Crossing the park

Cool article about players who've played for both Everton and liverpool

That makes a total of no less than 29 players to make the direct move between Liverpool and Everton, with 20 of those being from Goodison to Anfield and 9 in the opposite direction. The most surprising part of this figure is that it turns out to be the greatest number of transfers between Liverpool and any other club, and 10 more than the next most common. Since Everton are our closest neighbours and most common trading partner, it would be natural then to expect Tranmere Rovers to be the next most common club for transfers, which turns out to be correct. What is perhaps most surprising is that there have only been 19 players transferred between Liverpool and Tranmere, with 4 from and 15 to the Wirral club. The next most common is Sunderland with 17, followed by a group of four clubs with 16.

The number of transfers between the two rival clubs is surprising to begin with, but even more so when we realise that there are also a fair number of players who played for both sides without making the move directly. David Burrows, Steve McMahon, and Don Hutchison have all represented both clubs, while a few others such as Dave Watson, Alan Harper, and Mike Newell played for Liverpool as youths and later played for Everton at the senior level. Beyond that, there are a fair number of Liverpool players who grew up as Evertonians. These include Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Ian Rush, and Jamie Carragher. Steven Gerrard was even photographed in an Everton strip as a young lad, much to the delight of the Blues supporters who found a copy of it.

With all of that activity between the two Merseyside clubs, they might look more co-operative than competitive. Perhaps that's not so surprising when we think not only of how physically close the two clubs are to each other, but also of how the two clubs are historically related. In fact, the analogy could be that the two clubs are like brothers and perhaps should respect each other as such. Then again, is there anything more satisfying than beating your brother?