How do you go from a kid watching Everton to having a statue?

Colin Harvey, one of the club's 'Holy Trinity', on his finest moments as a player and manager at Goodison Park

- Andy Hunter

Standing outside a pawnbrokers on Goodison Road, waiting for his dad to emerge through the crowd after the match, a young Colin Harvey could not have imagined what lay in front of him. Standing in the same place today, the great Evertonian would face a statue of himself immortalised alongside fellow members of "The Holy Trinity", Howard Kendall and Alan Ball. Time has not diminished the 80-year-old's wonder at his life and legacy at Goodison Park.

"How do you go from being a kid watching Everton from the Boys' Pen to having a statue on Goodison Road?" he says, with genuine astonishment. "If someone had presented me back then with a history of my life in football I'd have said: 'Don't be silly, nothing like that is ever going to happen to me.' But it did. When I was told the statue was going to be made it was one of my proudest moments. I've had a fantastic football life and it amazes me when I look back on it."

The emotion in Harvey's voice is clear. There are rich football memories to reflect on as the Everton men's team prepares to say goodbye to Goodison after 133 years but it is also a deeply personal place. Family and friends are as much a part of Harvey's history with the old stadium as starring in Everton's revered midfield trio, coaching the club in its most successful period, succeeding Kendall as manager and developing a procession of talent as youth coach, Wayne Rooney among them.

No one has given more to Everton than a man whose elegance and technique meant he was referred to as the "White Pelé" in the 1960s, yet who remains one of the most humble individuals you could meet.

"From my grandad through to me and now on to my grandchildren, it is our family club," says Harvey. "Goodison was an iconic place for football. Bellefield [Everton's former training ground] and Goodison were Everton to me. But time moves on doesn't it?"