Everton doesn’t feel broken anymore...David Moyes said it himself when taking the microphone to address the crowd following Goodison Park’s final Premier League fixture.
Having been asked for his thoughts by host Gethin Jones during the ‘End of an Era’ ceremony following the 2-0 win over Southampton, the Blues boss proclaimed: “We had unbelievable times here over the years, and we need to start rebuilding again. This club to me felt like one which was a big family, looked broken, felt broken, doesn’t feel like that anymore.”
Anybody who was fortunate to be at Goodison Park on Sunday or even see images of the scenes at the ground can be left in any doubt over what a special football club Everton is. It’s just a shame that new owner Dan Friedkin wasn’t there to witness them having chosen not to attend any matches at the club’s home for the past 133 years since completing his takeover almost five months ago.
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Predecessor Farhad Moshiri was an absentee landlord for Premier League fixtures at Goodison over the last three years of his tenure, churning through eight managers in as many years at the helm and took the club to the brink of the Championship and financial ruin with an unprecedented brace of points deductions for PSR rule breaches. This was the result of his wild but aimless profligate spending earlier in his reign which Everton superfan Dr David France compared to that of “an inebriated lottery winner,” but while Manchester City have claimed the game’s biggest prizes as those still unresolved 115 charges hang over their heads, tragically for the Blues, surely no other team in football history spent so much to become so bad.
At least the billionaire accountant delivered on the new stadium front, and that was in the face of a global pandemic that saw professional football played behind closed doors for the first time; the threat of a breakaway European Super League whose would-be members of a closed shop were prepared to appoint themselves the elite in perpetuity and Russia’s invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine, which directly impacted on his own business interests.
Anything else appeared to be more luck than judgement as let’s not forget this was the man who told us: “It is through my lengthy discussions with 777 that I believe they are the best partners to take our great club forward,” after agreeing a sale with the controversial Miami-based private investment firm that has now collapsed.
Moshiri, who went against the advice of director of football Marcel Brands and chairman, the late Bill Kenwright, to make Kop Idol Rafael Benitez the most-controversial managerial appointment in the history of the most-passionate city in English football, also spurned the opportunity to bring back Moyes on more than one occasion. Thankfully, one of the first big decisions made by The Friedkin Group after taking the reins, was to restore the Glaswegian, who steered Everton to nine top-eight Premier League finishes, including their highest-ever position of fourth in the competition in 2004/05 to the hot seat for what is a pivotal moment in the club’s history.
Goodbye Goodison Park - Souvenir edition
Everton are soon set to say goodbye to Goodison Park as the Toffees play out their final few matches in their iconic home before moving to their incredible new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
And to celebrate this historic and poignant event, the ECHO has produced this stunning special souvenir edition that no fan can afford to be without as they bid farewell to their iconic and beloved home.
We have delved into the ECHO archives to unearth fascinating stories from the famous ground's past, including how it came to be built in 1892 and where its world-famous name came from.
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Buy now and have it delivered directly to your door. Alternatively you can purchase in most supermarkets, high street retailers and independent newsagents on Merseyside from April 2, 2025.
You can also purchase Goodison's Greatest, our celebration of an era when Everton ruled English football. If you love Everton, you’ll just love this - order your copy today, simply click here!
And that's not all, also available is ParkLife, a a high quality, 312 page publication showcasing 133-years of Goodison history in pictures. Available here. Then there's Farewell to Goodison, celebrating 100 of the best moments at the Grand Old Lady, available to purchase now.
For all the hard work Sean Dyche had put in during the Blues’ darkest hours, when an ‘us against the world’ mentality was required, the former Burnley boss was producing too many clunky missteps during an increasingly awkward ‘Last Dance’ with the Grand Old Lady, with one of his biggest limitations being his continued struggles to harness the power of Goodison Park. Incredibly, at just shy of two years’ service in the post, Dyche was the longest-serving Everton manager appointed by Moshiri (although in truth it was Kenwright who pushed for him as the majority shareholder preferred Marcelo Bielsa who wasn’t prepared to take charge until the end of the 2022/23 season which would have been too late).
However, there is now a strong case to put forward to go as far as suggesting that Moyes has shown himself to be the only man capable of managing the Blues successfully over a prolonged period in the modern age. The wheels fell off for Roberto Martinez after a record-breaking first year while ironically at the time he defected back to Real Madrid, even the great Carlo Ancelotti would have been coming under fire for the way his only full season finished if he’d been anyone other than himself with his glittering CV.
That’s how big the task at hand is this summer, but Everton are finally giving themselves a chance again. At the time the Blues lifted their ninth and last League Championship at Goodison Park in 1987, some 96 years after their first at Anfield in 1891, only neighbours Liverpool had won more titles.
Even now, after 30 years of hurt, the longest silverware drought in Everton’s history, it’s just the Reds and Manchester United who can top their longevity record of securing major trophies across nine separate decades. Speaking in his first week in the job, a fruitful start which would see a stadium naming rights deal struck with Hill Dickinson – described by the club as one of the biggest in Europe – the Blues’ first full-time CEO in almost two years, Angus Kinnear namechecked the relative successes this season of outfits with lesser resources, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, as targets to try and emulate.
The subsequent shock FA Cup win for the latter over petrodollar-fuelled Manchester City to lift their first major trophy – providing we don’t count their 4-1 win over Everton to claim the Zenith Data Systems Cup at Wembley in 1991 – should prove an inspiration to both the Blues and the football world at large. The hope must be that finally getting the house in order off the pitch will give Moyes the tools this summer to get things right on it.
It’s no coincidence that Goodison Park’s demise from being the pre-eminent club ground in the country for most of her existence to the third lowest generator of matchday revenue in the Premier League has correlated with Everton’s lengthiest barren streak. However, as we saw in the stands on Sunday, it’s the Blues’ astonishing fanbase that has always been their biggest asset – Moyes saw that back on day one in 2002, dubbing them 'The People's Club' – and that’s been the case since the very start of professional football’s pioneering days.
It was Everton’s pulling power at the turnstiles that saw them get the nod to become founder members of the Football League in 1888, before any of the so-called ‘Big Six’ were involved and ahead of their original local rivals Bootle, who at the time had a superior playing record. Following on from this, the Blues would record the highest average attendances in the competition across its first decade, but while Goodison often attracted crowds of more than 70,000 in her pomp and the mean gate over her existence comes in at 32,000, the move to Bramley-Moore Dock and a 52,888 capacity new home will enable the club to play in front of the biggest regular crowds in their history.
The images produced by Evertonians for Goodison’s goodbye were awe-inspiring, but what’s even more impressive is the fact that these loyal but long-suffering fans share a city with a global football superpower. As Madrid, Milan and dare we say, Manchester, show us, Merseyside is big enough to have two giants of the game again.
Anyone among that sea of blue under the age of 35 and not old enough to play veterans’ football will be too young to remember seeing Everton win anything. Just imagine what the scenes would be like if this venerable, but of late vulnerable, football institution can start getting things right again by the banks of the Mersey?