เอ็ดการ์ด ดาวิดส์ กับความเท่สมัยมาเล่นให้ทีมลีกทูในอังกฤษ

สิ่งแรกที่ผู้คนมักจะนึกถึง โซคราเตส บราซิเลโร่ ซัมปาโญ่ เด ซูซ่า วิเอร่า เด โอลิเวียร์ร่า คืออะไร? … แน่นอนล่ะมันต้องเป็นผ้าโพกหัวสีขาวของเขาในศึกฟุตบอลโลก 1986 ที่มาพร้อมกับหนวดเคราแน่นเฟิ้มที่ทำให้เขาดูคูลสุดๆเหมาะสมกับลิสต์นักเตะที่เรากำลังพูดถึงอยู่นี้ นอกจากนี้เขายังเป็นยอดนักคิดตามชื่อของเขาที่มาชื่อนักปรัชญาของอณาจักรกรีก

 

เขาเรียนจบแพทย์ และได้รับฉายาสั้นๆว่า “ด็อคเตอร์” นอกจากนี้ยังเป็นสิงห์อมควันและนักดื่มตัวยง เขารณรงค์เพื่อประชาธิปไตยและต่อต้านผเด็จการของ ฟรีเดล คาสโตร และ มูฮัมหมัด กัดดาฟี่ เขาใส่ใจอย่างยิ่งในการเป็นสามีและพ่อที่ดี แต่ก็ยังไม่ลืมที่จะสารภาพว่าเขาเองก็เป็นผู้ชายเจ้าชู้ เขาดูเหมือนเป็นคนที่รู้อยู่เสมอว่าในใจของเขานั้นคิดอะไรอยู่ 

 

ในฐานะนักฟุตบอลโซคราเคสเป็นนักเตะที่มีมีความเจ๋งอัดเเน่นอยู่ในตัว เขาเล่นกองกลางให้กับ โบตาโฟโก้ และ โครินเธี่ยนส์ การเตะได้บอลได้ทั้งสองเท้าและเป็นเพลย์เมคเกอร์ผู้สร้างสรรค์เกมและยิงประตูได้ถล่มทะลาย นอกจากนี้ยังเปี่ยมไปด้วยเทคนิคที่ยอดเยี่ยมไม่ว่าจะเป็นการตอกส้นโดยไม่ต้องมองบอลและการยิงจุดโทษแบบไม่ถอยตั้งหลักแม้แต่ก้าวเดียว 

 

นอกจากนี้เขายังมีแนวคิดที่แปลกแตกต่างจากนักฟุตบอลทั่วไป และนั่นทำให้เขาดูเท่เเบสุดๆ การเขียนคอลัมน์ “ความสวยงามต้องมาก่อน” ซึ่งจากบทความนี้ทำให้เขาเป็นนักเขียนที่โด่งดัง และยังมีวลีติดปกว่า “ชัยชนะเป็นเรื่องรองลงมาสิ่งสำคัญอันดับแรกคือความสุขที่ได้ลงเล่น”

 

นอกจากเรื่องของฟุตบอลเเล้วเขายังเป็นนักเขียนเกี่ยวกับการเมืองและเศรษฐกิจอีกด้วย และเมื่อปี 2011 ซึ่งเป็นปีที่เขาเสียชีวิตก่อนวัยอันควรนั้น เขาก็เป็นหนึ่งในผู้เขียนเรื่องราวเกี่ยวกับการแข่งขันฟุตบอลโลก โดยมีการพูดถึงปริญญาทางการเเพทย์ของเขา,สิ่งที่ได้รับมาตลอดการค้าแข้ง และการทำหน้าที่ในฐานะคุณหมอหลังจากแขวนสตั๊ด

 

มันสมควรแล้วที่เขาอธิบายถึงตัวเองว่า “มันคือความเพอร์เฟ็คต์ที่สุดตลอดชีวิตที่ผมมีอยู่” … การโด่งดังในฐานะนักเตะ การสู้เพื่อประชาชน และต่อต้านเผด็จการทหารที่ปกครองบราซิล เขาเป็นผู้นำในการใส่เสื้อที่สกรีนว่า ‘Democracia’

 

“หากประชาชนไม่มีพลังเพียงพอที่จะพูดถึงสิ่งที่พวกเขาต้องการสื่อสารออดไปได้ ผมจะพูดออกมาเองในฐานะตัวแทนของพวกเขา เหมือนที่ตลอดชีวิตค้าแข้งของผมผมก็ใช้ขาสองข้างส่งเสียงแทนมาตลอด” คุณหมอโซคราเตสกล่าว 

 

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When David Moyes was in charge of Everton first time round, the Merseyside derby had an extra special edge.

In the blue corner back then were Tony Hibbert, Leighton Baines, Ross Barkley, Jack Rodwell and Victor Anichebe. In the red one, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Martin Kelly, Jon Flanagan and Jay Spearing.

No quarter was given when the teams collided at Anfield or Goodison Park, though these players did have at least one thing in common: all were local boys and grew up with a sharpened sense of what playing in a Merseyside derby meant for the area and its people. Their presence lent this fixture, which already ranks as English football’s most frequently played top-flight derby, an added layer of spice.

Yet over the years, the local presence in it has dwindled and the 245th edition at Goodison tonight could see representation sink to a modern low.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Liverpool right-back whose presence has remained a regular in this fixture, is carrying an injury and could miss his first Premier League outing against Everton in 13 games.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones are Liverpool’s local lads (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Curtis Jones is up against Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai for a place in the Liverpool team, and with Tyler Morton sidelined and Jayden Danns not available following his recent loan move to Sunderland, it is likely to fall on Everton to prop up the area with a homegrown starter.

James Garner, born in nearby Birkenhead, is the most obvious candidate to be that starter because their other great prospect, Liverpool-born Harrison Armstrong, 18, has joined Derby County on loan after making just three substitute appearances in the Premier League this season.

It continues what has been, in general, a downward trend in locally-born talent in this fixture and a far cry from the days of the late 1990s and early 2010s when almost half the players on the field spoke with Scouse accents.

The graph below is a breakdown of Premier League games between Liverpool and Everton since 1992 and how many locally-born players have featured in those respective matchday squads.

For the purposes of this exercise, The Athletic has defined ‘local’ as being born in the Merseyside metropolitan county, an area that covers the city of Liverpool, stretches west over the river to The Wirral peninsula, north to Southport and east to St Helens. Cheshire natives, such as Michael Owen and Jarell Quansah, were not included.

 

The trends are clear: the mid-nineties was a peak period for local talent. Everton had Gary Ablett, John Ebbrell, Dave Watson, Tony Grant, Michael Branch and Michael Ball playing for their first team, while Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Jason McAteer and backup goalkeeper Tony Warner represented Liverpool.

Francis Jeffers and Wayne Rooney soon followed, both debuting for Everton as 16-year-olds, albeit five years apart: the Croxteth-born strikers had attended the same school and went on to make their England debuts in the same game.

Others came and went, and in every game since there has been at least one player with local links representing either Liverpool or Everton. Only once, in April 2016, did one of the teams, Liverpool, fail to include a single local-born player in their matchday squad.

Over the past six years, though, the numbers have started to drop.

Only five locals — Alexander-Arnold, Jones, Garner, Tom Davies and Anthony Gordon — have turned out for either club, in what is a growing sign of the difficulty to break through at the elite level.

In private conversations with The Athletic, multiple people working within player recruitment in the north-west of England, where Liverpool lies, have said that neighbouring regions such as Greater Manchester and Yorkshire offer a greater diversity of young players in comparison with Merseyside, due to those areas having higher populations and more people relocating to them.

The talent pool available to Premier League clubs is also so vast now that the focus is on nurturing the best players regardless of where they hail from rather than those on your doorstep.

Of the local representatives with potential at Liverpool, Morton is the most advanced having spent two seasons on loan in the Championship with Hull City and Blackburn Rovers, where he clocked up 79 appearances, although he’s only made two Premier League appearances for Liverpool and is their sixth-choice midfielder.

Morton is a local-born player but a long way off Liverpool’s first team (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Liverpool have a strong, thriving academy, with several graduates having featured for the first team this season and many more tipped for a bright future, but most of these players are from outside the area.

James McConnell, 20, was signed from Sunderland. Trey Nyoni, 17, came from Leicester City and Amara Nallo, 18, arrived from West Ham United. Others such as Trent Kone-Doherty, 18, was spotted playing for Derry City in Northern Ireland while Rio Ngumoha, the 16-year-old who is perhaps the most exciting of all, moved from Chelsea in a high-profile switch in September — a transfer that has excited as many in Liverpool’s Kirkby base as it dismayed those at his previous club, who were crestfallen at losing him.

Players such as Ben Doak, Calvin Ramsay, Owen Beck, Stefan Bajcetic, Calum Scanlon and Luca Stephenson, who have all moved away on loan this season, were also signed from elsewhere to strengthen the academy in earlier years.

Everton have embarked on an academy recruitment spree of their own over the past 12 months, intending to replenish the stocks below the first team.

Netherlands youth international striker Martin Sherif and versatile midfielder Isaac Heath were both unused substitutes in the FA Cup defeat to Bournemouth at the weekend as injuries continue to hit Moyes’ first-team squad.

Heath, 20, was one of two players recruited from Leeds United in 2018 — the other being Stanley Mills, son of former England international Danny, who joined Oxford United on a permanent deal in January — as Everton sought to capitalise on the Elland Road club’s financial problems at the time.

Isaac Heath joined Everton from Leeds (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
Forward Omari Benjamin, a Wales Under-19 international, came in on a free last summer when his Arsenal deal expired and Everton also picked up William Tamen from Burton Albion, Gambian midfielder Francis Gomez from Nigerian side Sporting Supreme, Braiden Graham, from Linfield in Northern Ireland, and Justin Clarke from AFC Wimbledon,

Those additions have helped strengthen a group already containing talented England youth international goalkeepers Doug Lukjanciks, who hails from nearby Southport, and George Pickford (no relation to Jordan), who was recruited from Blackburn.

James Vaughan, the former Everton striker who is now head of academy recruitment and player pathways at the club, told Inews in November that “the local network now is getting really, really strong”, but there is a feeling Everton will have to continue to make inroads in recruitment after years of underinvestment in their academy, brought about by the club’s perilous financial situation. That will likely involve scouting at local but also national and international levels.

Dissecting the Merseyside derby: A (polite) chat between our Everton and Liverpool experts

Every professional footballer from Merseyside has a story to share from their upbringing. Many of them include street football and playing with their mates.

Rooney, for example, first turned out for a kids’ team run by The Western Approaches, a pub where his father was a regular customer. Gerrard, who like Gordon years later played for Whiston Juniors, used to slide-tackle through the gravel on the Bluebell Estate in Huyton, on Liverpool’s eastern fringe.

Branch would do as many kick-ups as he could when he walked from his home in Aigburth to the nearby fish and chip shop, and Grant recalls a four-bus journey to training at Everton, with people in the community helping him if ever he got lost en route.

It is 10 years ago now that Jeffers talked about the environment he grew up in during an interview with UK newspaper The Independent and explained what he thought had since changed.

“When I was nine or 10, my mum had to come to search for me in the streets,” he said. “You see kids now, they come home from school, they are on the computers. I would be with whoever was out, whether they were my mates or not, if they had a football. It’s a bit different now. The world has changed.”

Jeffers wrestles with Sander Westerveld in a Merseyside derby in 1999 as Jamie Carragher looks on (Michael Steele /Allsport)
Football is still hugely popular and there are plenty of new initiatives to get today’s kids playing in a safe, friendly environment, but it’s not like it used to be. The parks and streets of Liverpool are no longer filled with children playing football, although that issue is not exclusive to that city.

Mark Horlick, the football development and engagement manager for the Liverpool Football Association, used to scout for the Anfield club and grew up playing in the same team as some members of Rooney’s family.

“As soon as I could walk, I had a football at my feet,” Horlick tells The Athletic. “I used to have the daily argument with my mum about going out to play after school as I was shovelling down my tea. Then I’d be out until the lamppost lights came on.

“Football is different for kids now, but it’s thriving in the city. Whereas before you might not join a team until nine or 10, kids now play on 3G pitches, in smaller teams — sometimes three-v-three, four-v-four or five-v-five — and it is ability-banded. The youth leagues are proactive but we need more facilities and investment. That will help the leagues grow.”

Pushy parents form another nationwide problem, as Stephen Warnock, who grew up in Ormskirk, within the catchment area laid out above, and progressed through the Liverpool ranks to their first team, explains. He now lives in Crosby, in the north of the city, and says he is regularly asked by parents for advice. He always gives the same answer.

“I encourage kids to play with their mates because if they’re good enough, they’ll make it,” he says. “I couldn’t join an academy until I was nine. Now, kids are playing that much football from the age of five, and with so much competition within an age group, they’re getting deflated because it’s such hard work.

“I think they’re burned out too early and they lose the element of fun too quickly.”

What is beyond dispute is the value supporters still place on having a local hero to cheer on, particularly in games against the neighbours.

Liverpool fans serenade Alexander-Arnold with a song that includes the line “the Scouser in our team” and there is undoubtedly extra love attached to those who were born in or near the city and move through the ranks to play senior football.

Yet the search for the next standout Scouser goes on.

Last year when the two clubs met, Garner, from Birkenhead — which is five miles (8km) away from Goodison, on the other side of the River Mersey — was the sole local to play for Everton. Only Alexander-Arnold, from West Derby, started, and the deafening silence surrounding his contract situation suggests he may not feature in these games past April’s reverse fixture at Anfield.

When they played each other at under-21s level in November, Liverpool had six local lads in their team but centre-back Jack Tierney was Everton’s sole representative from the area.

Staff at both clubs work hard to make sure playing in their academy is as enjoyable as it is educational. The success stories of so many players show that.

It just feels extra-special for the people of Merseyside when they come from within.

Additional reporting: Patrick Boyland