty in 135 years of English top-flight football, writing in The People newspaper at a time when the British transfer record fee was the £115,000 that Manchester United paid Torino for Denis Law four years earlier, Catterick declared he’d be prepared to almost double that figure to entice the best talent to Goodison. The Everton manager said: “So how long before the day of the £200,000 player? In my opinion, not long at all (It wouldn’t be until March 1970 that Tottenham Hotspur paid such a fee to West Ham United for Martin Peters).
“In fact, if the Football Association weren’t so isolationist, it could be tomorrow. Let me tell you this, if Eusebio of Portugal came on the market and it were possible for an English club to sign him then Everton could be interested – even if it cost £200,000.
“And I’d be ready to advise my directors that a £200,000 fee wouldn’t be wasted on any of these three Hungarian World Cup forwards – Florian Albert, Ferenc Bene or Janos Farkas. Everton WANT to see foreign stars in Football League teams.
“They would improve our own players, please the fans and help us build up great international clubs sides like Real Madrid and Inter Milan. Only the FA stand in our way but if they ever change their minds, Everton will be among the first buyers in Europe.”
The Darlington-born gaffer had a reputation for cloak and dagger tactics when working on deals and liked to throw people off the scent. He once gave an ‘exclusive’ story to a journalist claiming that Everton had missed out to neighbours Liverpool on signing Preston North End’s Howard Kendall only for the article to be published and the future Goodison legend to join the Blues hours later. The column, which was the first in a month-long weekly series from Catterick, also referenced that he was known in the game as “the chequebook manager” having overseen a transfer turnover of over half a million pounds.
He said: “The transfer chase has taken me all over Britain. I’ve dug my car out of snowdrifts, fixed up a deal at a midnight cabaret, hurried after one player while still in a dinner suit and hidden myself on the terraces of grounds throughout the League.
“The truth is I don’t like being spotted when I’m scouting for the word gets around that Harry Catterick is here. ‘Everton must be buying’.
“It embarrasses the home manager, alerts other clubs and, worst of all, might push up the price. I don’t like that, Everton can afford to pay but we’ve no intention of chucking it away.
“Besides, I was brought up in a hard school, scrounging free transfer players for Crewe and Rochdale. I can tell you I sweated more blood offering £200 which Rochdale haven’t got to Bradford for a little winger called Jimmy Anders than I ever did paying Blackpool £110,000 for Alan Ball.”
