When Walter Smith became Everton manager 25 years ago today, you wonder if he could have envisaged what he was letting himself in for as over the next four years he’d have to deal with Duncan Ferguson being sold behind his back, Alex Nyarko refusing to carry on after an irate pitch invader tried to swap shirts with him and player of the season Nick Barmby defecting to arch rivals Liverpool.
It’s a good job that those who knew Smith described him as a level-headed man who carried himself with great dignity because he needed such traits to deal with the often wild shenanigans that often went on around him during his time on Merseyside. All that was to come though on July 1, 1998 when he first arrived in typically dramatic fashion after the previous occasion the club had survived on the final day of a Premier League season.
Everton’s managerial search the previous summer had descended into farce as chairman Peter Johnson declared: “I have been pleasantly surprised by the high level of interest from home and abroad. All I have heard, and all the soundings I have taken, suggest to me that this is THE job.”
