With their future home at Bramley-Moore Dock now being lit up in blue at night, and the Friedkin Group closing in on their takeover, a brighter, shiner, new Everton is almost upon us. But is ‘The Grand Old Lady’ being given a fitting farewell?
Prominent Evertonian Katie Carter from the 1878s fan group, whose sterling efforts have contributed so much in recent times to getting the best out of the first purpose-built football ground in England in its final days, took to social media to offer her take on the matter.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Katie told her followers: “I keep seeing people what a way to send Goodison off by stinking the place out every other week in its last season. We’ve been doing that for the majority of the last 3 decades, not just now.”
A pertinent point given that despite entering the Premier League era top of the all-time top flight table, Everton’s record-breaking trophy drought is now closing in on its 30th year.
The Blues are the only club to be both founder members of the Football League in 1888 and Premier League in 1992 to be ever-presents in the latter, but they are also the only one of the second group (that also includes Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur) to have gone into the final day of a Premier League season facing relegation, having escaped the drop in such circumstances on a hat-trick of occasions.
The first two of those near-misses were back in the 1990s (1994 and 1998) but the most recent of course came under Sean Dyche on May 28 last year when despite posting the lowest equivalent points total in the club’s entire history, Abdoulaye Doucoure’s strike against Bournemouth ensured Everton avoided going down for the first time in 72 years by a single goal.
Recent history has also seen boardroom upheaval, failed takeover bids and two separate points deductions for PSR breaches last season.
Dyche, who has also often had to act as a de facto club spokesperson during this period because of a wantaway, absentee majority shareholder and power vacuum above him, colloquially refers to such off-the-field turbulence that embroils the Blues as the “noise.”
However, after several years of trauma, loyal but long-suffering Evertonians just wanted some more upbeat mood music to provide the soundtrack to the once-in-a-lifetime historical event that is Goodison Park’s final season.
So far there has been the bright start against Brighton & Hove Albion that quickly evaporated into an emphatic 3-0 loss; the most-impressive display of the season to date (for 85 minutes anyway) against Bournemouth, which quickly capitulated into a harrowing 3-2 defeat; Dyche’s first Premier League comeback win with Everton, when his side were dire in the first half but turned the tables through a brace of Dwight McNeil goals soon after the restart; and now the back-to-back draws with Newcastle United and Fulham, as a Jordan Pickford penalty save and then stoppage time equaliser from substitute Beto saved the Blues’ bacon.
At least the team’s more recent displays have shown a return to the kind of battling resilience you’d expect from a Dyche outfit. With its increased 52,888 capacity allowing Everton to play in front of the biggest regular crowds in their history and steep stands in an intimate setting, the new stadium should amplify all the best aspects of Goodison in a modern setting, but wherever the Blues are based, they need their heroes on the pitch to produce the kind of football that will ignite their passion.
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ECHO columnist Michael Ball has regularly challenged Dyche and his team to unlock the power of Goodison. Yet the start against Fulham was so pedestrian, it was the voices of away fans that could be heard loudest as they compared the venerable venue to “a library” while their team sprayed the ball around the pitch, keeping the hosts on the back foot.
This correspondent’s colleague Joe Thomas wrote in his match verdict how the Cottagers are the kind of secure mid-table side that an Everton so soon after their lowest ebb, still aspire to emulate.
But while Marco Silva has done well to revive his career in the capital, he was guilty of failing to deliver at a time the Blues had far greater resources at their disposal. When the Portuguese manager was at the Goodison helm, he and his director of football Marcel Brands were shopping at the likes of Barcelona and Juventus.
On the days that the sun was shining and everything went their way, Silva’s Everton enjoyed a smattering of smart results, such as the trio of home wins towards the end of his only full season in charge, beating Chelsea (2-0), Arsenal (1-0) and Manchester United (4-0) in consecutive Goodison fixtures.
But unlike Dyche’s recent success over the Eagles, he was never able to create the backbone to come from behind and win. Indeed, unlike those Austrian part-timers ATV Irdning who infamously threw in the towel in Silva’s first game in charge, a 22-0 friendly romp in the Alps that was embarrassing for all involved, with the home keeper turning his back on shots towards the end, the Lisbon-born gaffer was left spouting his usual hard luck stories and attempting to claim the moral high ground after the current Blues side kept battling to the final whistle to deny Fulham victory.
It’s all well and good, coasting along in the comfortable confines of Fulham, London’s oldest professional club but one who have failed to win a major honour throughout their 145-year history. But Everton are a giant of the game situated in one of its major hotbeds where there is always a reminder of the benchmark for aspirations, literally on the horizon, a mere 800 yards away.
Next summer’s stadium move provides an extra couple of miles of physical breathing space in that respect, but Merseyside’s football rivalry should always be a spur to the striving for excellence.
Realistically, nobody was expecting 2024/25 to be a vintage campaign but after grappling with a brace of sporting sanctions last term to post an on-the-field record that matched the points total of 11th placed Brighton, the hope must be to avoid the sleepless nights of the previous couple of years with a team that can at least keep their heads above water with a degree of comfort. Under the current regime, that should be the case, and in the future the labours of such efforts in testing circumstances might be lauded, but it’s likely to be more gritty than pretty.
Although they’re still only 16th in the table, after a nightmare start that saw them lose their first four matches, Everton are now unbeaten in their last five and have built up a five-point cushion between themselves and the drop zone.
However, with five home fixtures now played and the club a quarter of the way through Goodison’s final season, beleaguered Blues could be forgiven for wondering when the feel-good factor actually begins.