Everton legend Joe Royle revealed one of his most emotional Goodison Park moments unfolded when he was actually playing for another club.
Royle scored more than 100 goals for the Blues then went on to lead them to FA Cup glory as a manager. But he recalled his goal against Everton for Norwich City - what proved to be the last strike of his career - as an event that touched him deeply.
He said: “I received a round of applause from the entire stadium. I’m not a big softie, not an emotional person. But I felt very emotional that day.”
The goal came just days after he had turned 32 and as the curtain came down on a glittering playing career. His formidable goal-scoring record for Everton had opened as a teenager, his first two goals coming in a 3-1 victory over Chelsea in April 1967. Royle would go on to score a further 117 for Everton - including 23 in the title-winning 1969/70 campaign.
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Two slipped discs, discovered in 1972, forced him to change his style of play. In an interview for Everton's matchday programme, he said: “How that happened, I still don’t know. I was told surgery was my only hope of playing again. They operated the next day and, wonder of all wonders, I was up and walking. But I probably did too much. Things progressively worsened and I was briefly paralysed from the waist down. I lost one-and-a-half stone and had to start again. If I am honest, I was never the same energetic, long-striding centre-forward.”
He added: "Three weeks before going into hospital, I scored for England against Yugoslavia and was being called one of the best young strikers around. All of a sudden, I was fighting for a club career, never mind an international career. My later days at Everton weren’t memorable. I wouldn’t say I was stealing a living, I always gave everything I could. But I wasn’t the goal-scorer or leader I had been."
Royle joined Manchester City in 1974, believing then Everton manager Billy Bingham "didn't fancy" him. It led to mixed emotions when he scored in a 3-0 win against the Blues: “Half of me was tugging me towards the dugout to celebrate, but the sensible half said ‘leave it’."
He added: "My Everton career should have been longer. I can’t blame Billy Bingham for selling me, but I can disagree with him over the way it happened."
Royle won the League Cup with Manchester City before joining Bristol City and then Norwich, where a knee injury led to the end of his career shortly after that Goodison Park goal. The dad-of-three was back in football quickly though - appointed manager at Oldham Athletic at the age of 33. He continued: “The chairman said: ‘We’d like to offer you a one-year contract for £15,000, we’re not car salesmen, you’ll need your own car, we’re not estate agents, you’ll have to find your own house, and, by the way, we’re skint, you’ll have to sell somebody, quickly’."
Over the next 12 years he led Oldham to promotion to the First Division - where they stayed for three years, meaning they were part of the first seasons of the Premier League. Royle, who grew up in Norris Green, thought “my chance had gone” when Everton appointed Mike Walker as boss in January 1994 but arrived to replace him in November of that year after 14 games resulted in just eight points at the start of the 1994/95 season.
Recalling Everton trailing 1-0 midway through a game at QPR in March 1995, he said: “I’d started with Brett Angell up front. I took him off and, unfortunately, had to say: ‘Listen, son, our fans aren’t going to have you – we will do what we can to help you on your way’. Daniel Amokachi came on, he wasn’t fit, but did what he does and chased around. He was low and chunky and hard to play against."
Everton won that game 3-2, went on to finish 15th and, of course, lift the FA Cup. Royle said: “We perfected winning games without playing at our best.” Royle described the side that finished sixth the following season as “the best I managed” and highlighted Andrei Kanchelskis as the most skilful player he oversaw. He was alerted to Kanchelskis’ availability when the Russian’s translator, George Scanlan, called to alert Royle the player was set to join Middlesbrough. He said: “I was on holiday and left my wife and kids to meet Andrei at his house in Cheshire and, fortunately, we got him."
Offering his version of his departure on transfer deadline day in March 1997, amid a battle over whether to move for the striker Tore Andre Flo, he explained: “I wanted to sign Flo. Peter Johnson didn’t want to spend the money. We ended up parting by mutual consent. Or resignation. Take your pick. I felt completely empty. It was like a divorce and took a long time to get over.
“There would have been good profit in the player, by the way. I went to see Peter and all I wanted was to get matters straight, I felt things were strained. He thought I’d gone over to resign, which I hadn’t. But we ended up parting by mutual consent. Or resignation. Take your pick. I felt completely empty. It was like a divorce and took a long time to get over.”
Royle later led Manchester City to successive promotions and managed Ipswich. In 2014 he returned to Everton for a three year stint within the youth setup. Explaining what he believed underpinned his success as a manager, he said: "I think I had a way with people. I learned from one manager who had great problems telling the truth that you might have to tell a player something he doesn’t like, but don’t lie to a footballer. When they are all together, they talk. When you get a reputation as a fibber…"
Reflecting on an extraordinary career, asked what the schoolboy Joe Royle, offered the choice between signing for Everton and Manchester United, would have said had he been told he would go on to become a Blues legend, he said: "Thank you."
