Last Season: 17-12-9, 63 points, +18 Goal differential, which was good enough for 5th place and a spot in the Europa League’s playoff round
Transfers:
In: Jo (re-loaned from Manchester City), Anton Peterlin (undisclosed amount, Ventura County Fusion), Shkodran Mustafi (free, Hamburg SV)
Out: Lars Christian Jacobsen (Free, Blackburn Rovers) , Iain Turner (Loan, Nottingham Forest), John Ruddy (Loan, Motherwell)
(this of course does not include the Joleon Lescott to Manchester City and Philippe Senderos from Arsenal deals, which are still speculative, and not yet final.)
Over the last couple of seasons, Everton have been one of the best sides outside of the top four, and I can’t see that changing much this season either. They return a good side that remains (at the moment) unchanged save for a couple of bit players. The loss of Lescott would be huge as that would leave a large hole in the defense coupled with Phil Jagielka’s injury that puts him out till about November.
However, they do see the return of striker Yakubu, who missed most of last season with a torn achilies, which should help greatly as they lacked a solid attacking option last season. Louis Saha and Jo also return at the front which gives them a couple more options, though Saha didn’t do too much to impress last season, and Jo didn’t get nearly enough playing time to make a real impact.
What Everton lack in an agressive attack they make up for in a solid midfield. Leon Osman, Tim Cahill, Mikel Arteta, and Steven Pienaar all return and should feature regularly for the side. For me this is where this team will live and die, if the midfield can control the game and feed the forwards well, they should be able to do some damage. They’ll also be tasked to make sure they don’t allow anything silly to pass them and get to the defense.
As mentioned, Joleon Lescott leaving would change a lot for this defense. While they’re still solid without him, they’d certainly be missing one of the keys to their success. Leighton Baines, Joseph Yobo, and Tony Hibbert would certainly have to step it up along with whoever else was slotted in with them (possibly Senderos). However, having American goalkeeper Tim Howard in the back certainly helps.
Overall I think Everton is certainly a very good team, but not a great team. That certainly isn’t a bad thing. I don’t think they can challenge at all for the title, but at the same time I really don’t see them dropping further than 7th place. Whereas Manchester City could certainly shock everyone and win the title, they could also totally crash and finish 12th or so. Thats a credit to David Moyes, he’s a very solid manager and has brought the maximum potential out of his entire squad.
Like I said, I don’t expect a stunning season out of Everton, but I do expect they’ll do well. That’s not always a bad thing either, not every club can be consistently great and if they can play at a high level and set their sights on one of the cup competitions they’re in, I can certainly see them lifting a trophy or getting to another final.
Additional departures include Nuno Valente, Castillo and Andy Van Der Mayde (sp?) – While not first team regulars – they were serviceable replacements in times of need. The persistent worry with Everton is the complete and total lack of depth… We may have a first team that can compete with the sky 4 – it is just so rare to get that team on the pitch and fit… the two yutes coming up the ranks (Gosling and Rodwell) are encouraging but another very quiet transfer window leaves us all on edge causing a bit of doom and gloom in the rank and file of the Everton fan base. We do get Europa this year – which may be seen as a curse in disguise as the workload may stretch our roster far too thin. As always in Moyes we trust – COYB!
I love Gosling and Rodwell. I think they both have good-to-great careers ahead of them. You’re right though, Kenwright’s lack of spending power really hurts them especially in the business end of the season when their first-teamers are worn out. Two cup comps, the league and Europa will be a lot of fixtures. Villa’s essentially in the same boat, but it seems like they can spend a bit more than the Blues can. Still, Moyes always finds a way, it seems.
Yeah, us Scots are a crafty lot. We can kludge most anything. Give us some twine, a wee bit o’ gum, and duct tape, you’d be amazed at what we can do. But a budget and player depth would be nice too.