Gary Lineker rates the Everton team of 1985/86 as the best he ever played with.

The former England striker has revealed how he came to be sold by Blues boss Howard Kendall to Barcelona at the end of that season.

Lineker told evertonTV: "The funny thing is Howard Kendall pulled me in before the end of the season and said that they'd had an offer from Barcelona and they were prepared to take it which took me aback a little bit because I thought I'd done pretty well.

"Lots of Evertonians still come up to me now and say, 'oh you shouldn't have left' but the thing is, when your club comes to you and says they've had an offer they're gratefully accepting, you have to make a decision."

The writing appeared on the wall before the domestic campaign ended but Lineker put it all to the back of his mind when he jetted out to Mexico for the World Cup.

England started badly but, thanks largely to Lineker's goals, they eventually reached the quarter-finals.

"The Barcelona thing sort of went away a little bit when the World Cup got under way and it all went strangely quiet after two games when I hadn't scored!" he grinned.

"But when I banged a few in again and got a hat-trick against Poland and a couple more in the next game then Barcelona became interested."

Lineker stressed that he was perfectly happy at Goodison Park and would gladly have stayed at the club for another few seasons.

"It was just a shame I only had one year with definitely the best side I played for in my whole career," he said.