Will Everton Survive The Season?
Everton’s takeover by US billionaire Dan Friedkin is imminent, but the final decision rests with the Premier League...
Hello and welcome back to The Overlap Newsletter! Arsenal came close to a famous victory at the Etihad Stadium, despite being down a player after Trossard received a second yellow at the end of the first half. Manchester City had almost 88% possession in the second half but struggled to find a way through Arsenal’s defence, who employed every trick to withstand City’s attack. But eight minutes into stoppage time, John Stones scored a dramatic equaliser to ensure that the champions remained top of the table - and still undefeated at home since November 2022. Manchester City have faced a big blow, with Pep Guardiola confirming that Rodri will miss the season due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Could this be Arsenal’s chance to push for the title? Watch the latest episode of Stick To Football on The Overlap Youtube Channel as the whole team are back: Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jill Scott. Also Catch the most recent Fan Debate as Jamie Carragher and Paul Scholes are joined by fans across the country, as well as journalist Martyn Ziegler. Listen to the latest episode of It Was What It Was following the link below, as Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper travel back to one of the biggest financial scandals in early English football— the 1904-05 Manchester City scandal:
Quiz Question…
Erling Haaland could become the second Premier League player to score in each of a team’s first six matches of a season. Who was the first to do so in 2019/20?
Answer to follow at the end of the Newsletter…
Stick To Football Behind The Scenes
By Rob Draper, co-host It Was What It Was
If you didn’t see Everton in the mid 1980s, you missed one of English football’s great teams. Really, you did! You don’t hear so much about the superb forward play of Andy Gray, Adrian Heath and Graeme Sharp. Nor about how Neville Southall was for that period one of the world’s great goalkeepers. Nor how a sublime midfield of Peter Reid, Paul Bracewell, Trevor Steven and Kevin Sheedy played Bayern Munich off the park one heady night at Goodison Park in April 1985.
Because one month later, not long after Everton secured the first division title and won the old UEFA Cup-Winners’ Cup, Heysel happened: 39 fans, mainly Italians, died at the decrepit Belgian stadium when a wall collapsed, the crush caused by violence from Liverpool fans, the culmination of years of hooliganism perpetrated by English fans abroad.
Amidst the tragedy and human suffering it became a minor detail but naturally significant to Evertonians that the club missed their moment. English clubs were banned from Europe for five years and by the time they began a staggered return in 1990, Everton were no longer the finest team on the continent. There would be no grand old European Cup winning teams to celebrate, no rich heritage of European success on which to build in the 1990s. Football was about to enjoy a boom time, the riches of globalisation and satellite TV were to be showered on the elite as the Premier League and Champions League came along in 1992.
But Everton were sliding out of view towards those perennial relegation fights. They did win the FA Cup under Joe Royle and they competed well under David Moyes, even returning to the Champions League for a Play-Off game for the main event, which they lost. Forever the bridesmaid, their ship had sailed taking with it the Champions League money and global fame.
As such, what happened this week at Everton maybe the most significant date in the club’s history since the 1987 title win. Back then, the English football landscape was dominated by the Big Five: Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton. Arguably Arsenal and United were just hanging on to the coat-tails of the three more successful clubs by virtue of their history.
Since then, three of those four have thrived and even Tottenham have the stadium infrastructure and budget to be one of Europe’s strongest clubs, even if they lack the trophies to show for it.
At United, Arsenal and Liverpool, a combination of genius managers building smartly on historic success and, at least in Arsenal and Liverpool’s case, smart and strategic US owners has helped them navigate the riches of the 21st century. United, with their less smart owners, struggled once the managerial genius element of the equation was removed, but the credit accrued in the 1990s and early noughties has not yet been wholly spent.
Everton’s imminent takeover by US billionaire Dan Friedkin, subject to Premier League approval, is not a panacea. The good old days are not going to roll back immediately, certainly not whilst they’re still threatened with relegation and even another points deduction for profit and sustainability issues.
Nor is progress inevitable. Friedkin’s record at Roma is mixed: winning a European trophy and reaching the Europa League final is all good; sacking Daniele de Rossi weeks after agreeing a three-year deal and failing to make the Champions League despite an investment of €800m, not so much.
Yet amidst the autumnal storms, a shaft of sunlight is breaking through the Mersey on Bramley-Moore Dock, not least because that is the location of the new 52,000 seater stadium, which is almost ready to go. In that respect, they have stolen a march on Manchester United and Chelsea. Their new stadium will be the equal of the Etihad in capacity and better in terms of facilities. They are finally punching their weight.
Should they survive this season they now have an owner who is willing to inject money. The Moshiri years demonstrates that money isn’t everything. How you spend it is much more important. But crucially Dan Friedkin is not at risk of seeing his principal backer sanctioned by the UK and US government.
Everton are unlikely ever to overhaul Liverpool, as they looked like they might in the 1980s (though we did once say that about Manchester City and United). But with sensible custodianship, a new stadium and new owners could make them a functional football club again - that’s a prize worth seizing. The jury remains out on the Friedkin Group. But those with memories of the 1980s Everton team will wish them well.
Quiz Answer:
Sergio Aguero