The Saturday Interview: Paul Agnew meets Everton manager Howard Kendall

SOCCER bosses need balls...foot ones and crystal ones!

Had Howard Kendall possessed clairvoyant qualities he might well have watched this afternoon's Ewood Park action from the "home" dug-out.

Sixteen years ago Kendall upped sticks and moved to take charge of Everton, to bigger and better things, to a club capable of winning major competitions, to play in Europe.

As he waved a farewell to Ewood he couldn't have envisaged for a moment that Blackburn Rovers were also to lift the biggest trophy in the English game.

He wouldn't have guessed either that in the Autumn of 1997 he would return to the same venue (well same site anyway) with his Everton side several places lower down the Premiership table; Rovers among the title chasers, the Toffees at the sticky end.

"Strange how things work out, isn't it?" admitted Kendall. "But in football, as in life you can only make your decisions on the facts available at the time.

"What's happened at Blackburn Rovers has been nothing short of fantastic and I am very very pleased for them. The place has changed, but many of the faces haven't. "It will always be special to me. That's true I suppose of anywhere you have success or happy times. It was the club where I cut my teeth in management and I still get a funny feeling when recalling just how close we were to getting to the top flight."

Goal difference, that's how close.

Thousands of Rovers fans made the trek to Eastville against Bristol Rovers in the West Country on the final day of the 1980-81 season. Rovers needed to win to have a chance of going up. If they did and Swansea, playing at Preston, didn't then Kendall was set for a Freedom of the Blackburn Borough after successive promotions.

A goal from Kevin Stonehouse saw to it that Rovers did their bit, but Kendall's first club couldn't do the necessary for their old boy over at Deepdale and it all ended in bitter disappointment.

"We had a radio under the dug out and there were all sorts of cheers, jeers and wild rumours sweeping the ground that afternoon. One particular cheer went up and we thought that Swansea had lost, but I remember looking across at Mick Heaton on the bench and he just shook his head. It was a real gutter."

Jimmy Armfield, working for Rovers as an advisor, was the man behind Kendall coming to Blackburn: "I was player-coach at Stoke and we had just won promotion to the old First Division. Jimmy approached me about Blackburn and it was felt that perhaps I would find the playing side a little difficult going back to the highest level. I disagreed of course.

"But the prospect of breaking into management did appeal even though it effectively meant me dropping two levels because Rovers had just been relegated to Division Three. "It was difficult at first on several counts. The retained list had been done and there was no money available for transfers. We hadn't training facilities either - most mornings it wasn't a case of what we were going to do in training, more where were we going to do it.

"But perhaps the biggest difficulty came in getting the players used to having the manager running round with them on the park on match days. I felt I had a lot to offer as a player, but when things went wrong a few of them used to stare across at me with that "well, you're the manager, sort it" look on their faces.

"Eventually though we all got to understand the needs and requirements and it was a wonderful success story. We went up straight off and couldn't have gone any closer the following year.

"I turned down the chance to go to Crystal Palace, but when Everton came along it was a hell of a pull. I had spent so much time at Goodison Park as a player and it was something I just had to do." Kendall is now an Everton legend - no-one has achieved more for the blue half of Merseyside.

Today he's under pressure. Such is the crazy world of professional football. When we spoke just 48 hours before his Ewood return, Howard admitted to "being busy" but had no problem sparing time for a chat. He remains the articulate and personable guy who used to hold his press conferences in the back upstairs room of a terraced house on Nuttall Street.

At just after five o'clock today he would repeat the exercise in a state-of-the-art Media Theatre.

"Luckily I came to a reserve team game the other week so I managed to get a feel for the lay-out of Ewood, otherwise I might have run the risk of going through a few wrong doors.

"It's a wonderful stadium and everything that has gone on at Blackburn is a credit to all who have been involved in the development."

So had he been aware of the existence of a certain Mr Walker would Howard's way have changed?

"Oh I knew of Mr Walker in my time, but I think he was just a member of the old 100 Club in those days...

"Although we got close to the top no-one could have forecast what heights Rovers would go on to achieve. That's it though, you never know do you?

Howard Kendall isn't one for regrets or for looking ahead too far. A wise man.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.