Let’s go back to Saturday 27th February, 2016. League Cup final weekend. For Everton fans, this meant a weekend without football as the Merseyside Derby had been postponed due to Liverpool’s involvement in the final against Man City.
An all too familiar feeling over the last couple of decades for Evertonians, watching on as close rivals Liverpool made yet another final while Everton’s only final appearance since 1995 was a 2009 FA cup final defeat against Chelsea.
What made it worse this time was that Everton perhaps should have been there with their neighbours, but Roberto Martinez’ side, with the help of some dodgy officiating by Martin Atkinson, squandered a 3-1 aggregate semi-final lead against Man City after a fine Ross Barkley goal looked to be sending them on their way to Wembley.
Back to the 27th, the date that the news broke that would potentially shift the balance on Merseyside and put Everton back to where they belong.
The headline read, “Iranian Billionaire Farhad Moshiri buys 49.9% stake in Everton.”
A weekend in which Everton’s name had been erased from the calendar turned out to be a game changer in the history of the club, with the Mersey Millionaires becoming the Mersey Billionaires and, to make the weekend even sweeter, Liverpool lost the cup final on the Sunday!
There are exciting times ahead at Everton, I’ve outlined the four main reasons why we should all be optimistic about the future:
