The lad is going to be a superstar....Alun Evans

Article by Craig Muncey

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As part of my ongoing piece on 5 players who joined Liverpool as youngsters, with many coaches beliefs that they were going to be the next big thing in football, and who did not reach those levels. Some due to bad luck, some took other paths and some were prodigies at youth football, but then in adulthood other players progressed past them.

The second player I highlight is Alun Evans.

The striker initially played for Wolverhampton Wanderers as an 18 year old. One night, playing at Anfield in 1967, he terrorised Ron Yeats all evening and scored. Bill Shankly was immediately impressed and started scouting the player, even though he denied this.

However, a few months later, Liverpool paid £100,000 for the 19 year old making him the most expensive teenager at the time in British football history. Shankly was even comparing Evans with a certain Denis Law, so high praise indeed.

He made his league debut at Anfield against Leicester City and scored after less than 10 minutes. A week later he scored two more goals away to his previous club, Wolverhampton Wanderers. A fantastic start to his career at the club and backing the belief that Bill Shankly had in the player. He looked the player to take the striker position from Liverpool legend Roger Hunt, and have a distinguished career at the club. Evans scored 7 goals for the club in his first season.

In his second season Evans played 25 games and scored 9 goals, Roger Hunt had been moved onto Bolton Wanderers, and there was expectations being put on the young striker With his modest goal total the pressure was now starting to show.

At the start of the 1970-71 season Evans got off to a flying start, scoring 5 goals in 6 starts, and things seemed to be on the up. However, one evening he was attacked in a nightclub in Wolverhampton, leaving him with a badly scarred face. To make matters worse, a short while later, got badly injured playing in a UEFA Cup match in Romania and was out for 4 months.

One game after his comeback was arguably his finest moment for Liverpool, scoring a hat trick against German giants Bayern Munich in the Fairs Cup. He also scored the first goal in the win against Everton in the FA Cup semi-final that season and played in the final against Arsenal, which the London side won, thus completing the League and Cup double.

The following season Evans, who was still only 23 years old, struggled to keep his place in the team. He played 8 games and scored 2 goals until Liverpool decided to sell him to Aston Villa. A certain Kevin Keegan was banging in goals for Liverpool, which I am sure helped Liverpool’s decision to sell Alun Evans.

The player played for Aston Villa for 2 seasons, helping them gain promotion to the first division, before then being moved onto Walsall in the third division and finishing his football career in Australia.

One certainly cannot say Alun Evans was a flop, but from a player who was once compared to Denis Law, he certainly did not hit the heights that some people believed a man of his talent would.