Everton prompting envy and dread on quest to shake unique status
If nothing else in recent years, Everton have been good company for the miserable. And though the blue half of Merseyside often resonate with neutrals just by virtue of not being the red side, rarely has anyone felt obliged to take the Toffees seriously, much less ever actually fear them.
Everton could be summed up in a single stat: in the 21st century only they of all the clubs in the 92 have had nothing to celebrate. No titles, no trophies, no promotions. Just seemingly endless drift and mediocrity, punctuated by the occasional relegation battle to get riled up about.
Right now, though, there is a lot to appreciate about Everton. Some of which Bluenoses won’t necessarily take as a compliment – but they have at least rediscovered and retained more of their identity than many of their Premier League rivals.
That is all the more impressive given the Toffees are just over a year on from leaving Goodison Park. More than most, Everton were a product of their environment, and we’ve seen at other clubs how ‘progress’ can prove to be anything but.
Now, though, Everton are playing in one of the Premier League’s finest stadiums, led by a manager who understands his club – for better or worse – more than literally any other boss.
Evertonians are sometimes conflicted when it comes to David Moyes. Fresh and progressive, he is not.
But the merest of glances around the Premier League and towards his former club in the Championship, now on their fourth post-Moyes manager, ought to tell them that’s not all it’s cracked up to be. And stability in the dug-out counters the uncertainty currently clouding the boardroom.
Moyes’ team, however, has a most refreshing look this season. Everton are likeable again – and not because anyone feels sorry for them.
That is despite Jack Grealish, supposedly their most charismatic star, burning the candle at both ends and, simultaneously, the bridges built with Evertonians during last season’s loan spell from the much-less agreeable Manchester City.
This Everton, though, is a sum of its parts and thriving without Grealish’s glitter.
Inevitably, as a Moyes team, it is built on solid foundations.
Despite closing in on 100 England caps over a nine-year international career, many pundits can’t shake their weirdness over Jordan Pickford. Would Everton fans swap the undisputed England No.1 for any other Premier League keeper? Only the wrong ‘uns.
It has helped Pickford of late that he’s been protected by arguably the best defensive partnership in the Premier League this season. James Tarkowski, the centre-back’s centre-back, is in the team of the season so far, and the master to his apprentice Jarrad Branthwaite, now re-establishing his England credentials after his progress was severely checked by a hamstring injury last season.
That solidity extends to Moyes’ take on the Dogs of War midfield that helped the club last win a trophy in 1995. The modern-day iteration also possesses the guile to complement the graft.
Everton ought to be grateful to their fans for kicking up enough of a fuss to make the club rethink at least one of their acts of self-sabotage in the summer by demanding that Harrison Armstrong was not to be sold. The teenager has been everywhere this season, covering more ground than all but two players in the Premier League.
While Harrison harries, James Garner – a mini-Valverde, according to Thomas Tuchel – continues to highlight how Manchester United were too hasty in selling the academy graduate. And Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s form as the more creative presence must have caught Tuchel’s eye too.
That even Kopites couldn’t have argued if the latest England squad featured four Toffees – the overlooked Dewsbury-Hall alongside Pickford, Branthwaite and Garner – is another sign of Everton’s progress. On form, it would be five, but at 33, Tarkowski won’t be waiting by the phone.
When Everton players disappear on international duty, Moyes will insist on Thierno Barry hibernating in cotton-wool, given his status as the Toffees’ single specialist centre-forward.
Mercifully and somewhat unexpectedly, Barry has embraced the responsibility. Having publicly aired his struggles with self-doubt while remaining endearingly erratic – he’s scored four but xG suggests he should have six – only the hardest of heart would begrudge the French forward what success he has enjoyed this season.
Of course, with Barry being their only centre-forward, the Toffees are only one tackle or twang away from being completely f***ed up front. It wouldn’t be Everton without unnecessary, self-inflicted jeopardy. Or with consistent and reliable full-backs.
Many clubs might panic in the position Everton left themselves after the summer but the Toffees have spent too long on a variety of precipices to be too fazed by it. The perverse thrill of dicing with danger might finally inspire the club to give the fans something to celebrate. Or more reason to rue their self-harm habit. Either way, we’re very much here for it.