A decade ago today, Denis Stracqualursi scored his only Premier League goal and while the Argentinian was never close to becoming one of Goodison Park’s greats, Everton could really players with his commitment to the cause right now.
New manager Frank Lampard started with a 4-1 victory at home to Brentford in the FA Cup – a biggest ever debut win for a Blues boss – but the honeymoon was soon over after the 3-1 loss to the Premier League’s second bottom club Newcastle United on Tuesday, a result that lifted the struggling Magpies to within a point of their visitors.
While Eddie Howe’s side showed they were up for the relegation dog fight, Lampard’s men wilted in the St James’ Park cauldron of noise.
We all know this Everton team can play. Their individual talents show they should be placed at least safely in mid-table if not challenging for Europe but Premier League matches are not played on paper.
It’s time for the under-achieving Blues to stand up and be counted as they face what Michael Keane this week admitted was “a huge game” at Goodison Park this weekend.
Leeds United are no shrinking violets, they never have been, but with just six points taken from the last 45 on offer (that equates to a paltry 15 over an entire season), it’s imperative that Everton make the most of home advantage here to stop the rot.
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Last season, the Yorkshiremen recorded their first league win at the ground for over three decades since the day of Neville Southall’s half-time sit-in on August 25, 1990, but that of course was in front of an empty stadium and this encounter will be played in very different conditions.
Despite Southall’s frustrations that summer when he’d submitted at least three transfer requests, the legendary goalkeeper would remain at Everton for over seven more years and go on to make a club record 751 appearances as well as becoming the Blues’ most-decorated player.
If anyone knew what the Goodison Park crowd demanded from their idols on the pitch it was the Welshman and writing in his autobiography The Binman Chronicles, Southall proclaimed: “At Everton they want you to play your b******* off every game. They don’t care if you’ve had a row with your missus, or you don’t feel that well, or if you’re not quite fit. They don’t care about any of that. You’ve got to be perfect, and if you’re not they don’t like you.”
Striker Stracqualursi was far from perfect – the goal against Chelsea was his only strike in 21 Premier League matches (he netted two others in the FA Cup against Fulham and Blackpool) – but he certainly fulfilled the first element of Big Nev’s requirements of those in a royal blue jersey.
Back in the summer of 2011, transfer funds were tight at Everton.
Manager David Moyes had not spent a penny all summer but on deadline day – as Mikel Arteta moved to Arsenal for £10million while Ayegbeni Yakubu and Jermaine Beckford went to Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City for £1.5million apiece, the Scot squeezed a couple of loan signing through the door.
Although just six months apart in age, in terms of talent and temperament the pair were like chalk and cheese.
Dutch international winger Royston Drenthe had moved from Feyenoord to Real Madrid in a big money €14million move in 2007 but the Spanish giants were now willing to let the Blues take on the final year of his contract.
Burly centre-forward Stracqualursi had netted 21 times for Tigre in Argentina’s Primera Division the previous season but remained a virtual unknown outside his homeland.
While Drenthe looked devastating at times down the flanks, he was ultimately inconsistent and his time on Merseyside was blighted by disciplinary issues.
Constant clashes over his timekeeping finally came to a head when he turned up late for a team meeting before Everton’s Wembley showdown with Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final – and Drenthe wishes he’d handled the situation better.
Reflecting on it all, he told FourFourTwo magazine in 2019: “I was waiting outside the room whereas I probably should have just walked in quietly and taken a seat.
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“When I went in afterwards, Moyes told me to f*** off. I should have accepted it, but I said, ‘What do you mean, f*** off, bro? You f*** off.’
“And then I left for Holland and didn’t come back. If I’d adapted more to Moyes I think I’d have reaped the benefits, as initially I did play a lot under him.”
In contrast, Stracqualursi was a model pro, who realised his technical limitations as a player and just wanted to use this great opportunity as a chance to learn.
Speaking to the Independent in 2017, he said: “I arrived there during the international break and lots of players were away. David Moyes had given the other players four or five days off and the first day I got to the club there was nobody there.
“The Under-23s were training, they were out there running and in the middle was Phil Neville. A player with a career like his and they’ve given him time off and he’s out there training.
“I told myself, ‘if that player – from Manchester United and the national team, with everything he has done – is out there training then I have to give five times more if I want to be at a club like Everton.’
“It really struck me the hard work these players put in – players with big names, who’d been to World Cups.
“I didn’t know anybody when I arrived yet whenever I said to Tim Howard, ‘Can I do some finishing practice?’ he never told me no.
“That humility and the work ethic is not something you see everywhere.”
Despite coming into the Premier League at the same time as his fellow countryman Sergio Aguero, it quickly became apparent that the Everton man would not be able to replicate his prolific form from back home to England.
Goodison loves a trier though and the golden moment finally arrived for ‘Stracq’ on February 11, 2012.
Steven Pienaar, one of the Blues’ most-successful overseas imports under Moyes, and making his second home debut having returned on loan after a year at Tottenham Hotspur, fired the hosts ahead against Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea just five minutes into the contest, smashing into the roof of the net from close range.
Everton survived visiting captain Lampard spurning a good opportunity to equalise when the midfielder dragged a low, left-foot effort wide across Howard’s goal in front of the Gwladys Street, but Stracqualursi went on to seal the win in front of the famous old terrace with 19 minutes remaining.
The move started with a thunderous tackle from Neville on Ashley Cole – who last week quit his position with Chelsea’s youngsters to be appointed a first-team coach under Lampard at Everton – before Landon Donovan picked out Stracqualursi on the edge of the area.
The South American hit a low shot first time at Petr Cech who got a hand to the effort but couldn’t keep it out.
Goodison erupted and the sheer elation on the faces of the fans, Moyes and the scorer himself and his jubilant team-mates was there for all to see.
His style of play might not have been the most picturesque but when esteemed Everton author Simon Hart travelled to Buenos Aires to catch up with Stracqualursi for the piece in the Independent cited earlier, the Blues cult hero found some beautiful words to describe the moment.
He said: “All my family at home in Argentina were watching and when I scored the goal it felt like touching heaven with my hand.
“It was a day that even now I can’t keep out of my mind. If you go to my parents’ house there’s a big photo of the goal on the wall there.
“There aren’t many Argentinians who go to the Premier League and even fewer who go from a team in Argentina straight to England.
“There’s usually a stepping stone in Italy or Spain which is easier for an Argentinian.
“So that moment, scoring a goal in that game, was news in all of Argentina.”
It won’t ever be forgotten on Merseyside either.
