The premier league season 2024/2025 is just 10 games in, yet already the general feeling of fan is that we’re already counting down the days until the season finishes in May. The last 3 have been similar, slightly different at the fact of they were just wishing the misery was over after seasons of uncertainty fighting relegations & point deductions alike, this year could end up the same with how the teams started, but it was hoped it would be different this time out.
Just sheer hope, hope that the coaching staff would build on a largely positive points total last campaign given the years prior (excluding deductions of course) hope that maybe Everton could consolidate themselves even further, hope that the ownership sorted itself out & on top of that, just hope of enjoying one last seasonal outing at Goodison Park as the old lady closes its doors for the final time in 2025 before the much talked about move to Bramley Moore Dock.
I think that’s the biggest part of this thing of wishing the season away, it’s subtly been burned in to Everton fans minds by the club itself, ‘get to Bramley Moore dock in one piece’ so is it any wonder Everton fans are already looking past this season? Looking past the closure of Goodison Park? It’s not seen as an opportunity to give Everton another platform to build on going in to BMD, it’s seen as just another year of survive & finally move in to the glimmer of hope, which has so much pressure on it to be the turning point. If that mentality is so obvious to supporters, it must be obvious for every single person employed by Everton football club, from the interim boardroom, the staff & then to the players.
The football being served up is of course another factor, no beating round the bush it’s been dreadful. Sean Dyche is a fanbase splitter, some are big fans, some merely respect the job he’s doing & some seemingly despise him/his approach to football. Dyche’s methods are seen as tolerable by a majority, as long as it brings points it’s doing the job, however when it’s not it’s a really hard sell to anyone. Dyches side have seemingly gone backwards from last season, stats in every department are down & Everton find themselves 16th with 10 games played, having mustered up a very low xG of 10.8 across those games.
It’s a huge factor, but it’s another factor in itself of this whole piece, Dyches contract expires this coming summer. It’s another thing a certain section of blues are waiting for, an eagerness for a managerial change, therefore counting the days for the managers contract to expire? = wishing the season away once again.
Speaking of contracts, Everton currently have 12 players deals expiring next summer (loans included) on top of that Director of football Kevin Thelwell’s contract as of writing is also down as expiring in the summer of 2025. All this is seen 2 ways, one is that it’s going to be a summer of work next year, but more importantly it’s another factor in a ‘clean slate’ for next summer, another fresh start people are hoping for & looking forward to. But it’s a state of limbo isn’t it? Everton may have a great platform to start fresh, great, but in the meantime it’s just another example of going through the motions of the season, players/manager/DOF all probably knowing their time is coming to an end, just cruising by as the time on their deals ticks down. Adding in another factor of Everton football club as a whole just generally bypassing the season & hoping to just get the season done with.
Another state of limbo is the biggest one, a takeover that looks likely to be going through in 4/6 weeks, but whilst that’s ongoing Everton are just in a stagnated state aren’t they? Not that there is a major decision to be made, but if there was it couldn’t be made too *cleanly* with absent ownership. Everton fans internally are desperate to be finally rid of Moshiri, by time that happens we could be near the halfway mark already for the PL season. You’d hope The Friedkin Group have been hard at work already during this time, getting together their boardroom & staff to help turn Everton in to a functioning football club & business. When they come in they’ll no doubt run the rule over the contracts that are expiring, but again until then it’s another waiting game & just getting by until they’re in the door.
It’s a tricky one, I mention earlier about being force fed the famous tagline of ‘get to Bramley Moore & we’ll be fine’ it could be the case, financially it helps after a couple years there, but it’s not an instant fix. Everton have been vocal, in selling terms anyway, of marking the final year of Goodison. However internally as the message continues to be the above, how can it be taken too seriously? Instead of savouring the final games at Goodison it’s just completely being looked through.
It’s sad really, a sad curtain fall on one of English footballs historic football stadiums. Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t expecting Everton to turn in to Pep’s Barcelona purely because we’re moving stadium, but just the sheer lack of optimism around it is grim.
It’s just a knock on affect isn’t it, just an area of the unknown.
Middle of an ownership/boardroom change
Final year before a stadium switch
Final year before a probable manager switch
Final year before a potential DOF switch
Final year before a probable squad overhaul with 12+ of the current crop out of contract 2025
So to no surprise really it’s already at a stage of purely waiting on the above & hoping it’s the turning point for this club, negative or positive it’s just the way it is, especially as I say when it’s the club itself internally setting out the ‘just get by’ tagline.
Although have to admit watching the Fulham/Southampton games back to back, couldn’t help think the same thing…the only worry is in this sleepwalking state the whole club is seemingly in, it doesn’t sleepwalk it’s way in to trouble in terms of threat of relegation again. Especially after it felt like last season was a platform to consolidate ourselves away from that stress & misery…
At the end of it all, it’s true, Everton did have to survive for BMD in a very real sense. They had to survive for themselves anyway of course, but especially with a new stadium on the way. I’m just uneasy about the mentality being just get by, no real targets other than that. The squads not the best, but it’s just loser-like mentality for me to have this way of thinking, the stadium is huge but I just wish we’d stop looking past the present. Make something of it! Progress, build a platform, get things in place for the summer, instead of a going backwards feeling we’re currently getting. A few years of continuity now on the playing side, despite losing players, I was hoping that Everton could push that little bit further again this year in terms of performance levels, but it just hasn’t been the case…and that mentality starts at the top for me.
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