Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas says the collapse of the club's European ambitions is being felt in the dressing room too
James Garner reacts during the Premier League match between Everton and Sunderland at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
James Garner reacts during the Premier League match between Everton and Sunderland at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
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Everton’s players are hurting, too. Maybe that is a strange thing to write, maybe it should be obvious. You would hope the squad shared the disappointment and frustration of the fanbase after the season ended so miserably with that defeat to Sunderland. My understanding is they do.
For some, it has been a particularly brutal reality check. When they spoke of seeing Europe as an ambition through this season it was a mission they bought into.
It all came crashing down in that second half at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday but as emphatic as the collapse felt, really the season ended in a slow motion car crash. The last six matches have been littered with missed opportunities and the repercussions are being felt beyond the club and the fanbase.
Look no further than the case of James Garner. The 25-year-old has had a stellar season and deserved the England call-up that allowed him to Everton on the international stage. He has been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League this season, the key to big wins for the Blues at places like Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Aston Villa.
And yet instead of basking in a World Cup call-up, his name was a topic of conversation on Friday at the Everton press conference, not the England squad announcement one.
David Moyes, who has championed his star’s claim for international recognition for months, conceded the drop off in form that cost Everton a place in Europe probably hurt Garner’s personal ambitions too.
There was something cruel in Thomas Tuchel choosing to attend Everton’s recent draw at Crystal Palace. The England boss had watched the team slay demons at Old Trafford and Villa Park but at Selhurst Park it just didn’t quite work out.
The inability to hold onto two leads and convert good opportunities was costly that day and probably hurt Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s ambitions, too. I had the privilege of being one of the two reporters Dewsbury-Hall entrusted to explain his international hopes when the Republic of Ireland interest flared again this season.
I thought his honesty and openness about wanting to challenge for England was laudable and, in a season in which No.10s have flattered to deceive, he should have been on Tuchel’s radar (even if I think he may be better as a No.8) - he has been brilliant for the Blues, a talisman who instantly settled at his new club and who will have a big role in its future.
He probably was in Tuchel's thoughts when a hamstring injury curtailed his form in December - that is the only reason he has not hit double figures in an excellent debut season on Merseyside.
He may still have been when Everton travelled to Palace but that was an afternoon when nothing came off for either of the Three Lions prospects.
There are plenty of others for whom the disappointment of the final weeks has proved costly. Just look at what happened for Seamus Coleman’s farewell game. Not that he will want it, but I still feel gutted for him and the way he ended his Blues playing career to a sea of empty blue seats and the noise of celebrating Sunderland supporters.
It would have offered him a degree of protection had the poignant farewell scenes taken place before the game but life is rarely straightforward at Everton and Coleman knows that more than anyone.
And for all that I would have loved to have seen a great crowd stay to say goodbye to one of the great captains of the Premier League era, I cannot write in these pages and pretend I have no idea why people left.
The second-half display was a calamity and I can understand the heartbreak and disillusionment it prompted in the stands given what was at stake. For all the problems of the previous five weeks, Europe was within reach. And then it wasn’t.
And whether or not Europe was a legitimate goal at the start of the season, fans have every right to be devastated about how the dream ended so violently - and to question why it did, and how to avoid that fate in the future.
I am fortunate in my position to spend time in and around the club and I know the players are hurting. So too is Moyes, as was clear at Finch Farm on Friday morning. He has a “cloud” hanging over him, he said, and was disconsolate in the aftermath of the defeat to the Black Cats.
The players and the manager are, of course, among the few people who could have made a difference in how this season ended. Everton had terrible luck with decisions and injuries but some of the disappointment was self-inflicted too.
The way this season has concluded will have real consequences for the club and the supporters - millions less in merit payments and another campaign of Monday night games some of the most obvious concerns. From World Cup opportunities to their own chance to compete on loftier stages with the Blues, the players are also dealing with the fallout on personal and professional levels.
The hope and expectation now has to be that they can harness it to build on this season, to learn from where things could have been done better and put their own hurt, anger and frustration to positive use going into what is a massive summer for Everton.
A good place to start would be with a morale-boosting display in north London.