As Goodison Park fizzed, banged and crashed like a huge bubbling cauldron about to reach boiling point when the Everton and Newcastle United players took to the field, one senior member of the Merseyside pack who has been all over Europe with his work was heard to utter from the press box that when like this, the Blues’ fanbase are the closest thing to their counterparts at Napoli.
This must be taken as a huge compliment for loyal but long-suffering Evertonians. However, while both clubs endured their most-successful eras to date back in the 1980s, these two blue collar outfits from proud and fiercely-independent cities whose inhabitants often feel a breed apart from the rest of their respective countries are currently poles apart in terms of where their teams are currently at.
For all the pre-match passion from their supporters, Everton’s 4-1 home defeat to the Magpies leaves them with just one win from their last 10 matches and in desperate need for a major upturn in momentum if they’re to avoid their first relegation in 72 years while Napoli are on the brink of their first Serie A title since 1990 which marked the end of their glory days with Diego Maradona. Another significant difference of course is that Naples, like Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of European football’s biggest single team conurbations unlike Liverpool where an intense rivalry across Stanley Park has fuelled two giants for over 130 years and despite the Reds’ huge global appeal, many thousands of Scousers – for now at least – still choose to follow the city’s senior club.
