Europe was not on the radar at the start of a season many around Everton would have been happy simply avoiding a relegation fight. But having got so close to something to celebrate, the final seven weeks were brutal
Jack Grealish following Everton's win over Wolves
Jack Grealish following Everton's win over Wolves(Image: (Dan Istitene/Getty Images))
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When Jack Grealish was mobbed in the away end after Everton danced their way to a win at Wolves, the Blues appeared to have lift off.
The victory at Molineux felt symbolic. It suggested the fine away form prompted by David Moyes’ return nine months earlier would continue into a second season. And for all the grit and determination of the previous year, the flair and skill of new creative forces was having an instant impact on a side that had previously looked so limited in the final third.
That August afternoon was one of incisive passing, clever build-up play and a sublime third goal that saw new signings Grealish and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall send the travelling Blues into celebration. There were reminders of the fragility of Everton’s progress - lapses at the back allowed Wolves to make a fight of it. But this felt like a statement performance from a new-look Everton.
It was not the only one, particularly away from home. Across the first half of the season, the belief inspired by the likes of Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall helped Everton play without fear. They led Everton to a rare win at Manchester United even after captain Seamus Coleman left the pitch kicking a water bottle as injury once again halted his season - to be followed soon after by Idrissa Gueye, shown red for raising his arms to Michael Keane in one of the season’s most bizarre moments.
Dewsbury-Hall produced the finish that stunned Old Trafford that night, with Jordan Pickford’s sensational stop from Joshua Zirkzee one of the best in a season of jaw-dropping saves from the England number one. At home to Crystal Palace and then at Bournemouth, another destination mired in past misery for the Blues, Grealish found late magic to seal three points and at Nottingham Forest it was James Garner who produced one of several fine performances to secure a big win.
Everton beat Forest - on both occasions managed by Moyes’ predecessor Sean Dyche - twice in December and the games were marked by useful goals for Thierno Barry and the displays of Garner, who outshone England rivals Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White in the middle on both occasions.
The emergence of Garner as one of the league’s most impressive performers was one of the most satisfying storylines of a season that felt positive for so long. Moyes championed the midfielder for a first senior England call-up at an early stage and Thomas Tuchel eventually heeded his words. He signed a new contract with the club in January and in a squad in flux, established himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet.
Tuchel was clearly impressed when he watched Garner and Grealish - assisted by an exquisite Barry winner - deliver Everton a win at Villa Park in mid-January. Unai Emery’s side was seeking a twelfth consecutive home victory but instead ran up against an immovable object in Everton. Grealish was again key and was spotted chatting with Tuchel in the bowels of the stadium after the final whistle in a scene that added momentum to his push for a return to the international stage ahead of the World Cup.
There was a cruel irony, then, to the 30-year-old enjoying the elation of that moment while carrying the injury that would wreck his chances of a Three Lions comeback. After the match, the Manchester City loanee complained to physios of a calf injury. During those conversations he alerted them to a foot complaint he had experienced for weeks - the stress fracture that was then discovered meant he has not played a competitive minute since.
Months later, Everton were in a strong position to qualify for Europe - a goal repeated as the ambition by Moyes but which seemed unlikely even as supporters travelled home from Villa Park that Sunday night with the joy of three more points, ignorance to Grealish’s plight and while listening to Idrissa Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye become - on the day at least given it is still being disputed - champions of Africa with Senegal.
While that bid for Europe collapsed in the catastrophic final seven weeks of the season, the last fortnight of January may well have been the period when the dream was burst. As Everton slumped across April and May, they did so with a side that had lost the intelligence and guile that Grealish brought in shovel loads - what Moyes would have given for a cheap foul brought on the halfway line as his side conceded costly late goals against Liverpool, West Ham, Man City and Palace.
It was not just the loss of Grealish that hurt Everton in the run-in. Moyes maintained to the very end that his players had little reason to be exhausted given they had neither Europe nor cup runs - for all the joy of the aforementioned Wolves win, the tame Carabao Cup defeat in the Midlands was a low point - to add games to their legs. Yet they looked every bit the team that had used the fewest players in the Premier League, just 22, through the campaign. Of particular note was the drop in effectiveness of Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall and Pickford - three players who had produced many of the season’s best moments and who were, ultimately, too heavily relied upon.
While they had not been exposed to the rigours of European football Ndiaye - and Gueye - played leading roles in the Africa Cup of Nations while Dewsbury-Hall suffered a serious hamstring injury in December that intensified the squad selection crisis over the following six weeks, cost him a possible shot at an England call-up given his form at the time, and which no doubt took its toll as he looked to salvage the team in the closing stages of the season.
Moyes’ reliance on a core group of trusted players paid dividends at times in the season but more rotation, particularly during games, could have helped some of the stars maintain their high levels to the end, while also providing those on the periphery with more confidence for when they were called upon.
Dwight McNeil, who was minutes away from joining Palace at the end of the winter transfer window, Harrison Armstrong, Merlin Rohl and Tim Iroegbunam all had runs in the starting line-up, but Nathan Patterson, Adam Aznou and Tyler Dibling were provided little - if any - opportunity in the second half of the campaign.
What made that more peculiar was Patterson, Dibling and Rohl (until his late run of starts) had looked useful when called upon during a difficult January. Moyes used just 22 players in the league but only had the potential to call upon one more senior outfield player - Aznou. Moyes’ concern over his ability to compete immediately due to his physicality was backed up by Under-21s manager Paul Tait, who made a similar observation when the Morocco international played as the academy side lost at League One Bradford City.
Yet his cameo from the bench in the FA Cup game against Sunderland was positive - he won the late penalty that took the game to extra time and provided much-needed attacking impetus down the left.
Given the number of times Moyes asked Vitalii Mykolenko to provide some thrust down the left, and how desperate Everton were for inspiration at key moments, Aznou’s lack of a single Premier League second remains baffling. The season endured by Aznou and Dibling - the most expensive signing of the summer and who Moyes repeatedly suggested needed to work harder in training - remains one of the biggest areas of concern now the season is over.
Both names were absent as CEO Angus Kinnear praised the impact of summer signings in his pre-Sunderland notes. Both are problematic for an Everton hierarchy that was in flux as the club embarked on the first stages of a massive, necessary squad rebuild before this season. Given the need for every player to have an impact, their lack of use raises questions over their recruitment and the way they have been handled since.
Who was responsible for what in the transfer market remains one of the biggest unanswered questions. Moyes has made clear he had sign-off, but last summer appeared to take on a muddled approach - perhaps understandable and inevitable given the mess the Friedkin Group and Moyes inherited from former owner Farhad Moshiri. There were high-profile contracts yet to be resolved and an overhaul of a squad that had been significantly under-invested in was required.
What is clear is that Everton missed out on a number of their top targets, from forward Liam Delap to wingers like Francisco Conceicao and Malick Fofana to Kenny Tete, who came close to solving their long-running issue at right back before he opted to sign a new contract with Fulham.
That struggle, combined with the difficulty in selling an Everton side that had been involved in high-profile relegation and regulatory battles and could not offer European football, made business tough and Moyes became increasingly vocal about the need for numbers as the club toured the USA in pre-season with a squad that was short of quantity and quality. Given the doubts Moyes has expressed about some of the players since, the recruitment strategy of the time remains perplexing.
Which brings us back to January. Despite the injury to Grealish and a terrible week at Hill Dickinson that saw the club hammered by Brentford, throw away a win against Wolves in a game that saw two players sent off and then dumped out of the FA Cup by Sunderland, Everton could take succour from the return to fitness of Dewsbury-Hall and - having been out all season - Jarrad Branthwaite, plus Gueye and Ndiaye coming back from AFCON.
Given there were still obvious deficiencies in the side, the month presented the opportunity to add to Moyes’ squad. It felt like an inflexion point - a platform to battle for Europe had been laid, but the side appeared in need of strengthening if it was to be a serious contender. Moyes hoped for signings to help Everton take advantage of the opportunity that appeared to be developing. His view was clear despite misgivings about whether Everton could be ready for a European campaign next season, given the squad still required major work: qualification for the 2026/27 season may be ahead of schedule, but the value of the boost it would provide to supporters and in the ability to attract better players in the summer before the adventure made it a suitable goal.
The alternative view was to hold steady in a window notoriously tough to do business in and save the next stage of the rebuild for the summer. Had the following five months been spent developing the squad and providing consistent opportunities for the likes of Rohl, Dibling, Aznou and Armstrong to advance, a mid-table finish could still have been viewed as a positive outcome.
Instead, Everton did neither. Work was done to try and improve what, to then, had been a misfiring attack as Beto failed to play the role of lead forward who could allow Barry time to adapt beneath him. Youssef En-Nesyri and Callum Wilson were both looked at in that department, while Everton also searched to no avail for a right back and enquired about Harry Wilson.
But only Tyrique George - who had good moments towards the end of the season and may yet be signed on a permanent deal from Chelsea - arrived as a replacement for Grealish. The squad was not strengthened, a loan move for Aznou was not found despite the club being open to it and in the months that followed Everton sacrificed sustained squad development in favour of the same core group of players in a bid to secure Europe, but still missed out.
There was a run across February when it looked like the plan would work - wins at Newcastle United and Fulham, a late point salvaged at Brighton and the discovery of some form from Beto up front and from the wider side at the new stadium made Europe feel within reach when the team thrashed Chelsea in late March.
But in the seven games that followed, the frailties that had existed throughout the season - a lack of ruthlessness up front and obvious limitations at full-back were intensified by the drop-off from senior players and vulnerabilities in the defence without Branthwaite, whose services Everton were again deprived of in a harrowing conclusion to the home Merseyside derby.
Even then, this was a season defined by fine margins. Penalties in key moments were wrongly denied - as agreed by the referees’ watchdog - against West Ham and Man City, injuries to Beto and Branthwaite in the derby and Gueye for the crucial last four games were catastrophic, and Everton repeatedly fought their way into good positions only to fall short in the final minutes.
And for all the concerns over the use of his squad, Moyes has no doubt taken many of the players with him through the season. This extends to his trusted core - Garner, whose cause he has celebrated for months, Grealish, whose love for football he has helped rekindle, and even Rohl, who spoke of feeling the manager’s trust even after going effectively unused for most of the season.
Europe was not on the radar at the start of the season and most would have settled for a mundane season in which relegation was never a threat. This was a campaign that was at times exciting and there were no survival fears at any stage. Yet the unedifying collapse to Sunderland, coupled with the torment of how a season of tangible progress was torn from Everton’s grasp so late on means the year ends with a sense of frustration and disappointment. The damage caused by late collapses, none more so than watching Liverpool score yet another stoppage time winner, has been significant but it has been the sight of so many other fanbases experiencing the opposite emotions that has perhaps hurt most.
In 10 tough days, Sunderland, Bournemouth and Brighton qualified for Europe and Aston Villa and Crystal Palace won trophies in Europe. Everton, meanwhile, were nearly-men again. The challenge going forward is to find a way to stop that from being the case and that this season came so close to providing something positive to celebrate, only for it to be wrenched away in the final weeks, means a year that held so much promise ended in yet more trauma.
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