_You are my Everton, my only Everton
__You make me happy when skies are grey…_
What happens, though, when _Everton_ themselves are the reason why skies are grey?
That’s a notion that Phil McNulty taps into in his [recent article for BBC Sport](https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c0m3lpj4gm4o) where he asks: “is supporting Everton a life of unrelenting sporting misery? Or is there still joy and celebration to be had following of one the grand old English football institutions?”
He is not the first person to ponder the question, even if he does it with more sensitivity and awareness than most. Indeed, in their rather infantile — and, as such, very on-brand — talkSPORT segment recently, Jason Cundy and Jamie O’Hara became the latest media chuckleheads to ask, “what is the point of Everton?” The club that, in their eyes, just exists and has done so without doing anything of note so far in the 21st century other than just survive.
To point out that Cundy’s Chelsea did just that for decades before their revival in the 1990s and then Rouble-fuelled lift-off into the stratosphere or that O’Hara’s Tottenham have, outside of their brief dalliance with Champions League glory and occasional trophy success down the years, been bedfellows of Everton in the attic of anonymity and serial under-achievement for most of the Premier League era would merely give more oxygen to their facile argument.
But it’s worth mentioning because it speaks to the degree to which modern fandom and so much of the media coverage of the game these days overlooks the rewards and sense of belonging that comes from supporting a club beyond simply what happens on the pitch.
Dr David France, a man who has witnessed more soaring highs and crushing disappointments as a Blue than most, encapsulates the issue as only he can: "I can explain what I celebrate, even if we haven't had tangible success for so long. I celebrate being an Evertonian."
Few things have rung more true for me. Like the majority of a Blue disposition reading this, I would imagine, I have lost nights of sleep over Everton; have spent days and weeks on end with a permanent knot of anguish in my stomach during the recent relegation battles. It’s surely no coincidence that I started to lose my hair in 1994!
But some of my greatest memories in life were forged at the worst of times for Everton. The sheer rush and elation of that almost impossible escape against Wimbledon 32 years ago; dancing in the rain on the Goodison Park pitch with fellow jubilant Toffees after another nail-biting dance with oblivion in 1998 before turning our ire towards the Directors’ Box; shouting myself hoarse from the Main Stand in May 2022 when Everton again came back from 2–0 to win 3–2 in the most dramatic of fashions against Crystal Palace before retiring to a bouncing Denbigh Castle to drink the evening away in celebration. Give me a stirring, backs-to-the-wall escape from relegation over winning promotion back to the Premier League any day!
Granted, each moment may have been mired in awful context but they were a reminder of the defiance that exists within the Everton fanbase; of the determination that this club will not fall despite the incompetence of those charged with being the custodians of Everton FC and on whose actions rest the hopes and dreams of a legion of Toffees; of the notion that were the power of the fans the only requirement for success, Everton’s trophy cabinet would be full to bursting; that to be an Evertonian is to be part of something much bigger than success on the pitch can either convey or contain.
"Yes, there have been disappointments and those years without trophies, but let me tell you this — I wouldn't swap being an Evertonian for anything in the world."
_Leon Osman_
As Leon Osman put it in McNulty’s piece, "It's better to be an Evertonian than to support any other club — and you mark my words, if and when we do get silverware, just you watch those celebrations. They will be something else." Which is to acknowledge that the misery component of McNulty’s question is borne precisely of the magnificent achievement of Everton’s past. The 31-year wait for a trophy hurts as much as it does because silverware is part of the club’s tradition.
Dr France, meanwhile, further explains: "I'm very lucky to be part of something very special supporting Everton. It is a special community. You don't become an Evertonian to be a glory hunter do you?
"We have loyalty inbred into us. We don't just support the club, Evertonians support one another. We are a family. When I go to watch Everton, I feel like I'm among friends."
No truer words have been spoken.
What keeps the flickering flame of optimism alive in Evertonians is that even without the enormous benefits of a London location and catchment area, or the associated, now baked-in financial advantages of massive commercial revenues that the likes of Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal enjoy, and even with the massive headwinds that the current Squad Cost Ratio spending rules represent, the _potential_ for a return to greatness is always there.
We threatened to break the glass ceiling under David Moyes Mk I in the 2000s, saw glimpses of it in 2013/14 under Robert Martinez — frustratingly, if Manchester City are found guilty of financial doping on a massive scale, their rule-breaking would have denied the Blues Champions League qualification that season — and again very briefly under Carlo Ancelotti in 2020 when, for a few short giddy weeks, anything seemed possible.
We even allowed ourselves to dream that The Friedkin Group's takeover might be the start of the kind of renaissance that occurred over Stanley Park when well-heeled American owners rode in. One day, you have to believe, our time to win a trophy will come again even if returning to the very pinnacle of the game now seems remote given the tilted competitive landscape on which we now play.
Has there been footballing pain and misery for Everton since 1995? Of course. I’m fortunate to have lived through both our last title and FA Cup triumphs and ache for those who have known nothing but failure and near-misses in the intervening three decades. But supporting this grand old team will never feel futile while the big Blue family remains intact and there is still hope that one day the sleeping giant will awaken.
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