Despite an ambitious new stadium, Everton are settling for mid-table mediocrity, according to the club’s chairman.
After 200 years of success at Goodison Park, Everton decided to move their home to a new 52,820-seater stadium, on the Bramley Apple Dock – the scene of the infamous Merseyside Fruit Massacre of 1875, in which 172 people lost their lives. Disgruntled Scousers rioted due to local traders increasing prices on certain fruit and veg; pelting barrowboys with abuse and cooking apples as they prepared for market.
Everton’s new £800 million, Hills Dicksinhim Stadium is the second most expensive ground in the Premier League, behind Tottenham Hotspur’s ‘The Coq of Football Stadium’, an aptly named, £1 billion, multi-complex arena, hosting rock concerts, cock fights, wrestling, and meat helmets lessons.
The signs that Everton are settling for mid-table mediocrity.
Similar to many of these multi-complex stadiums, the revenue stream is expected to be separate from off-pitch entertainment. To avoid the soulless atmosphere of West Ham United’s Olympic Stadium – ‘Watching West Ham is an apathetic experience’: London Stadium frustrations are boiling over again – The Athletic – Everton has opted for a community-based theme, opening up a Job Centre Plus on the complex, as well as obligatory restaurants, bars, nightclubs, betting shops, and a high-class bordello.
“We are catering for the whole community at Everton,” said Everton Chairman, Dan Fried-Chicken. “We appreciate that not everyone can come and enjoy the game, so we are working around the football – making the game an afterthought – and creating an atmosphere where the local unemployed can collect their dole money, have a few drinks, and waste their money on gambling and prostitutes…all under one roof.”
Both clubs have had to settle for mediocrity.
Over the last decade, there have been clear signs that Everton are settling for mediocrity on the field but showing great ambition in the field of hospitality.
Everton’s highest league finish since 2020 has been 12th, and the last four seasons are a clear indication that Everton are settling for mid-table mediocrity. Last year they finished in 13th position, significantly lower than provincial Nottingham Forest, and the seasons before that they finished in 16th, 17th and 15th position, a clear sign that the owners have sucked on-field ambition from the club.
One thing is certain: since Everton’s Merseyside rivals, Liverpool, got us all thrown out of Europe in 1985, both Nottingham Forest and Everton have had to settle for mediocre times.
During the three seasons that followed the Heysel Stadium disaster – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heysel_Stadium_disaster – Everton and Forest would have both seen European qualification on a number of occasions.
The bitterest pill to swallow is the fact that, between the 1984/85 and 1986/7 seasons, Everton won the league title twice and finished second, at a time when the European Cup was actually for champions.
The harsh reality is, if it weren’t for the Liverpool fans and inept Belgian maintenance operatives, Everton fans would probably have celebrated winning at least one European Cup within that time, as the legendary side of that era included the likes of pundit and activist, Gary Lineker, Peter Reid, Andy Gray, Trevor Stephens, and the prolific goal scoring machine, Graeme Sharp.
Another reality is that both David Moyes and Sean Dyche love a 1-0 win – who doesn’t? – and with that in mind, this could be almost as boring as the banal Wolves game in which Forest struggled to break down a woeful Wolverhampton Wanderers side with fewer points than a samosa.
