THE tributes to Rhys Jones describe a young gentleman, a talented and dedicated footballer, a blue-blooded Corinthian.
The world has lost a “good guy”, his dad said in the rawest press conference I have ever seen.
A good guy, and an even better little bluenose who should have been sharing in all our excitement at the Uefa cup draw on Friday.
When we were trying to gather photographs of Rhys in the days after the murder, every single one had him in Everton kit. He didn’t wear much else outside school.
Even in the new third kit, on sale only days before he died and probably bought with his saved-up pocket money.
Footballing passion rarely mixes with perspective. It’s why we sing about Everton being ‘by far the greatest team the world has ever seen’ when we’re 2-0 up.
But perspective hung like a shroud over Goodison on Saturday.
And while the passion will hopefully be back with abandon against a wounded Man U next Saturday, there will still be many minds unable to forget a certain empty seat in the top balcony and the two men who usually sit next to it.
I hope one day that Stephen and Owen Jones can look forward to going to the match again without a stabbing pain in their hearts.
But I doubt it.
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sally wrote...
What, no comment about your tune being played at Anfield alst night? I'm very surprised, I was expecting some comment/acknowledgment.
Posted by: sally | August 29, 2007 1:01 PM