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Back in 1986 Liverpool and Everton were England’s top clubs but now they play second fiddle to their neighbours

The short, history-suffused walk from Anfield to Goodison Park often transports pedestrians back in time. Emerging from the maze of tight Victorian terraces surrounding Liverpool’s ground, the route winds gently downhill across the green expanse of Stanley Park, passing its imposing centrepiece, the beautifully restored, grade II-listed, 19th-century Isla Gladstone Conservatory.

Down the years this monument to an era when, as the then gateway to the Americas, Liverpool was one of the British Empire’s great ports has echoed to plenty of noise from the two stadiums each situated within half a mile of its precincts. The cheers can rarely have seemed louder than during the 1980s, when Merseyside gloried in its status as England’s foremost football power and, for a time, Everton regularly challenged Liverpool for the title. Yet as the two great rivals reconvene at Goodison Park on Saturday lunchtime for the latest derby meeting, another city, 35 miles east along the M62, now arguably houses the two finest teams in the land.

There are myriad reasons why Manchester United and Manchester City look so dominant but, leaving Stanley Park and stepping into the dense, terraced streets surrounding Goodison Park, it becomes clear that stadium location has much to do with the cities’ respective football fortunes.

Whereas Manchester United were surrounded by sufficient open space to enable them to dramatically expand Old Trafford, Manchester City’s move, facilitated by the local council, from Maine Road into the former Commonwealth Games arena flanked by acres of disused brownfield land, proved a prime attraction when Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour sought a football investment for his petrodollars.

David Fairclough was born nearby to both Merseyside clubs, and the former Liverpool striker describes their comparative decline as “an emotive subject for me which I blame on a lack of vision and foresight”. One source of a problem with many roots can be identified at local government level.

“Manchester as a city moved forward quicker than we did,” Fairclough says. “Winning the race to become European Capital of Culture [for 2008] has changed everything but, until we won it, it was almost as if we were stuck in our own little republican bubble; people just accepted our world the way it was. Then everything changed. Liverpool is an amazing, fantastic place now, it’s really buzzing and, despite the recession, this is the most exciting time in the city’s regeneration I can remember. It’s just a shame the current vision and foresight didn’t come earlier – or extend to the football clubs.”

A lack of clear boardroom strategy, something compounded by cash shortages and sometimes truculent planning officials, certainly conspired to stymie development of Liverpool’s long envisaged new citadel in Stanley Park. Similar stumbling blocks prefaced the collapse of first Everton’s proposed move to an intended 55,000-capacity ground within the King’s Dock regeneration area and then, more controversially, a mooted switch outside the city boundaries to a proposed site share with Tesco at Kirkby.

As John W Henry, Liverpool’s owner, ponders either extending Anfield or commencing digging in Stanley Park, Everton are torn between a necessarily limited expansion of Goodison or moving out of town. Not that Bill Kenwright, their financially challenged owner, can afford either option. A rare British face at the helm in a sphere peopled increasingly by American billionaires, Russian oligarchs, Gulf Arabs and Asian tigers, Kenwright seems almost as anachronistic as Goodison’s charmingly atmospheric yet frustratingly impractical Victorian architecture.

“Stadiums are not the entire story but Liverpool’s should have all been sorted out years ago, it shouldn’t even be an issue now, and it’s the same for Everton,” Fairclough says. “They’ve both paid the price for not having the vision to see they needed new grounds.”

The original Anfield “super sub” believes assorted Liverpool managers should also shoulder their share of blame. “When it came to refreshing the dressing room [with new players], one or two have maybe taken their eye off the ball,” he says. “And I think a couple didn’t grasp that winning the Premier League is more important than doing well in the Champions League.”

As head of restructuring and insolvency at the accountant PFK, Trevor Birch feels finding a new home is Everton’s priority. Birch, a former chief executive at Goodison, points out that, considering Manchester United’s matchday revenue is roughly five times that yielded by his old club, the manager, David Moyes, has performed miracles. “David is armed for hand-to-hand conflict but he’s competing against armoured artillery,” Birch says. “The gulf is just too great for Everton to compete when Manchester United earn £3m a game and Everton generate £500k-700k.”

He fears Kenwright will struggle to sell. “When someone looks at purchasing Everton they have to think about building a new stadium and that costs £300m to £400m. Who at a club which has incurred losses of £30m over the past five years is going to make that sort of investment?”

While the applause reserved for Manchester United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, at this week’s Labour party conference in Liverpool prompted mixed feelings among scousers of Red and Blue footballing persuasions, neither Moyes or Kenny Dalglish begrudge their fellow Glaswegian his moments of glory. “No one has any divine right to success,” Liverpool’s manager says. “You have to work for it. If someone is better than you, they’re going to be successful.”

Dalglish declines to debate whetherobdurate city council bureaucrats have proved enemies of on-field meritocracy. “There’s no point me getting involved in politics,” he says. “I can’t pass any educated comment. I would much rather Liverpool were the most successful team but we have to earn it. The responsibility is on us.”

If much of the wider resentment and suspicion involved in an inter-city rivalry, inflamed in 1894 when the newly opened Manchester Ship Canal prompted a decline in orders for Liverpudlian merchants, has faded now, the footballing enmity still burnsso fiercely that regaining top spot remains paramount. “Our years of success were amazing and they can return,” Fairclough says. “I’m quite optimistic about Liverpool now. Kenny fits the bill as manager and the new owner seems to have the right balance between respecting the club’s heritage and increasing revenue.”

A man who during the 1970s and 1980s won six League titles and three European Cups at Anfield is rather less confident about the Goodison prognosis. “Their situation is disappointing for the city, we need two strong teams,” he says. “Everton are a bit worrying.”

Additional reporting by Andy Hunter

EvertonLiverpoolLouise Taylorguardian.co.uk

• Liverpool manager says £35m striker is not fully fit
• Dalglish opens talks over two-year contract at Anfield

Kenny Dalglish has expressed concern over the prospect of Fabio Capello calling up Andy Carroll for next weekend’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Wales. The Liverpool manager urged his England counterpart to be “responsible” with the £35m forward.

Thursday’s goalless Europa League draw against Braga was Carroll’s first complete game for Liverpool after more than two months out with a thigh injury and he completed it in front of Capello. Dalglish said that the striker had not regained peak fitness. But Capello sees Carroll as a key part of his attack, in partnership with Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney.

Carroll’s England debut, against France in November, prompted controversy. Before the forward was called up his club at the time, Newcastle United, said he was struggling with an ankle injury. The prospect of his selection to face the Welsh has generated similar concern at Anfield.

Dalglish, who has opened talks with Liverpool’s American owners over a two-year deal to continue as manager after a positive start in temporary charge, said: “I don’t know if Fabio wants to pick him or not but there is no point us being as guided as we have been in his recuperation, and doing such a good job to get him to where he is now, if someone else is going to waste all that. There is nothing we can do to stop them picking him but common sense has to prevail.

“It is great to have the big fella back but

• Kenny Huang makes Spanish striker pivotal to any bid
• Offer is ‘one of several’, claims chairman Martin Broughton

Kenny Huang’s bid for Liverpool is only one of “several” offers for the club, according to their chairman, Martin Broughton.

Huang has yet to enter formal due diligence, but talks are sufficiently advanced with other bidders for there to be the prospect of a takeover at Anfield before the closure of the transfer window on 31 August. That could have an effect on the future of the striker Fernando Torres, who returned to training at Melwood today.

“It still remains the objective to conclude a deal before the end of the transfer window,” Broughton told the Guardian tonight. “That remains the objective but there are no deadlines, and we will continue working to complete the process.”

Broughton conceded that 31 August is “a very important date” for fans and some Liverpool players. Torres is highly coveted – both Manchester City and Chelsea are reportedly on alert – but such is the Spaniard’s stature that his departure would affect the valuation of the club in one bidder’s case, at least.

The apparent existence of multiple bidders means that the club’s US co-owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, could end up making a significant profit from their controversial three-year tenure at Anfield. However, the pair will not have the final say in who may take over.

“There could be a possible realisation of an equity consideration,” Broughton said. “But both George Gillett and Tom Hicks remain on the board and they have given commitments that the board of Kop Holdings [Liverpool's UK parent] is the party that is responsible for the sale.”

Gillett and Hicks are believed to have placed an US$800m (£504m) valuation on Liverpool, but sources close to the talks insist they will have to accept a much-reduced sum once any deal is concluded. With only a calendar month until the close of the transfer window, the completion of due diligence must come fast. Yet, as an indication of how far advanced talks are with the interested parties, no money has yet been transferred into an escrow account, which would be one of the final steps before a transaction can be finalised.

Huang, a China-born Wall Street financier, raised the prospect of a bid for Liverpool on behalf of a sovereign wealth fund belonging to what has been described only as a large country in east Asia.

There had been suggestions that Huang would seek to acquire the debt from Liverpool’s principal lender, Royal Bank of Scotland, in an effort to gain financial control over the club. However, Broughton insisted that is not the case.

“Any bids that go straight to RBS – and there have been several – come to me and are directed to Barcap,” Broughton said. “RBS are not involved. The control remains with the board.”

The part-nationalised RBS bank retains confidence that Broughton and Barcap – the investment-banking division of Barclays bank, retained to conduct takeover negotiations – will be able to conclude a deal before the next refinancing deadline, in October.

Whether that will be with Huang is another matter. However, it is known that he wishes to expedite discussions.

“He wants to get it done quickly so investment can come this summer,” a source close to his proposed bid claimed. “Liverpool need investment in the playing squad and infrastructure, and Huang wants to build the [new] stadium. The club has an outstanding reputation but does not have the infrastructure to keep with it and make it grow.”

One thing is clear, however. Huang considers Torres’s retention at Anfield to be central to the success of his investment in Liverpool. One member of his retinue said he views the Spaniard as a “talismanic” figure whose departure would alter his valuation of the club.

Torres has told friends he is committed to remaining a Liverpool player but reserves the right to quit if they are incapable of meeting his ambitions.

LiverpoolFernando TorresMatt Scottguardian.co.uk