Howard Kendall, who has died aged 69, once likened his association with Everton Football Club to a marriage rather than a love affair. It was a marriage that lasted, albeit with separations, for more than 30 years, and brought him three league titles – one as a player, two as manager – as well as the sweet satisfaction, in 1985, of turning a club overshadowed by the presence of Liverpool into the outstanding English team of the mid-1980s.
That 1984-85 title-winning season, when they finished 13 points clear of their Merseyside rivals, culminated in Everton’s finest night, with a 3-1 victory over Rapid Vienna in the final of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. But that was also the year disfigured by the lethal skirmishes on the terraces of the Heysel stadium in Belgium before the start of Liverpool v Juventus in the European Cup final. In the aftermath, English clubs were banned from European football for five years, and in spite of a second league title in 1986-87 Kendall and his wonderful Everton side never did get their chance to dominate Europe.
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