The Mersey Millionaires

'The Mersey Millionaires'

In the days before the Premier League existed, before owners from Russia, the USA and the UAE took an interest in 'soccer', one man was accused of 'buying' the league title with his accumulated wealth from his business activities.
It began for John Moores when after a inauspicious beginning, eventually Littlewoods Pools took off, becoming one of the best-known names in Britain.
In January 1932, having bought out the partners of a failing betting idea, he was by now a millionaire and was able to disengage himself sufficiently from his Pools business to start up Littlewoods Mail Order Store. This was followed on 6 July 1937 by the opening of the first Littlewoods department store in Blackpool. By the time World War II started, there were 25 Littlewoods stores across the UK and over 50 by 1952.

In 1960, John Moores gave up his chairmanship of the Pools business, and handed over the reins to his brother, Cecil Moores and became Chairman of Everton FC in June 1960 and set about ensuring that the Blues challenged for honours without delay. Their deadly rivals Liverpool were becalmed in the division below them having been relegated the same season that Everton were promoted but
22 years had elapsed since Everton, one of the Football League’s most successful teams, had last laid their hands on a trophy.
Through the Moores' years, Everton experienced one of the greatest periods of success in their history, with League Championship trophies secured in 1963 and 1970, along with the famous FA Cup victory over Sheffield Wednesday in 1966.
During the 1960/61 season, John Moores ensured funds were provided for new manager Johnny Carey to mount a serious title challenge. He had inherited a poor team and took much credit for lifting them to fifth place by the spring of 1961 having signed the likes of Roy Vernon, Alex Parker, Billy Bingham, Alex Young and Jimmy Gabriel who went on to be stalwarts of the club. However it was not to be enough and travelling by taxi to the FA for a meeting on the Minimum Wage, Carey wanted clarification on his position after a poor run of results. John Moores clearly had run out of patience and sacked Carey there and then. Moores felt a tough disciplinarian was needed and, clearly, that was not "Gentleman John". The cries of " Taxi for ...." can still be heard at Goodison when it is felt someone is not up to the job.

Joe Mercer, former player and Aston Villa manager, was the likely replacement but 'disciplinarian' Harry Catterick was the surprise choice in the April of 1961.
Catterick was a 'Sergeant Major' style of manager, unlike 'Gentleman John', aloof from the players and strict when they stepped out of line. He soon began to motivate the team and made some astute signings. He paid Blackpool £27,500 for a 19-year-old Gordon West – a British record fee for a goalkeeper and paid Bolton Wanderers £35,000 for inside-forward Dennis Stevens – the cousin of Duncan Edwards- to replace Bobby Collins who he considered injury prone ( a decision he came to regret ). Finishing 4th in his first full season, 5 points behind the leaders, Catterick was aware of John Moores expectations from the programme notes stating clearly: “Nothing below top place will satisfy.”
He next decided to swoop for 22-year-old Johnny Morrisey, who was playing for Liverpool, and in that December he returned to Sheffield Wednesday to buy the brilliant left-half Tony Kay for a club record fee of £55,000, which he deemed his best ever signing. The persuasive Catterick convinced Alex Scott to change his mind from joining Spurs and he became an Everton player for a fee of £40,000.
When Fulham came to Goodison for the final game of the season on the 11th of May, the Blues needed a win to guarantee the title which they duly did winning 4-1 thanks to a hat-trick from captain Roy Vernon.  It was a season of records as Everton amassed 61 points – their biggest total at the time – and the average gate at Goodison Park exceeded 50,000, to this day a record.

 
Everton’s title win was treated with grudging respect by many commentators outside the city, who labelled Catterick’s side as the 'Cheque Book Champions', 'The Bank of England Team' and 'The Mersey Millionaires', with insinuations that they had used the financial resources of John Moores to buy the league. Everton spent in the region of £290,000 to assemble their side but other clubs – namely Manchester United and Tottenham – had spent £115,000 and £99,999 on Denis Law and Jimmy Greaves alone, failing to reinforce other areas of their teams.