When Jimmy Gabriel walked into Everton's training session Thursday morning, everyone noticed. As the support staff turned to greet the local legend, shouts of "Gabby!" echoed towards the former Everton player and manager.
Gabriel, best known to the local community as a former player and coach of the NASL Seattle Sounders, has attended every day of training as the Toffees go through their preseason paces. With more than 300 appearances in Everton blue in the 1960s, the Scot was pleased when the club chose Seattle as their headquarters in advance of their first preseason friendly.
Everton manager David Moyes took special time to welcome Gabriel and his good friend Alan Hinton, a soccer legend in his own right who also managed the NASL Sounders and played in England for Derby County. Moyes made extra effort to speak with the pair during training each day, stopping by multiple times to share his thoughts. He also extended an invite to the pair to have lunch with the technical staff on Wednesday, which Hinton and Gabriel both graciously accepted.
According to Gabriel, the bond between one soccer enthusiast to another is ever-present and that allowed the group to share some amazing conversations about the evolution of the game.
"We sat down and it was just great talking to people who love the game of soccer like Alan and I do," Gabriel said. "It was good for me and Alan to talk to the guys who make the decisions and set the way the team plays. It was a lot of fun."
Gabriel, who is thoroughly impressed with Moyes' performance as manager over the past seven years, said he thought Moyes' sterling reputation could land him at any club he wanted. However, he's glad that Moyes has stayed on Merseyside to continue to build Everton into a major trophy contender. Gabriel is hopeful that the Toffees, under Moyes' guidance, can finally break into England's top four this season.
"The manager is a tremendous guy. He's come over and talked to us and explained some of the things they are trying to do," Gabriel said. "He's just a fabulous guy, because managers don't often do that. Me, especially, I hope he's very successful.
"I think he's been very successful up to this point with the money that he's had to pay for the players, he's put together a tremendous team. If we can only break into that top four in the Premier League, that will be unbelievable."
Gabriel cited his favorite memories from his playing days as competing alongside some of the older generation of Evertonians, including Bobby Collins, Alex Young, Roy Vernon and Alex Parker. He said those players helped him tremendously when he moved to the club from Dundee United at age 19, a favor he always tried to pay forward when he became a veteran himself.
After his time in England, Gabriel moved to the Pacific Northwest to play for the Sounders, where he transitioned into coaching at the behest of manager John Best, who asked Gabriel to be an assistant coach as well as the captain of the Sounders.
After his playing days were done, he continued to manage the Sounders and the San Jose Earthquakes before returning to England. An old friend, Harry Redknapp, invited Gabriel to come back to England and join his staff at Bournemouth. After three years there, he moved back to Goodison Park to manage Everton's reserves from 1990-97. He had two stints as caretaker manager during that period before retiring to the Pacific Northwest.
The location made sense, since Gabriel's wife Pat loved the area and their daughters still lived in the Pacific Northwest. Jimmy Martin, Everton's "kit man" or equipment manager of 24 years, still remembers Gabriel's retirement party 12 years ago.
"He knew how to handle the players. He was very good with everyone around the club," Martin said of Gabriel. "There was never a dull moment with him; he must have gotten out of the bed on the right side every day. You could never upset him. An absolute gentleman.
"If there's something Gabby doesn't know about football, it's not worth knowing, is it?"
Andrew Winner is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
