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Going into last season expectations were pretty low from the Everton fanbase after the sudden departure of Carlo Ancelotti, his replacement by Rafa Benitez and a summer of look-but-don’t-touch in the transfer window. However not many diehard Blues would have predicted that the Blues would slip into relegation worries and only manage to clamber out of the mire on the second to last gameday of the season.
After watching their mid-table level side inexplicably make Championship-level mistakes all season long, even the boldest Toffee would not make an optimistic prediction about this coming season and where Everton might end up. As supporters, our faith in the team has certainly been shaken, but also helped us come together as a united fanbase.
Everton continue to be an excellently-run franchise off the pitch, winning awards for community engagement, charity causes and the incredibly organized and detailed approach towards building the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Docks, our third home in the club’s storied legacy.
On the pitch however we are still suffering from years of mismanagement and hackneyed transfer policies which see us with a bloated, overpaid and unbalanced squad with which we are somehow expecting to break into the top six when about a dozen teams in the league could easily take us to the woodshed on any given day.
The Blues have purchased astutely so far this summer, with the shadow of the Premier League’s Profit & Sustainability regulation violations no doubt looming large over the club. With all that said, there is still a reason we play the beautiful game, because with the fans in full voice at Goodison Park anything can happen, lightning can strike at any moment and though we expect there to be fewer positives than negatives this season, we can be grateful that we are still in the Premier League.
In this season preview series we take a look at all the positional groups, the personnel that make up the Blues’ squad, their prospects this coming season and what else to expect. There’s a bit of fun in there too with the RBM crew sticking their necks out in their season predictions, where we boldly proclaim the top six, the bottom three, who wins the Cups and what part Everton plays in it all.