Everton boss Sean Dyche admits he's spoken to club legends about rediscovering the club's "edge".
Dyche says he's spoken to several greats about the club's traditional aggression.
I get the feeling because I am around here a lot more now, and I speak to Evertonians, that there has always been that kind of edge about Everton," Dyche said. I speak to Joe Royle, who is brilliant, and Reidy [Peter Reid], and that was part of the marvel of Everton in that generation, that edge that Evertonians had and the team as well.
I spoke to them about trying to build that here and really reignite it, and if you remember when I first got here, I said, 'respect the past but build a future'. I am a great believer in some of the magic of the past at Everton Football Club.
I was laughing the other day because it is funny how teams stick in your mind because I can name the team from that era, and I saw Kevin Ratcliffe the other day, and it is just one of them remarkable things. We want to get some of that old edge, if you like, and that idea that we are Everton and we have to stand up and be counted.
If you are a true blue, then we stay together. We are trying to get that energy and still deliver it in a format where it is good for fans. Try and score goals, defending right and bringing it all together, and if you get that connection from your own team right, it often, and strangely, the fans can see it and they accept it because they go right, that is a team I want to see.
It is the old-fashioned thing of wearing the shirt with pride. There is nothing wrong with that, and I have said this a lot over the years, but some of the stuff I talk about, I have never felt more modern because these things are deemed old-fashioned, but they are never more modern in my view.
I think we are trying to get that Everton edge. You get a bit of knock; all right, well, let's have it then; let's take it on. We are trying to build that and trying to get the team to build that mentality, and it is coming. There is a bit more to go, but it is coming."