Colin Harvey: Wayne Rooney can be Everton's new talisman, even though he never quite met expectations

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It says much about the variety of stories in Simon Hart’s fine book about Everton in the 1980s, Here We Go, that one relating to Wayne Rooney appears almost as a sideline. Colin Harvey, the Everton icon, is talking about his period as youth coach when he used to drive Rooney back to his school in Croxteth, De La Salle, on Tuesdays and Thursdays after morning training sessions at Everton’s then academy base in Netherton. “Unless I said something to him he wouldn’t open his mouth,” Harvey remembers.

Harvey proceeds to explain how much later, after Rooney had featured in more than a hundred games for England, he sought out the player at Old Trafford following a Manchester United match. Harvey and his grandson went down to the tunnel afterwards and it quickly became apparent the balance in their relationship between master and pupil had not really changed at all. “Even then, unless I said something to him, he wouldn’t really say anything back,” Harvey recalled. “When we came away, my son-in-law went, ‘I think he’s a little in awe of you still.’”

Harvey, who formed one third of Everton’s revered Holy Trinity midfield in the 1960s beside Howard Kendall and Alan Ball, remains well placed to speak about the impact Rooney might have at Goodison Park after the 31-year-old makes his second debut for the club on Thursday afternoon in a friendly held in Tanzania against Kenyan side Gor Mahia. Harvey, the former Everton player, coach and manager, now regards himself as an Everton supporter, attending most home games.

“I saw my grandson on Sunday. He’s eight years old now. The first thing he said to me was, ‘I’ve got Rooney on the back of my shirt for the new season,” Harvey tells The Independent. “For the kids, it’s great to see a player of Wayne’s profile at the club. I just hope that things work out for him. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Above everything else, he’s a nice kid; always has been.”

Understated and never one to serve platitudes just because of relationships made, Harvey says that despite Rooney’s achievements in the game, he has not quite met the expectations of many observers after he became a household name in 2002 when he scored Everton’s winner against the Premier League champions, Arsenal.

“I thought Wayne would be the next Maradona,” Harvey admits, his mind wandering back twenty or so years. “I used to go and watch the 14s and 15s on a Sunday morning because they were the next group pushing through into my age group. On this day, someone got injured in the under-15s game and there was a break in play so I wandered over to the under-10s game. Dennis Evans was coaching the under-10s and he’d told me about this kid. ‘Which one is he?’ I asked Dennis. Next minute the kid’s picked the ball up, slalomed past five players and stuck it in the top corner. You just go, blinkin’ ‘eck!

“Wayne had that tournament in Portugal (the European Championships in 2004) where he looked like Maradona; dribbling past defenders twice his age like they weren’t even there. I don’t think he quite reached that level in the end; the Maradona, the Cruyff, the Pelé level - he fell a little bit below.

“He’s been playing first team football since he was sixteen years old and a lot of people forget that. That’s fifteen years ago – half of his life in the Premier League; it’s a long time.

“Obviously he’s lost a little edge over the last couple of years but he still has the ability to influence a game heavily with his touch, his control and his passing.

“In my opinion, though, he’s the best English player of a generation and Man United’s greatest goalscorer. A magnificent footballer.”

Harvey became Everton’s first team coach in 1983, the year Howard Kendall signed Andy Gray – a move which is regarded as one of the most significant in Everton’s history. By the time Gray left Goodison Park two years later, they had won the FA Cup and the First Division championship, this after more than a decade without trophies.

“Andy’s knee was done in and he was past his best but he had an aura about him and brought the best out of younger players around him. Maybe Wayne can have a similar impact because he has the similar aura about him,” Harvey wonders. “You look at [Idrissa] Gueye, who was our best player in the first half of last season, and Tom Davies – our best player in the second half. These boys can only benefit from Wayne’s experience; his knowledge of how to get around the pitch and affect the game.”

Harvey was an Everton player in another golden era, when the club was bankrolled by John Moores – earning their tag as the Mersey Millionaires. Everton’s spending and efficiency this summer has surprised many but Harvey reminds the club was still not able to retain Romelu Lukaku – despite the promising signs of development.

“You have to remember in the 60s, Everton were able to sign Alan Ball. He was 21 or 22 when he came to Everton and he’d just been the best player in the World Cup final. Bally for me was the greatest Evertonian, though I didn’t see Dixie Dean play.”

“Lukaku leaving isn’t the end of the world,” he concludes. “I’m not saying it won’t happen because you have to believe it will. But it’s a bit too early to say Everton are back amongst the elite just yet.”