Everton's first Premier League relegation? Never say never

On the 23rd of May 2021, ironically on my last birthday in Liverpool, Everton lost 5-0 to Manchester City.

For many fans, it was the sad end of a season that started full of promise. By the halfway point of the 2020/21 campaign, Everton had 33 points with two games in hand on Leicester, who sat just 6 points above them in 4th.

Carlo Ancelotti laid the groundwork for a team, that many thought could again push for a European place.

But with the loss of the Italian stallion to Real Madrid as well as several public disasters on and off the pitch, Everton are currently in 17th with a measly 22 points on the board.

The optimism of last summer has packed up and left for warmer skies, just like their previous manager.

Everton are staring relegation in the face. The fanbase is worried and rightly so, the blues have never been relegated from the Premier League despite very close encounters with the drop during the 1990s.

With the economic pressure currently facing Everton, the impact of relegation will undoubtedly make meeting its financial targets impossible.

That alongside the prospect of losing high profile players like Richarlison, Dominic Calvert Lewin, Dele Alli and Jordan Pickford, could begin a cycle that came close to destroying other huge clubs, like Leeds United and Nottingham Forest.

Many fans call back to the appointment of Rafa Benitez at the start of the current season as the first indicator that something could and would go drastically wrong.

Indeed, the Spaniard was an unpopular choice to put it lightly. The former Liverpool boss was subjected to negative chanting both on the pre-season tour and his Goodison Park debut. Other “fans” went to more extreme measures, hanging banners outside his home, threatening him to abandon the job before it began.

Regardless, whatever positive impact Benitez could have had was gone by December. Losses to promoted Brentford and Watford left him without fan support, while high-profile fallings out with players, staff members and directors, meant he had little back-up within the club either.

Rafa Benitez was sacked in January, but the damage was done. Everton are again flirting with relegation but this time the squad is depleted of both its quality and confidence. Despite Frank Lampard’s appointment bringing some much-needed positivity back to the team, Benitez’s shadow still lingers in the minds of the players and fans.

If Everton get relegated, however, there could well be only one man more despised by the blue half of Merseyside than Rafa Benitez. The current majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, has been blamed by pundits and journalists alike for making decisions, that irreparably damaged the football club he wanted to make title contenders just 6 years ago.

Benitez was a bad choice for Everton manager. Everyone in football could see that. The fact that he was given the job in the first place is a damning inditement of Farhad Moshiri’s desperation to have what he has described as a “Hollywood” manager, regardless of the individual’s history or temperament.

Moshiri’s other managerial appointments like Ronald Koeman, Marco Silva and Sam Allardyce all similarly ended without a trophy and a large payout.

Player signings approved by him are equally as strange. Alex Iwobi, Michael Keane, Davy Klassen, Cenk Tosun and Yannick Bolasie, cost Everton over £20 million each.

All have undelivered and cost the club millions in wages, leaving them in the financial mess they currently find themselves in. Moshiri’s lack of experience is obvious despite his many mistakes. Too often he feels like a magpie in a garden, collecting every shiny player he can find regardless of their value or quality.

Moshiri cannot be blamed for everything, the loss of Carlo Ancelotti and the injury crisis that has struck the blues this season are not his fault.

Regardless, Farhad Moshiri will have a lot to answer for when this season ends. Frank Lampard is a crowd favourite and the fans won’t turn on him. They will look to the board of directors and Moshiri for answers, which honestly, I don’t know if either can deliver.

The fact Everton are in this position at all is more evidence that from the locker room to the board room, the club is burdened with bad choices and poor long-term planning.

The future is uncertain for a club that has always had a place in the top flight. Even if this season may not be Everton’s last in the Premier League, the club cannot take for granted what they have had over the last 20 years.

Next season more financial problems and constraints will impact their business, especially with the loss of Russian sponsors MegaFON and USM.

Their majority shareholder will still be calling the shots leaving Frank Lampard in the dark over his influence on the direction of the club. Relegation in football is a constant and sadly for toffees across the country, there is a first time for everything.