Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English football club from the city of Liverpool, founded in 1878. They are one of the most successful clubs in English football, having played more seasons in the top division (103 of a possible 107) and won more points in the top division than any other team.

Into the New Millennium: Moving Forward?

Smith was dismissed in March 2002 after four traumatic seasons as manager which had seen a side full of ungainly players fail to finish any higher than 13th place in the Premiership.

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Since then, promising new manager David Moyes has started to move the club forward. They surprised all the observers in 2002-03 by finishing seventh in the Premiership and just missing out on a UEFA Cup place, in a season which was dominated by the emergence of brilliant 17-year-old striker Wayne Rooney.

Related Topics:
David Moyes - Wayne Rooney

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Everton suffered a setback in 2003-04, missing relegation by just one place (although this time their safety was confirmed with several games of the season left), and it was feared that the club's half-century stay in the top level of English football could be over when Rooney was sold to Manchester United in August 2004 for a fee which could eventually rise to £27million.

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However, Everton's now-diminutive squad pulled together in the 2004-05 season, thanks greatly to the five-in-the-midfield tactic of Moyes and the galvanising presence of Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen. Despite Gravesen's sale to Real Madrid halfway through the season, Everton managed to finish fourth in the table and achieve Champions League qualification ahead of Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers. In this amazing season, Everton also recorded their first victory of the new millennium over Liverpool, thanks to a long-range strike by Lee Carsley, and their first win over Manchester United, after a Duncan Ferguson header, since the 1995 FA Cup final. Unfortunately Everton's Champions League campaign ended in the qualifying stages when they were controversially defeated by Spanish side Villarreal, mostly thanks to a ludicrous decision by Italian referee Pierluigi Collina to disallow a perfectly legitimate Everton goal late in the second leg. However, Evertonians were give some consolation by their automatic entry into the UEFA Cup.

Related Topics:
Thomas Gravesen - Real Madrid - Lee Carsley - Duncan Ferguson - Villarreal - Pierluigi Collina

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With the new challenge of the European football to add to the Premiership demands on his limited resources, Moyes tried to strengthen the squad in the summer of 2005. Simon Davies, a right-sided midfielder, was signed from Tottenham, Mikel Arteta (midfield) transferred from Real Sociedad following his successful loan spell, Danish international centre-back Per Krøldrup arrived from Udinese, longtime Man United defender/midfielder Philip Neville was signed, and Portuguese international Nuno Valente arrived at Goodison for an undisclosed fee from Porto, as did Italian centre-back Matteo Ferrari on a year-long loan from A.S. Roma with a view to a £3.7m deal in the summer of 2006. Inter Milan's Dutch international winger Andy van der Meyde also arrived for an undisclosed fee on transfer deadline day.

Related Topics:
Simon Davies - Mikel Arteta - Real Sociedad - Per Krøldrup - Udinese - Philip Neville - Nuno Valente - Matteo Ferrari - A.S. Roma

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When the transfer window shut, Moyes was thought to have built Everton's best squad in years, troubled only by failure to improve in the attacking department. However, the 2005-06 league season began disastrously, with Everton at the bottom of the table at the end of September.

Related Topics:
Transfer window - 2005-06

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