LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - JUNE 10: A general view of a East Stand (L) and South Stand at Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock on June 10 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC)
A general view of a East Stand and South Stand at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock on June 10 2025
Suddenly, it all feels very real, doesn’t it? Everton’s new stadium has stood there on the banks of the Mersey, a glistening, gleaming tribute to ambition, for a long time.
We have even had the privilege to watch football inside it, those academy test matches providing a tantalising glimpse of what the future holds for supporters of the club.
But, for me at least, it was this week and the release of the fixtures for the first season on the waterfront that made the Hill Dickinson Stadium feel like a reality and not just a dream. It is symbolic of a summer that could transform Everton’s fortunes.
Related Articles
Everton have just opened talks on their most significant deal of the summer
When just over 50,000 make the pilgrimage there on August 9 to watch Roma in the final pre-season friendly, the club will look very different.
Not only will the men’s first team have a new home, David Moyes should have a new squad to play with. Even with the signing of Carlos Alcaraz - a no brainer that continued the momentum of those end-of-season wins into the summer for me - I make it that he needs at least seven additions. And that is if Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye sign the deals offered to them.
This is a once-in-an-era chance to revamp a squad but it will come with challenges. The transfer window could take Everton down several different paths, even with the best forward-planning, given the scale of the job at hand. Compromises will need to be made in some positions - there will need to be an understanding not everything can be achieved in one summer and then patience as a new squad moulds together in new settings.
But this is a summer of hope for Blues and those around the club should be excited. July will usher in a new period in which the hangover of the financial problems and instability of the final years of the Farhad Moshiri reign should be consigned to the past.
The legacy will live on in the debts The Friedkin Group (TFG) have restructured and in the sheer volume of work that has been left to this window because of the uncertainty of recent years. New freedom in terms of PSR should give the club the chance to spend with ambition though.
The big task is to use the resources offered up by TFG wisely. This cannot be another period of excess or boom or bust. We have seen where that can lead a club.
There are promising signs that will not be the case. The big news of this week has been the opening of talks with Jarrad Branthwaite in the hope of securing him to a new deal, one that would reflect his status as a key player in the vision for the future.
It is a statement of intent, even if it was a necessity - you cannot keep telling the world a player is too important to sell while paying him on the basis of a deal struck just after his breakthrough into the first team.
While those discussions attracted headlines, the most telling sign of the ambition of the club was confirmation of the new appointments to Finch Farm, which came on Friday afternoon.
That Everton were set to hire the new arrivals was widely known but the feat of creating the new leadership team is not insignificant.
To have done so with so many highly-respected figures is something of a coup for the Blues and indicative of the strategic ambition at the club.
It shows that TFG want to transform the setup behind the scenes and luring Nick Cox from his role leading the academy at Manchester United is a statement. The new technical director will be joined by Jamie Smith, whose profile at the City Group was substantial and who, as director of scouting and recruitment, will add new expertise to a key position from September.
Chris Howarth’s analytical brain has been taken away from the top European clubs his expertise was supporting and devoted to the Blues while Nick Hammond’s CV is extensive and he has already began work in a player trading role.
TFG want to drive the club to an “elite” level. Achieving that will not be easy.
But Everton have assembled an impressive leadership team off the back of a superb second half of the season under Moyes and ahead of the move to a stunning new home.
There is work to do. There will be challenges. But this does not look like a false dawn. Be patient. But don’t be afraid to dream.