The key dates everyone was looking for have now been announced, with the campaign kicking off with a usually tricky trip to Blackburn, followed by our first home game against Wolves and our first meeting with fellow European contenders Villa the week after.

September also throws up a couple of interesting ties as Man United make their trip up the Lancs to Goodison on September 11^th whilst recently promoted minnows get the honour of coming up to a big club as Newcastle come to Goodison the following week.

Once again the Goodison derby is first (and on my birthday, the f*****s will obviously change it to Sunday so I’ve got a hangover for the derby!) as Liverpool will be looking to get their first points of the season as they travel across Stanley Park to Goodison.

The much anticipated away trip to Blackpool is unfortunately going to be on a frosty 6^th November. The festive season will see a home game against Birmingham with New Years Day being a hungover trip to Stoke.

Everton will then travel to Anfield as Liverpool continue their fight for their first points of the season under King Kenny as the second Merseyside derby of the campaign is fought out on the 15^th January.

The season ends with a tricky run in, with an away trip to United (23^rd April) and a home game against City (7^th May) and a late finish to the season against Chelsea at home (22^nd) May all coming in our last 5 games alongside potentially tricky away games to Wigan and West Brom who may be fighting for points in a relegation battle come that end of the season.

Rumours have long circulated amongst the footballing world that old Adolf was indeed a closet blue.  Now, thanks to very definitely authentic photographic evidence obtained from our friends over the park, it can be confirmed that Adolf was indeed a Toffee.

In his younger days, believed to be around 1912, on a brief visit to Liverpool, Adolf could regularly be heard on the Street End with shouts of “Come on Everton these are s***!”

Adolf became renowned, not only for his passion for the blues, but also his hatred for Spurs (we think it’s because Churchill was apparently fond of them, we can’t think of any other reason).

If this poor attempt at an April Fools disappointed you, read our last one, it actually had jokes in it. http://followeverton.com/2009/04/01/exclusive-kenwright-era-in-his-own-words/

Q.  So why did the Everton Foundation get involved in women’s football
and how far back does this connection go between Everton and a ladies
team?

The Everton Foundation has had a women’s and girls development programme
now for over 10 years.  The Everton Ladies current team is not directly
linked to the Foundation but the W&G community work is.

Q.  How has the relationship been between Everton FC and Everton Ladies?

The relationship is better than it has ever been.  We get lots of
support from the club but there are always things to strive to improve.
I’m confident that the links between the club and the ladies will
continue to get better.

Q.  The Everton Ladies have seen some success in recent years with some
cup finals, narrowly missing out on the league and of course winning the
Premier league Cup final.  How does it feel to be playing for a side
competing for honours?

Of course this is the position every footballer wants to be in; annually
competing for honours. I think we’ve narrowed the gap between our
closest rivals, Arsenal and beat them in the FA league cup
semi final!  We will now play Leeds in the final which is due to be played in February.  We have a lot of
international players who are very ambitious and are always looking to
move the club forward to the next level.

Q.  Of course you unfortunately missed the Premier league Cup Final through injury, has
that given you an added incentive to push the team on to further
success?

Absolutely, that was a real day of mixed emotions for me.  I was
obviously delighted we’d won the cup but then a bit down that I hadn’t
been a part of it on the pitch.  I celebrated all the same!

Q.  What do you think the future holds for the Everton Ladies for both
the current team and the club in general?

There is an FA proposal for the Women’s Superleague to begin in 2011
which would be a summer league.  Clubs around the country are currently
bidding to be one of 10 teams competing in a national summer league.
Formal business plans are being submitted very soon which would be of a
huge benefit to Everton ladies and the club, should Everton be one of
the clubs in the new Superleague.  This would be the biggest step in
improving the standard and profile of both the ladies team at Everton
and women’s football in general.

Q.  I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but the record attendance for
women’s football was at Goodison in 1920 in front of a crowd of
approximately 53,000.  It is argued that this huge attendance, double
the average attendance of the men’s side at the time, lead to the FA
banning ladies football on Football League grounds.  So Everton and
Ladies football do have some history together, so how do you rate
Everton as a club to rebuild ladies football nearly 90 years later and
do you believe Ladies football will ever return to Goodison?

I don’t think the ladies team will ever play regularly at Goodison-it’s
not practical with the number of games played on it now with just the
men’s team, the grounds man has a hard enough job!

Q.  Of course the Everton Ladies is not just the senior side but goes
down to providing football for youths.  How do you feel this has helped
the Everton Ladies?

Many of the girls have come through the Everton centre of excellence
from U10 age groups and are now playing in the senior first team and the
reserves.  There are several girls in the centre of excellence who are
currently in the England youth teams which is obviously a benefit in
improving the standard of girls football in the area.  As well as the
centre of excellence there are many girls developmental and club
football teams across Merseyside and the Everton Foundation deliver lots
of girls only football sessions across Merseyside in schools.  This
provides many opportunities for girls of all age-groups and abilities to
get involved in football.

Q.  Do the Everton Ladies do anything beyond the footballing side of
things?

Most of us work or study full-time and unfortunately don’t have much
time to out in the community!  We all chip in when we can and attend
Everton soccer camps and promotional events.  Some of the girls coach at
the centre of excellence which provides good role models as most are
senior international players.  Fortunately I am employed by the Everton
Foundation and therefore am out in the community and in schools nearly
every day of the week.  It’s a great feeling to know I can be an
ambassador for women’s football in my role as a teacher in the
department.

Q.  You are of course the first choice keeper for not just Everton
Ladies but also England so you must have travelled to many countries
with the international team as well as Everton.  So how does England and
Everton’s ladies football set up compare to those in other countries?

The USA are unique in that all their female players have the opportunity
to play football full-time during their university careers as college
(university) sports are hugely marketed.  Girls can get full
scholarships to fund their whole university lives based on their
sporting ability.  I actually went through this system and was of great
benefit to my football and educational career.  League football in this
country is improving and the Super league will hopefully improve this
dramatically.  Several  of the most successful nations offer league
football as a semi-professional/professional game which obviously has
it’s benefits.  The USA currently has a professional league which again
has drawn some of the worlds best payers over there.

Q.  Do you believe English ladies football will have a star of the
profile of Mia Hamm in the future?

Mia Hamm is a multi-millionaire and was based on the success of the US
national team in the late 90’s and early 00’s.  Sponsorship money and
media coverage were huge based on their success winning world cups and
Olympic games time after time.  If we had that success then it will help
the game but I don’t think any female players would get that superstar
status.  You have to remember that the US doesn’t have the competition
of men’s football and is arguably bigger ad more marketable than men’s
soccer in the US.  England is moving in the right direction which is all
we can ask for at this moment in time.

Q.  What would like to see happen to the ladies football in England?  Do
you believe ladies football will become professional?

I would like the media to really push the popularity of women’s football
as a sport in it’s own right and not comparing/demeaning it to men’s
football.  The opportunity to become professional will obviously help
improve us as a national team and increase our chances of success, which
ultimately will improve our status as a sport.  Women’s cricket has
rightly had a lot of publicity recently due to their success and we
would love to be in the same situation.

Q.  And finally on a personal note, what has been the highlight of your
career so far?

Playing in the European Championships final v Germany in 2009 was the
highlight so far.  Even though we were outclassed and rightly beaten in
the final, it was wonderful to get to and experience a major
championships final.  Looking forward I would love to win a trophy with
Everton and looking further forward I would love to have the opportunity
to be a part of the GB Olympic squad.

Jah Jussa of the production company Tabacula has agreed to do an interview about the movie they’re making about the late great Dixie Dean.

So what inspired you to make a drama documentary about the late great Dixie Dean?

We were looking for a project to throw ourselves into.  We were searching for a big enough subject to produce a feature length drama documentary.  And we were really surprised that nothing had been done on the life and times of William Ralph Dean.  If he was an American there would be countless films and biographies about him – you only have to look at what there is about Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth – even Seabiscuit…

What exactly will this drama documentary comprise of?

The film will be a combination of interviews with football luminaries, historians, friends and family together with archive footage/photographs and reconstructions of key incidents in Bill Dean’s career

Of course we all know about his headline achievements, his 60 goals and the trophies he won, but have you found out anything surprising that fans may not have been aware of?

There are plenty of people who would like to belittle the record – because it’s pre-WW2, the skill levels were not as good, and most of all, Dean only scored headers, having seen a weakness in opposing defences. Well one fact about the 60 goals is that 20 were scored with his left foot, 20 with his right and only 20 were headed. He was 21 years old and less than two years earlier he’d been given the last rights after his motorbike accident in Holywell…

Have you enjoyed working on this production?

We all love football so being involved in the production has been a real pleasure.

Of course this was first talked about some time ago and seemed to go quite quiet, what are the problems you’ve encountered?

I think it’s fair to say that the project has been credit crunched.  At one point we had some big hitters virtually putting their hands in their pockets, and they subsequently had to retract their offers because of the recession.  And Tabacula, as a company, have been unable to concentrate solely on the film as we had hoped.  However, the interest is still there…

So when do you expect to start filming the movie then?

We’ll be back on the interviews at the end of January and looking to start the reconstructions in May.  The aim is to have the film out in time for Christmas 2010.

Are you still looking for people to invest in the movie?

We’re still looking for investment.

We have a board with considerable pedigree in this area, especially from Bill Kenwright who is of course a producer.  What sort of support has the club offered you in producing this movie?

The club have been great.  Mr Kenwright was one of the first investors and we’ve had plenty of co-operation over access to the ground.  The former players foundation has also been helpful in gaining access to players who, even if they didn’t play alongside Dean, knew him and will attest to his strength of character…

Have you worked much with the wider footballing community to help you in this project?

I think that it’s possible to celebrate the achievement of Dean no matter what club you support – there are not too many teams that can say that at any one moment in time, they had the best player in the world playing for them.  Maradona, Cruyf, Pele, Puskas, di Stefano, Zidane…these are all players about whom there would be no arguments if you said they were the best players of their era… and Everton, in Dean, had the best player of his era.  Between 1927 – 1933 he was the best.  No doubt.

When it is finished where do you think we’ll be able to watch it?

We going to start with a cinema release, which the film will warrant, but that will also bring big tax breaks for the production.  Then we’re looking at a possible broadcast followed by the dvd/blu ray release in the final quarter of 2010.

For more information go to http://tabacula.com/

Dixie Dean – Extended Trailer

Q) Firstly can I ask about the history of the Everton’s charitable work in the community. How long has there been an Everton charitable presence in the local community?

A) There has been an Everton in the Community / Foundation presence as such in the local communities it was started by Ted Sutton and progressed onto becoming Everton in the Community and then Everton Foundation.

Q) The Everton Foundation was until recently called Everton In The Community. What is the reason for this name change? Is it purely cosmetic or is there a wider reason for it?

A) There is a wider reason for the change it gives the charity more avenues in which to pursue funding from and also enables the foundation to include more projects.

Q) So what exactly does the Everton Foundation do?

A) The Everton Foundation provides both academic and sporting opportunities for the local and greater Merseyside communities because of its track record in performance it had know gone International and has offices in Anglesey, Shanghai and also soccer camps in Canada, Vietnam, Laos, Kenya, and Morocco.

Q) How much of a say does the club have in the running of the foundation, is it an independent charity acting in the club’s name or do the club take an active interest in the running of the foundation?

A) The club play an active interest in the Charity our CEO is a trustee and the club is our biggest funder.

Q) As a coach of the Everton Tigers, possibly the highest profile symbol of the foundation, could you explain why the foundation chose to partner up with the Tigers?

A) The Foundation choose to partner up with the Tigers to give it an even bigger profile in the hard to reach communities Basketball is a world wide sport that encompasses people from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds

Q) Would you say the Tigers have been a success and where would you like to see them progressing in the future?

A) They have been a success in the UK over the last three years I feel that we would like to progress in the next few years to playing a European competition.

Q) How can Everton fans go about watching the Tigers?

A) They can come to watch them at the Greenback Sports Academy, Sefton Park, Liverpool L17

Q) Of course there are other things the foundation does. I believe the Everton Foundation boasts the world’s largest disabled football programme, how important do you think this is to the foundation?

A) Very important we have a wealth of experience in working with people who have both physical and Learning disabilities it gives the foundation a really positive image in the communities that we work in

Q) I also believe Lee Carsley helped with the disabled programme. Do the players often make contributions, either financially or otherwise, to the foundation?

A) Yes the players do play a major part in the Foundation activities and make themselves available to support the foundations staff at various activities.

Q) Are there any other significant contributions the foundation makes to the community of Merseyside?

A) The foundation have a good reputation in the Merseyside Area as a model of good practice and pass on there expertise to other organisations to help with there own programmes

Q) There are many different sporting charities like the Football Foundation. How does the Everton Foundation work with these charities?

A) They work in Partnership with other sporting charities around the country a lot of them run the same type of community programmes i.e. Kickz, Positive Futures etc

Q) What would you say is the future of the Everton Foundation?

A) The future of the foundation is to build on its strengths and develop more projects that are deliverable to the local communities also to broaden and increase its image around the world

Q) How can fans get involved in the foundation?

A) We have a volunteer programme that runs within the Foundation enabling supporters to get involved supporting and learning about what the Foundation does.

For more information on the Everton Foundation visit http://www.evertonfoundation.org/

Our next interview to be put up on Wednesday 6th January will be with Jah Jussa of Tabacula, the company behind the Dixie Dean movie.

The Everton Foundation for example held a fundraising event with a Foundation team as part of the Liverpool Santa Dash, successfully raising thousands of pounds after each runner pledged a minimum of £25 towards the cause. The money has gone towards the Everton Foundation to help them “deliver a range of programmes to promote social inclusion, well-being and fitness amongst people of all ages on Merseyside.” They also teamed up with Formby Hall Golf Resort to offer some spa packages to help raise funds.

In addition to this the first team of course made a visit to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

Christine Done of Alder Hey:

“It’s fantastic that the players give up their time to make this annual Christmas trip to the hospital where the squad visited 5 wards. They also bring gifts for those children that they see and spend a bit of time signing autographs and posing for photos. It doesn’t matter if you support Everton, Liverpool or Manchester United as a lot of our patients do, a visit from a famous footballer, an international player for their country, always gives the children a huge boost. David Moyes also joins the visit, which is very much appreciated.

It’s difficult enough for a child to be in hospital, but at this time of year it’s even harder, so we are indebted to Everton Football Club for their wonderful support.”

In addition to this the club also visited Claire House Children’s Hospice to give out presents.

“Claire House is a 10 bedded hospice for children with life limiting, life threatening conditions from across Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales and the Isle of Man. Located in Bebington on the Wirral, it is a bright, vibrant place of hope. In addition to caring for our children and young adults we also focus on the needs of the whole family, providing bereavement, and other support, for as long as it is needed.”

Mark Rowan Everton Head Of Communications:

“As always we were humbled as we made our Christmas visits. It’s very important for Everton to do things like this. If we can help or brighten up the day of people less fortunate than ourselves than we will – that is very much the spirit of this football club.”

Feel Free To Donate And Get Involved:

Everton Foundation

Find out more about volunteering http://www.evertonfoundation.org/-52/volunteers

Find out how to donate https://www.evertonfoundation.org/donate?

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

To make a donation or to find out more about the work of Imagine please go to www.imagineappeal.com

Claire House Children’s Hospice

With no guaranteed government funding they need to raise in excess of £2.5 million each year to maintain the present levels of service.

Find out more about volunteering at http://www.claire-house.org.uk/?content=volunteering

Find out more about donating at http://www.claire-house.org.uk/?content=howToHelp-donationMethods

Max Dunbar the project manager of the Everton Collection agreed to answer some questions on this fantastic collection.

How did the club go about raising the funds required to buy the collection?

The Club did not want to purchase the Collection itself but wished to work with an experienced heritage partner. Therefore, Liverpool Record Office, the archive service for the City, based at Liverpool Central Library was approached in about 2006 to provide a safe and secure long-term home for the Collection. This would mean that relevant conservation and preservation standards would be met along with the benefit of being able to provide public access in the Record Office seven days per week and have qualified archivists and conservators to assist and advise on preservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and access.

The Everton Collection Charitable Trust was formed in 2005 as an independent charity to raise funds to acquire the Collection and to ensure its access and use for education. David Stoker, Manager of Liverpool Record Office, researched and compiled the successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund on behalf of the Trust with the Record Office as the heritage partner. The extensive documentation to support the application was submitted in March 2007 and a decision as part of the competitive and rigorous HLF process was made in September 2007 to award nearly £1 million – very close to the maximum amount possible. The overall project cost was £2.1 million which included acquiring the David France collection and carrying out the project to catalogue, digitise, exhibit, and make available the Collection, not least to schools and new audiences. Everton FC donated the Club’s own archive to the Trust, the value of which also counted as match funding, and Lord Grantchester made a significant contribution.

Of course it already was a huge collection, and then Everton combined their collection with it.  How difficult was it to catalogue this massive collection together?

Both collections were organised differently and located in different places. With much of the Club’s Collection at Goodison under the Park End Stand, the priority was to ensure these valuable items were re-located to Liverpool Record Office. It took over a year to finally integrate both collections together. With David’s collection largely paper-based and the Club’s collection including trophies, shirts, boots and other players’ memorabilia, I’m sure you’d agree the two collections complement each other perfectly!

Has the archiving of the collection unearthed many interesting facts about our club?

Every page of every minute book is now on our website for everyone to read – that’s 10,000 pages of original Everton history! A new perspective on the Anfield Split and the characters behind the split have been revealed through the minute books. There are also 1,000s more pages of match programmes, contracts, reports, letters, etc now freely available to read on our new website, so I’m sure plenty more facts will be unearthed in due course.

Has all the collection now been sorted and archived?

The vast majority of the Collection has now been sorted and archived at Liverpool Record Office. But we’re constantly acquiring new memorabilia, so this is just the beginning!

How much of the collection is available to view online at evertoncollection.org?

The entire Everton Collection is now fully searchable online. At the moment we do not have images of every item. There are currently 40,000 images of the Collection online and we will be adding more images in the future.

Is all the collection currently available to view for the public in its current exhibition?

All the treasures of The Everton Collection are on display in the free exhibition at Liverpool Central Library. However, due to limited space, the displayed material equates to just 1% of the Collection. To search everything you need to go on our website. If there is an item on the website that has no image, you can visit Liverpool Record Office and see the item in person.

Are there any events taking place involving the Everton collection?

Since we launched the Collection in September, we’ve had many events going on to coincide with the exhibition. Football historian and author, Peter Lupson, has given a number of history talks about the shared histories of Everton and Liverpool FC, including topics such as the Anfield Split and the joint match programmes. His last talk will be about Sir John Moores and will be held on Monday 21st December at 2pm in Central Library. We’ve also had Everton legends coming in to do talks and answer questions – including Duncan McKenzie, Derek Temple and on the 22nd December, Graeme Sharp (2pm).

During the school holidays there have also been family events, including hands-on tours of the exhibition and a special children’s trail around the displays – the same applies for the Christmas holidays coming up.

Is there any way fans can contribute and interact with the Everton collection?

We are always looking out for more items to add to the Collection. If we haven’t already got it, we’re keen to speak to people willing to donate their memorabilia to the Collection. Fans can also share their Everton stories on our website at www.evertoncollection.org.uk/storyteller.

The Collection is owned by a charitable trust, which relies on public fund-raising to continue its work preserving and promoting Everton’s heritage through the Collection. To support the Trust and its work you can donate online at www.justgiving.com/evertoncollection or purchase replica Everton Collection medals in the Everton stores or at http://evertondirect.evertonfc.com/stores/everton/products/product_browse.aspx?free_text=medals.

How else is the Everton collection being used?

We are also using the Collection in schools around Liverpool. Our Learning Officer delivers sessions to schools, exploring subjects such as history, literacy and poetry through the Collection. Our loan boxes include replica items from the Collection and are sent out to schools for children to handle. On our website there is also a wide range of learning resources for teachers to use in the classroom. To find out more about The Everton Collection Learning programmes see our website at www.evertoncollection.org.uk/learning.

Are there any plans for new exhibitions after the current one?

The current exhibition at Central Library ends in Spring 2010. After that, we hope to travel the exhibition around city centre venues. We will also be interviewing fans, players and officials next year as part of the Everton Collection oral history project. At the end of this we hope to have all these interviews available for everyone to listen to. The new Museum of Liverpool opens in 2011 and many of the Everton Collection treasures will also go on display there.

Up Next – “Everton At Christmas” to be put up on Wednesday 23rd December.

American Landon Donovan will join Everton on a 10 week loan in January before returning to LA Galaxy for their new season.

If Everton overcome this second trip to Lisbon we’ll be rewarded with a tie against Athletico Mardrid or Galatasaray.

Elsewhere Liverpool will face Unirea and Fulham will face Shaktar.

The starting line up has already been announced, with Nash making his Everton debut alongside Duffy, Bidwell, Forshaw and Agard who will also be making their first starts for the club with Coleman and Baxter also being given an extra run out in the team.

The experience in the side will come in the forms of Hibbert who will be captain (if he scores on the only home game of the season I’m going to have to miss I’ll be gutted), Osman making his return from injury, Rodwell and Yakubu.