By Nathan John @ University of Gloucestershire
It has been seven years since David Moyes left Everton after a successful 11 year era in charge of the club. But what has the club achieved in the meantime and where does it aim to go? Here we take a look at the five best and worst decisions made by Everton since the Moyes era.
The positives
Takeover of the club by Farhad Moshiri
On 27th February 2016, it was announced that former Arsenal stakeholder Farhad Moshiri had brought a 77.2% stake in Everton FC, meaning that he became the majority shareholder in the Merseyside club. Since Moshiri took over four years ago, Everton have spent a staggering £450 million, putting their net spend above the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. Having signed top quality players, the likes of James Rodriguez from Real Madrid, Moise Kean from Juventus and Gylfi Sigurdsson from Swansea, the club are finally starting to reap the benefits of their spending. Moshiri has spoken of his desire to get Everton into the Champions League and this season the Toffee’s look in their position to achieve that since David Moyes was manager, now playing an established brand of attacking football, with quality all over the pitch.
Appointment of Carlo Ancelotti as manager
When Ancelotti took over the reins at Goodison Park in December 2019, Everton were languishing in sixteenth place, having just sacked failing manager Marco Silva and looked like a team in a relegation battle, let alone pushing for a European position. The former AC Milan, Chelsea and Real Madrid boss was considered one of Europe’s elite managers and guided Everton to a comfortable 12th place position last season. Having had time to bring in the likes of James Rodriguez and Allan over the summer, the team have scored 16 goals in their first 8 games this season and look sure to challenge for a Champions League position, currently sitting in seventh place.
Signing of James Rodriguez
Brought in from Real Madrid in the summer of 2020, the Colombian international has been an instant hit at Goodison Park and arguably their best signing of the past five seasons, already scoring three and assisting three in seven Premier League games this season. Bringing the flair and fluidity from having played for some of Europe’s biggest clubs, the midfielder has linked up perfectly with striker Dominic Calvert Lewin, already looking established in his role as the creative influencer for his side.
?| Carlo Ancelotti: “James was desperate and wanted a new challenge as he wasn’t playing a lot. I think he found the right place because he knows me well and I know him well as well, here at Everton we have a big project and I think he found the right place to show his ability.” pic.twitter.com/ydJbN2tnjG
— Blanco Zone (@theBlancoZone) November 12, 2020
Changing the Goodsion Park goal nets back to Blue
Traditionally, throughout the 80s and 90s Goodsion Park had always had blue goal nets to represent the teams home colours of royal blue. However, in the summer of 2016, the blue goal nets were done away with and replaced with plain white ones, likely for visibility reasons. However, the blue nets returned following the departure of Marco Silva in December 2019 and the Toffees have been racking up the goals ever since, already having scored 25 goals in just 14 league games at Goodison since they were reintroduced.
The sacking of Marco Silva
Silva was appointed on 31st May 2018, taking charge for the 2018/19 season until his departure in December 2019. In that time, he managed an eighth placed finish in 2019, but had win percentage of only 40%, winning just 24 of his 60 games in charge, losing 24 and drawing 12.
The Negatives
The sale of Romelu Lukaku
Arguably one of the club’s best ever strikers and Everton’s main man for four seasons, Lukaku departed the club for Manchester United in the summer of 2017. During his time at Goodison park, the Belgian scored 87 goals in 166 appearances for the Toffees and the club have struggled to replace the attacking threat that he brought, attempting to slot various different players into his position to fill the void he left. However, Oumar Niasse, Cenk Tosun and Sandro all failed to cement their place as the club’s first choice striker and the absence of Lukaku is still felt on the Blue side of Liverpool.
The sacking of Ronald Koeman
The former Barcelona manager, fresh off having guided Southampton to a sixth placed finish in the Premier League in 2016, the Dutchman got Everton to a seventh-place finish in his first season but was subsequently sacked following a 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal in October 2017, with the Toffees sitting in 18th position. Many felt that the sacking was harsh and that Koeman should’ve been given more time, with just nine games of the season gone and the club also competing in Europe.
The re-signing of Wayne Rooney
Many were already sceptical of when Manchester United and boyhood Everton fan Wayne Rooney arrived at Goodsion Park in the summer of 2017, doubting his abilities at age 32 after a few poor seasons at United. This became evident throughout the season, with the former golden boot winner looking slow, sluggish and lethargic, as the club sunk to an eight-place finish in the league. The only highlight of Rooney’s return was a hat-trick against West Ham during a 4-0 victory in November 2017, and the Englishman was shipped off to DC. United the following summer.
The appointment of Sam Allardyce
Allardyce took over in November 2017, with Everton languishing near the relegation places. Although Allardyce guided the team to safety and eventually into a comfortable eight place finish, he had a reputation as being a survival specialist and the move looked negative, with many Toffee’s fans believing he was brought in as a quick-term solution to a bigger problem. He departed the club the following summer, lasting only half a season.
Not giving Duncan Ferguson more time as manager
Although now assistant manager to Carlo Ancelotti, the club were in the relegation zone, in eighteenth position, following Marco Silva’s departure from the club in December 2019. In the three games that Duncan Ferguson took charge as caretaker manager, he managed 5 points out of tough fixtures, including a 3-1 victory over Chelsea at Goodison, as well as a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford and a 0-0 home draw to Arsenal. The whole club seemed to have been given a huge lift following the appointment of the Everton legend and the team could well have gone on to achieve further success if the Scotsman would have been given more time to implement his style and ideas.
