Evertonians might debate over which team from the Club’s history was the greatest in terms of talent but, in terms of achievement, the core of Howard Kendall’s side from the glory days of the mid-1980s stands alone. By the same token, Colin Harvey might be Everton’s greatest living player on sheer ability; Graeme Sharp our most successful.

When the time comes next year, Kendall’s heroes, who conquered most and might have conquered all had they been given the chance to take their 1985 or 1987 championship wins into the European Cup the following seasons, will be there to bid an emotional farewell to Goodison Park, the theatre that played host to and witnessed their brilliance during those halcyon days.

Sharp, however, looks likely to be a notable absentee from the reunion with no indication that he is willing to end an exile from the Grand Old Lady that began in January 2023 amid “Headlockgate” and protests from a broad section of the fanbase against Farhad Moshiri, Chairman Bill Kenwright and the Everton Board of Directors.

There is a yearning from many Blues for Sharp to be there with his team-mates and other former players at Goodison but it’s seemingly not shared by one of its greatest adopted sons. Indeed, the 64-year-old’s experience as an object of protest has embittered him to the club where he made his name and won two league titles, an FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup on the way to becoming Everton’s greatest post-War goalscorer.

Sharp (left) pictured with his team-mates celebrating Everton's European Cup Winners' Cup triumph in 1985

Sharp started his career at Dumbarton and played over 100 times for Oldham Athletic but he will forever be synonymous with Everton, where he scored 160 goals in 447 appearances in all competitions. Two decades ago, he was invited back to the Club by Bill Kenwright to become an official ambassador for the Blues and, eventually, he was appointed as a non-executive member of the Board, a role he fulfilled until his resignation the summer before last.

His departure coincided with that of chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale and finance director Grant Ingles as Moshiri dismantled his much-criticised Board in response to the clamour from an increasingly agitated, vocal and organised bloc of match-going supporters and the Monaco-based businessman prepared his exit from the club he has owned outright for the past six years.

Arguably the most divisive figure, Kenwright, remained in the boardroom until his passing in October last year and, truth be told, it was the Chairman, the CEO and the owner who were the chief focus of the protests. No Evertonian genuinely believed that Sharp, in particular, was anywhere near the biggest problem at Everton or even a decision-maker of any significance during those turbulent months of dissent against the hierarchy. He became implicated, however, by association as the frustration at Moshiri’s inaction and ineptitude intensified. The desire for sweeping, wholesale change at the top meant that no one in the boardroom was spared when the protest banners were being drawn up.

Sharp, it seems, has very much taken it personally, not only in terms of his own feelings but on behalf of his fellow Board members as well. In that sense, the Scot has always very much come across as a “company man”, unfailingly loyal to Kenwright and sharing in both the late chairman’s unwillingness to acknowledge failings by the hierarchy and his lack of a true understanding of the fans’ perspective or their methods. Sharp, influenced no doubt, by an atmosphere in the administration of closed ranks and circled wagons that followed the Destination Kirkby calamity and Everton’s anguished austerity between 2010 and 2012, is reputed to have mocked the Blue Union protestors when they were making their voices heard.

He has faced accusations in the years since of doing dissenting Everton fans down on the radio and he was similarly dismissive and hostile to the movement of recent seasons that railed against Moshiri and Kenwright, accused of furthering false narratives about the nature of the protests. For many supporters, it was yet more evidence that he had chosen sides when silence or even his resignation in solidarity when it was felt fans were being thrown under the proverbial bus by the Board would have been the more welcome course of action — particularly if his role in the boardroom was more symbolic than tangible.

His continued exile from the Club, despite invitations from Sean Dyche to visit Finch Farm, appears to be based on an ongoing fear of reprisals and a growing ambivalence towards the Club. When the decision was taken by the Board not to attend home games starting in January last year, he was quoted as saying: "I don't want to miss games, Everton is in my blood. Of course, fans can have their say and I can understand the frustrations, but some of the protests have gone over the top.”

And in an interview with Alan Pattullo in The Scotsman last week, Sharp admits that he’s “not comfortable” being in Liverpool these days. “I just think the way things happened … it’s a difficult one. To be treated the way we were, was awful. I just think the stick that I got was totally undeserved, and I thought, nah, I don’t need it.”

Only those close to the situation will know the true nature, scope or veracity of the “credible threats” to the safety of key personnel that prompted the controversial briefing prior to the home game against Southampton on 14 January 2023, where the media were informed that the Board had been advised to stay away from home games for the foreseeable future. It’s notable that no police action resulted from either the apparent threats while Barrett-Baxendale was fine with using the alleged headlock incident as a pretext for staying away from Goodison out of fear yet had elected not to involve the authorities. It was all the more galling, too, when Board members showed up at West Ham’s London Stadium just a week later and then at Anfield — of all places — three weeks after that.

Given all the opacity around the hints and allegations, the fact that Kenwright has since passed on and Moshiri will soon exit “stage left”, it would seem as though the imminent rubber-stamping of the Friedkin Group’s takeover at Everton by the Premier League and the growing likelihood that Sean Dyche will be able to keep the club in the top flight is going to provide the ideal opportunity to move on.

The mood will shift from one of simmering frustration to one of hope and unity as the Blues prepare for a new future under new owners at Bramley-Moore Dock while saying a heartfelt goodbye to our beloved home of 133 years. You would imagine that any lingering feelings of resentment will be left behind, that the vast majority of Evertonians would be happy to let bygones be just that, and that a bona fide playing legend like Graeme Sharp could take his place amongst his 1980s team-mates to join in the celebrations.

Indeed, following a recent event at The Bridewell pub in Liverpool, the former striker said: “People were saying to me they were behind me, and I appreciate that,” but, sadly, he appears to have all but closed the door on his participation in the planned gathering at Goodison at the end of this season: “I’ll never go back. I can never go back.

“I know people say it will be fine, but it’s scarred me a little bit. It’s a shame to say it. It’s not the same. The amount of people that’s spoken to me, saying it’s a minority, which I understand… it’s just stuck with me. I’ve lost a bit of the appetite. ‘You have to come to this game, you have to come to that game.’ I am not really bothered now. [I’ve] lost interest a bit. Whether that comes back, it remains to be seen. I doubt it.”

There will be those who will be as equally nonplussed about Graeme Sharp’s absence from the farewell-to-Goodison events next year; others will be wondering just how much Everton could have been in Sharp’s blood if the almost inevitable criticism of a failing Board was enough to turn him off a Club to which he contributed so much as both a player and ambassador; still more will be genuinely disappointed not to see him join his famous and revered team-mates to say goodbye to the Old Lady.

This writer straddles those last two categories — the reuniting of the '80s glory team won’t feel complete with its No 9 as the one glaring absence but he also seems to have walked away too easily. It’s all very sad; a regrettable by-product of an emotional time when the strength of the bonds that bind the Everton family was tested. As ever, the spirit of the Blues lives on and you’re left to lament that, surely if Royston Drenthe — of all people — might be there at Goodison next year, Graeme Sharp should be, too… but that’s up to him.


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