Nov 28 2023 50 mins 11
Our latest Official Everton Podcast looks back at the all-too-brief, but nonetheless spectacular, Everton career of Andy Gray. November 2023 represents 40 years since the Scottish centre-forward joined the Blues. Gray was plucked from Wolverhampton Wanderers by Howard Kendall and went on to have an unbelievable impact on a team that went from struggling to find its way to becoming arguably the best in Europe. Host Darren Griffiths speaks to Gray himself and is also joined by Dave Prentice and Gavin Buckland, with contributions from Gary Stevens and the former Liverpool Echo Sports Editor, Ken Rogers, who reveals that he discovered Gray’s recruitment from an eagle-eyed Evertonian who had spotted him in a shop on Goodison Road. We learn that Everton were linked with Gray in the mid-1970s when Billy Bingham was the Blues manager, and the youngster was playing alongside Walter Smith at Dundee United. Everton statistician and historian Buckland tells us that Kendall was weighing up moves for an England striker and an Everton legend when he brought Gray in from Wolves. We also hear about when Gray threatened to walk out on the Club when he wasn’t selected for an FA Cup tie and the man himself declares that if he could play one game again it would undoubtedly be the match against Bayern Munich at Goodison Park. We discuss whether Kendall would have kept Gray had we been allowed to take part in the 1985/86 European Cup and it’s suggested that had he done so, then maybe Liverpool wouldn’t have won the double that season. Gray speaks passionately about his time at Everton and agrees with the notion that the success of the mid-80s was probably an antidote for a challenging period in the history of the city of Liverpool. Everton never lost when Gray scored and that sums up his infectious desire to win football matches for the Blues. “My best memory was signing and my worst memory was leaving,” he says.
