Alex Ferguson was awarded the freedom of Aberdeen last week while Dwight Yorke got the keys

Alex Ferguson was awarded the freedom of Aberdeen last week while Dwight Yorke got the keys of Port of Spain on a trip to Trinidad and Tobago which prompts the question what will they achieve when they make it to the pitch. IT SAYS something about the acquisitiveness of Manchester United that they can stop playing for a fortnight and still win honours. "When players are down on a Sunday morning all the papers have stories about directors and that, I'd rather read about which superstar we're signing next."Amen to that, comes the Evertonian chorus, just so long as it is not financed by selling one of their own.. We need to stay up, make some signings in the summer - if we can get the money together, and make a good start next year.""If we get some money together..." Everton's players would certainly be helped by a resolution to the club's ownership problems.

I'd like to help Everton get back to how we were in the 1980s, being in Europe, winning the FA Cup, challenging for the league It's partly a matter of confidence. I want to start winning silverware, not be fighting relegation every year, but that's something to consider in a few years' time. The only way I'd leave at the moment is if they wanted to sell me because I don't want to go."I do have to think of my career. Evertonians will be relieved to hear that Ball, while flattered, is in no hurry to leave."They are two of the biggest clubs in England and it is a bit of a confidence booster but I just want to play for Everton.

We kept ourselves to ourselves."Back home Ball has been linked with a series of clubs, notably Manchester United and Arsenal who, aware of Everton's financial crisis, sense an opportunity to secure a long-term replacement for Denis Irwin or Nigel Winterburn. We played Russia's Under-18s, they looked big, strong lads and we thought, `This'll be a physical game.' But once you touched them, they were rolling all over the place. It's just cheating, but a clever way of cheating and they were getting away with it."He added, poignantly in view of current events in the Balkans, "Then when we went to Yugoslavia the environment was a bit different, even then there were wars going on and we were all a bit nervous. My dad was a bit of a tackler, so he'd tell me to watch Pat."Everton's impressive youth system and international matches have furthered his education. "The England games have been good experience - the football's very different. Ball, with two goals, is only a brace behind his side's leading strikers, Ibrahima Bakayoko and Danny Cadamarteri.Ball, whose father played for Liverpool reserves, grew up admiring the contrasting influences of Paolo Maldini, of Milan - "for his passing with both feet" - and Pat Van Den Hauwe, of Everton - "for his tackling. Everton have conceded fewer goals, 35, than fifth-placed West Ham but have scored a paltry 23 in 30 games, the worst record in the division.

"We don't want another one like last year, oh no," Ball said "Southampton would be tough. I played there with England last week and it doesn't look the best place to go as an away team. We just have to make sure we get the points in our home games That's been our problem - scoring at home."Or away. "We need the points more than Liverpool do."Last year Everton stayed up by virtue of a last-day point at home to Coventry This year their final match is at The Dell.

With Scot Gemmill and Kevin Campbell arriving at Goodison this week, Ball was quick to try and secure some extras but found they had already been spoken for.Evertonian desire is accentuated by their good derby record: they have not lost to Liverpool, home or away, for more than five years."We've done well the last couple of seasons so I hope we can carry on," Ball added. The problem is getting enough tickets to supply family and friends. Even having foreign players doesn't seem to have made a difference They soon get told, by friends and players, what it's about. They know what's at stake; when the new fixture list comes out it's the first match you look for."For locals like Ball the match is the easy bit.