On Sunday, Everton drew 0-0 with Chelsea in front of the watchful eye of the Toffees’ new owners – The Friedkin Group. TFG officially took over from Farhad Moshiri last week following a protracted sale saga, bringing to an end an antic-filled near-decade that has felt like a lifetime.
Moshiri, coincidentally, also started his reign as Everton’s owner against Chelsea at Goodison. Four days after he officially purchased a 49.9% stake in the club on March 8th, 2016, the Toffees defeated the Londoners 2-0 in an FA Cup quarter-final, with Romelu Lukaku rounding the entire Chelsea team, the Black Horse, the Dixie Dean statue and the Wilmslow to slot the first, before powering in a second.
Within two months, though, Everton had lost 4-0 to Liverpool in a game which saw Ramiro Funes Mori grab the badge after being sent off and ended with James McCarthy and Muhamed Besic at centre-back, fallen to defeat in the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United and been hammered 3-0 by Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland. Roberto Martinez was gone and the revolving door of Everton managers began its yearly spin.
The first summer brought Ronald Koeman, Idrissa Gueye and Dominic Calvert-Lewin but ended with a whimper. Moussa Sissoko reportedly turning off his phone to avoid Koeman’s calls, looking back, was a mere warm-up act in the Everton circus.
Koeman’s opening season had some memorable moments. The greatest goal-line scramble Goodison has ever seen, which ended with Petr Cech in our goal, came against Arsenal, immense fume over red Christmas tree tinsel and a 4-0 hammering of Manchester City, complete with a Tom Davies chip for the ages. Plenty was expected of 17/18, as the Toffees lost just five times in the league post Christmas.
Looking to capitalise on that momentum, the infamous Moshiri cheque book came out in the summer. Romelu Lukaku left but Wayne Rooney, club-record signing Gyli Sigurdsson, Michael Keane and many more joined. A teenage Erling Haaland was in the building, but was rejected by Moshiri.
Despite the splurge, the opening-day win over Stoke saw Calvert-Lewin at wing-back, while Sandro Ramirez led the line. Rooney netted his first Toffees goal in 13 years and Jordan Pickford, not for the last time, pulled off a stunning save to secure Everton victory.
While the end of the transfer window appeared destined for excitement, it resulted in a PR disaster. With 25 minutes of the Deadline Day clock to go, Moshiri rang Jim White live on Sky Sports. “Hi, good evening Jim!” he said, sounding like Tom Hardy’s Bane. Instead of outing Harvey Dent, though, he discussed the collapse of Ross Barkley’s transfer to Chelsea, which would cost the club £20m.
Early points painted over the cracks; Everton’s squad was lopsided and disjointed, with more senior number 10s than full-backs, Oumar Niasse lockerless, Morgan Schneiderlin entrenched in a permanent red mist and players popping out of nowhere. Niasse reappeared briefly to score twice in a comeback win over Bournemouth, Ashley Williams and a Gwladys Street dad – son in hand – brought the fight against Lyon as Everton limped out of Europe and Sean Dyche’s Burnley netted a 24-pass move in a victory at Goodison, as Koeman’s time at the club came to an end.
Former midfielder Leon Osman said at the time: “David Unsworth gets Everton as a club. Sean Dyche has done a terrific job at Burnley. Everton’s expectations have been raised since the new owner took over – we’re now looking at the likes of Carlo Ancelotti.” Does Ossie have the lottery numbers?
Unsworth was, indeed, brought in to take temporary charge. He oversaw a memorable 3-2 win over Watford in which Everton came from 2-0 down and still conceded a penalty which old boy Tom Cleverley proceeded to miss. In Rhino’s final game, Rooney scored a stunning hat-trick in a 4-0 win over West Ham, with his third, a stunning, first-time effort from inside his own half, remembered as one of Goodison’s greatest.
Sam Allardyce came in and brought defensive stability and good results. A hilarious 1-1 draw away to Liverpool in the snow, in which Everton managed 20% of the ball and just two shots on target, immediately stands out, while results against Newcastle and Chelsea eased relegation fears.
Allardyce’s aforementioned Sunderland side was built on shrewd January recruits, but Theo Walcott, Cenk Tosun and Eliaquim Mangala (on loan) represented high-expense transfers and all ultimately left for nothing. Expectations for Tosun – who was announced at half-time of a derby loss to Liverpool – were raised after Moshiri declared he was part of Everton’s own “fab four”, alongside Rooney, Sigurdsson and Yannick Bolasie. Incredibly, that wasn’t the maddest comment he made about a striker that month. He claimed Lukaku refused to sign a new deal after “his mother said she was on a pilgrimage to Africa and had seen some sort of voodoo message that said he had to sign for Chelsea.” The Belgian, who signed for Manchester United, considered legal action.
Marco Silva was chosen next, with his appointment coming less than a year after Watford complained to the Premier League over Everton’s initial approach for him. Richarlison was signed at great expense and joined Lucas Digne and Kurt Zouma as firm Everton favourites.
The sublime and the ridiculous marred 18/19. The Toffees exited the FA Cup thanks to an illegal Millwall goal which their manager, Neil Harris, screamed to get off the big screen as replays lit up The Den. Elsewhere, Pickford’s Anfield antics and a 6-2 home loss to Spurs were met by a 5-1 rampage at Burnley and a 4-0 stuffing of Man United. Like Koeman’s debut campaign, a strong end to the season brought much misplaced optimism.
Gueye left in the summer, seemingly taking any semblance of an Everton midfield with him to PSG. His replacement, Jean Phillipe-Gbamin, was cruelly hit by a career-threatening injury soon after, and would cost more than £3m per appearance in Everton blue.
Nine defeats in 15, including a 5-2 thumping at Anfield which saw Keane and Mason Holgate stranded in a quite simply insane high line, quickly brought the curtain down on Silva’s time at the club.
Moshiri had always wanted a “Hollywood” coach, and as he looked into Leon Osman’s crystal ball, he plucked out Carlo Ancelotti. The serial Champions League winner took over after a memorable stint in charge by club legend Duncan Ferguson, who mixed touchline celebrations with heavy-metal football, a Davies-Holgate midfield pivot and the infamous subbing of a substitute to “kill a bit of time.”
It’s clear Everton were no quick fix, but even the most battle-hardened Toffees cringed as they lost to Liverpool’s U-21s in the FA Cup a month later. Less chastening but heavier defeats either side of the COVID-19 break were further proof that turning the Everton tanker around would take time, but 20/21 had a surprise in store for everyone.
Ancelotti was joined in L4 by former Real Madrid and Bayern Munich star James Rodriguez. Seven straight wins started the season, as Spirit of the Blues rose to No1 in the iTunes charts, an action-packed derby saw Everton remain *checks notes* top of the league, with Calvert-Lewin and Ancelotti scooping Player and Manager of the Month accolades, respectively.
That terrific start may have come to an end, but the Blues still beat Chelsea and Arsenal, with a Boxing Day win at Sheffield United lifting Ancelotti’s charges into second. A barmy 5-4 win over Spurs in the FA Cup, which Ancelotti celebrated with a cooling blow on his Bovril, and a 2-0 win at Anfield – Everton’s first for nearly 22 years – came within the space of ten days.
A final position of tenth represented a disappointing end to the campaign, but so long as Ancelotti and the core group of players stayed, many thought real progress could be made. In the summer, Ancelotti, perhaps knowing the purse strings would be forcibly tightened, reportedly rang old club Real Madrid to enquire for players. In typical Everton fashion, they signed our manager instead.
Back to square one it was. Moshiri’s insistence to have a coach who had been at the top of the game led him to Rafa Benitez, who had called Everton a “small club” during his time at the helm of arch-rivals Liverpool. To make matters worse, financial restrictions meant he could spend just £1.8m throughout the summer window. Although, looking back, that may have been a blessing.
That appointment was, simply put, never going to work. He opened with one defeat in seven, but that was a level of form that would have to be maintained and it quickly nosedived, with Everton winning just one – a last-minute victory over Arsenal, helped by a Demarai Gray screamer – of their next 13. A horror-ridden defeat at Norwich brought an end to his reign, but not after Moshiri had signed off the £37.5m combined deals for VItalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson, the loan of Anwar El Ghazi and sale of Digne.
Manager-elect Vitor Pereira, who Kenwright had wanted to appoint almost ten years prior, went on Sky Sports to discuss the interview he’d had for the job, and to “hit back at critics”. Have you ever seen anything like it?
Nevertheless, Frank Lampard was the latest manager to fall off the carousel. He presided over six crucial victories, including a ten-man, 99th-minute winner against Newcastle after a Just Stop Oil protestor had tied himself to the post, and a two-goal comeback over Crystal Palace which had more than a Wimbledon flavour to it. Protests, a flying dog and coach welcomes saw Everton over a line they hoped to never fly so near again. If only.
The opening half of 22/23 was simply peak Moshiri era. An inconsistent end to 2022 was characterised by two defeats to Bournemouth in the space of four days by a scoreline of 7-1 alongside crushing home defeats against Wolves and Southampton with a ludicrous draw at Manchester City in between. The infamous “headlock gate” followed after a 4-1 hammering at the hands of Brighton, prompting fans to stop players in their cars as they left. One wise man passionately declared to a perplexed Yerry Mina, “you could be our captain, lad.”
Moshiri, perhaps noticing his kingdom crumbling to ruin, attended his first game in 14 months the next week as Everton fell to a dire loss at West Ham. Despite sensationally claiming “it’s not my decision” to sack the manager after the match, it was to be Lampard’s final game in charge with the Toffees marooned in 19th. To add salt into an already gaping wound, Moshiri stated “we need a striker, and we will get one.” The next day, Arnaut Danjuma, who allegedly came to Finch Farm and had pictures in the shirt, headed for Spurs. Everton did not get a striker.
Sean Dyche beat out Marcelo Bielsa (because their managerial footprint is very similar) for the chance to drag Everton kicking and screaming to safety. He started his reign in perfect fashion, masterminding a 1-0 win over table-topping Arsenal. Big victories over Brentford and Brighton and points scrapped at Chelsea, Nottingham Forest, Leicester and Wolves set up a squeaky 1-0 win over Bournemouth to clinch safety.
By this point, Moshiri had checked out and was desperate to sell. In August 2023, MSP Sports Capital withdrew from talks over taking a minority stake in the club, which saw 777 return to the negotiating table. The baseball cap-clad investors had fingers in plenty of footballing pies, but their ownership felt like leaving the frying pan only to enter the fire. They attended a crushing defeat to Luton which left Everton 16th in the early table.
Just under two months later, the club was hit by a ten-point deduction – the largest in top-flight English football history – as the Moshiri era hit a new and scarcely believable low.
Despite the deduction, Everton rallied. Four wins in nine days propelled Dyche’s side out of the bottom three. A rocky, 13-game period without a win sent nerves jangling once more, before victories over Nottingham Forest and Brentford with a heroic win in the derby – the first with fans for 14 years – sandwiched in between winched the Toffees to safety with time to spare.
Another long summer of talks, bids, backouts and more saw uncertainty reach fever pitch. TFG originally came in and left, before returning in September with an eye to get the deal done. It was finally ratified on Thursday, December 19th.
While most of the Moshiri era had lurched from one disaster to the next, Everton’s new home, the grand-looking Bramley Moore Dock, has been erected, and has now been officially handed over to the club ahead of opening next year. Moshiri always wanted a new ground and has earned respect in some corners for getting it done. Realistically, though, the negatives of his reign have far outweighed the positives, and turning Everton from a stable Premier League side into one in financial ruin who have battled against the current each of the last three years to survive, has not been worth the new ground.
Moshiri has gone and is hopefully taking the bad days with him. Hope springs eternal, as the Toffees can now look forward to a prosperous future on the banks of the royal blue Mersey.
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