Gary Lineker claims Everton fans ‘hammered’ him after joining from Leicester

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Gary Lineker has claimed that he was ‘hammered’ by Everton fans when he first joined the club in 1985.

Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, the former striker admitted he endured a ‘tough baptism’ after he replaced Andy Gray at Goodison Park.

After scoring 41 goals in 66 games for boyhood club Leicester City, Gary Lineker joined league champions Everton for only £800,000.

Despite his prolific goal record for the Foxes, the Toffees clearly weren’t keen on the forward and booed him in the early months of his spell with the club.

Lineker went onto net 35 goals in only 48 appearances for Everton, finishing the season as the First Division top scorer and was also named as the PFA Players’ Player of the Year, as Everton finished second and reached the FA Cup final.

Lineker quickly became well-loved on Merseyside, though he admitted it wasn’t quite as easy at the start.

“I joined Everton and replaced Andy Gray and he was a big hero there. The first home game, they were reading out the names of the team and it was like ‘Peter Reid – waaay! Kevin Ratcliffe – waaay! Trevor Steven – waaay!‘ Then he went ‘Gary Lineker… booo!’

“That was my debut! In defence to a lot of the Everton fans, it was the minority. I just thought ‘oh god, what a start this is’.

“I didn’t score in my first three games and I was getting hammered. Then I started scoring, but it took me till around Christmas, and I scored three goals in two games and one of those was Man United, and that was the kind of turning point where I got accepted after that and they were full of love.

“It was a tough baptism.”

Only three ‘recent’ Everton strikers scored more goals than Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker managed to score 35 goals in only one season for Everton, while there is only a handful of strikers that have matched that at Goodison Park in the last ten years or so.

Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Romelu Lukaku are the only Everton strikers to manage to beat Lineker’s tally since 2010, which shows just how few brilliant goalscorers have played for the Toffees in recent years.

Everton are lucky to still have Calvert-Lewin though. Despite his injuries, the England international is a superb forward and can play a key role in retaining their Premier League status.