In football we often hear plenty of talk about ‘five year plans’ so it’s probably fair to say Everton aren’t where they’d like to be right now given that on January 15, 2017, they thrashed Manchester City 4-0.
The result was the undoubted highlight of Ronald Koeman’s short and not-so-sweet tenure as Blues boss with the former Barcelona icon able to get one over on his ex-Camp Nou team-mate Pep Guardiola.
However, while the Dutchman won the battle, nobody is disputing that the Catalan has most definitely won the war.
The previous spring, Bill Kenwright had finally ended the long search to find a billionaire investor in the shape of Farhad Moshiri.
It was hoped that the Iranian-born businessman’s wealth and ambition would help Everton compete with the Premier League’s 21 st century elites like nouveau riche City (how long do you retain that tag – are Chelsea now considered ‘old money’?), but while nobody could ever accuse Mr Moshiri of not putting his money where his mouth is, it’s proved something of a very bumpy ride.
From day one, the former Arsenal shareholder, who sold his shares at the Emirates to Alisher Usmanov to take control of the Blues, identified the need for a new stadium and he has delivered spectacularly on that front.
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With major expansion work not possible on Goodison Park’s existing footprint, Everton’s aspirations to move to a new home had long been a dream with high-profile relocation failures at King’s Dock and Kirkby but with Bramley-Moore Dock now in-filled, the foundations being laid and the first above ground structures already in place, the club remain on track to be kicking off a new era by the banks of the River Mersey in 2024.
The most important element of any football club though is undoubtedly always the team on the pitch though and in that respect, Everton have failed to progress and in many ways have gone backwards.
After defeating City 4-0, Everton were just two places below them in the Premier League table and the gap between the clubs was nine points.
Going into this weekend’s fixtures, City are top of the table with 53 points, which is 11 more than they’d taken from the same number of games (21) after the result at Goodison Park in 2017.
Rafa Benitez’s side in contrast sit in 15 th place with just 19 points (14 fewer than the same time five years ago) albeit having played three games fewer due to the postponements of fixtures against Burnley, Newcastle United and Leicester City (the latter twice).
Like the current Everton team, Koeman’s men didn’t boss possession – who can against Guardiola’s pass masters? – but in a similar fashion to how they performed more effectively early this season, they soaked up the visitors having 71% of the ball and scored with four of their six attempts on goal.
Belgian pair Romelu Lukaku (34) and Kevin Mirallas (47) put the hosts in command either side of the break before youngsters Tom Davies (79) and substitute Ademola Lookman (94) added late gloss.
So what of the scoring quartet some five years on?
At 34, Mirallas has been without a club since last season having last played for Gaziantep in Turkey.
Following spells with Manchester United and Internazionale after leaving Everton for a club record £75million sale later in 2017, Lukaku is finally back in the Premier League and back at Chelsea but still possessing a propensity for rocking the boat with his loose tongue in a manner as potent as his on-the-field finishing.
Lookman remains a mercurial and enigmatic talent, capable of producing the spectacular on his day – he netted Leicester City’s winner against Liverpool earlier this season – but that remains his only Premier League goal to date this term.
Home-grown hero Davies, currently out injured and the only of one of those who netted that day still at Everton, went on to become the youngest-ever player to captain the club but in truth hasn’t kicked on sufficiently to a level you might have hoped given his spectacular introduction with the 5-2 home defeat to Watford his only Premier League start in 2021/22.
The ephemeral nature of life as a footballer in England’s top flight is also highlighted by the fact that Davies is one of only three players in each team not to have moved on along with Seamus Coleman and Mason Holgate at Everton and City’s trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and former Blues man John Stones.
But while City, currently on course for their fourth title in five seasons under Guardiola, have gone on to create a dynasty that has dominated the domestic game since then (the first two of their previous three were secured with points totals of 100 and 98), before 2017 was out, Koeman was sacked and has been subsequently followed through the Goodison Park exit door by Sam Allardcye, Marco Silva and Carlo Ancelotti.
Steering Everton to seventh place in his only full season in charge, Koeman’s successors Allardyce and Silva both managed eighth, the highly-decorated Ancelotti presided over finishes of 12 th and 10 th – slipping from second spot on Boxing Day in the latter – and Benitez is now left looking over his shoulder after just one last-gasp win from his last 12 Premier League matches.
A patchwork quilt of a squad assembled – at great expense it must be said – by these varied managers with their different footballing philosophies and the recently-axed director of football Marcel Brands has continued to under-achieve and has become locked in a downwards spiral.
The medicine that long-suffering Evertonians have been forced to take with the appointment of a former Liverpool boss and then his subsequent falling out and sale of a fan-favourite has left a bad taste in the mouth for many, but the hope must remain that such dramatic measures can ultimately be for long-term gain.
That might be difficult to see right now and significant sections of a browbeaten supporter base are struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel ahead of one of the longest away trips on the Premier League calendar today.
Lessons need to be learned from the failures of the past five years as Everton move towards what must be an exciting new start for them by Liverpool’s iconic waterfront.
Things will undoubtedly look very different again by January 2027.
The manager, players and those within the club’s corridors of power are all duty bound to ensure they’re actually better though because it’s totally unpalatable that they sink any lower than their current position.
