Historically Everton have generally been thought of as one of the biggest clubs in English football. Everton are fourth in terms of league titles behind Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal. However, our haul of other trophies is relatively poor. In our 137 year history we have only won five F.A Cups, no league cups, one European Cup Winners’ Cup, and nine Charity Shields.
Indeed, we haven’t won a trophy in twenty years. That is far too long for a club of Everton’s aspirations. It shows our recent decline in stature and is one of the biggest failures in the club’s history.
In relation to his intentions of buying John Stones from Everton, Jose Mourinho has recently been quoted as saying; “It’s a good market. That is why smaller other clubs if they have interesting young English players they use that in the right way for them. I don’t even criticise them.”
This has caused some anger amongst many Evertonians. Yet, in the modern game Mourinho has a point. Everton are no longer a big club. We don’t challenge for trophies, we can’t go out and buy whoever we want, and unfortunately we can’t always hold on to our best players. We might be in a better financial position due to the new TV deal which means that we don’t have to sell to balance the books, but that does not mean that players will want to stay when better opportunities arise, as could be the case with Stones.
Unless a miracle happens then Everton will unfortunately be stuck in the second tier of clubs. We are a club with a rich history, but we have stagnated and other clubs have overtaken us. We aren’t a small club by any stretch, but we are certainly much smaller than the modern big boys.
