 THE last time Everton had a striker of note, it took a little time before he scored his first goals for the club. There was some tut-tutting at the time because Howard Kendall’s team was set up to get the very best out of Gary Lineker. If memory serves, he eventually got a couple at Tottenham in a midweek match and then hardly stopped scoring for the rest of a season that saw him finish with 40 goals and the European Golden Boot Award. Now I’m not bracketing Andy Johnson with one of the game’s all-time greatest goalscorers, but Johnson’s ability to find the net means that a mountain of expectation rests on his shoulders. Which is why everyone in royal blue longs to see him open his account, even though we’re barely into a whole raft of pre-season games. David Moyes needs the England man to have a successful season if Everton are to dismiss the bitter taste of last term. But I’m sure he’d rather see him save all his goals for the Premiership and the cups than watch them fly in during matches which, though important in terms of fitness, have absolutely no bearing on the real business ahead. Gary Lineker’s sole season brought Everton only heartache, cruelly pipped by Liverpool for the double of Cup and League. Moyes would undoubtedly settle for half of Lineker’s return from Andy Johnson, though finishing second surely is beyond wildest dreams. * WAYNE ROONEY’S attack on David Moyes in the first part of his biblical-length autobiograhpy should surprise no-one. Newspaper serialisation depends on dirt being dished, otherwise the cash return is negligible. As to Rooney’s rift with the Everton manager, that was common knowledge towards the end of his too-short career at Goodison. Nothing unusual in that. Players and managers are seldom that close anyway. They have different agendas and a player’s needs are often ignored in favour of the team. | 
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