Gareth Barry has become the latest player to suggest European football was the principal reason behind Everton’s disappointing campaign in 2014-15, which culminated in an 11th place finish (the first time outside of the top 10 in 9 years), as well as exiting both domestic cup competitions at the first time of asking.
“The season (2015/16) will be without excuses. There were murmurs that Europe was affecting our league form and maybe that was the case.” said the veteran midfielder.
Indeed, whilst the Blues pushed towards the latter stages of the Europa League with relative ease, their domestic form floundered and only managed to find any momentum once they exited Europe following the 6-4 aggregate defeat to Dynamo Kiev.
Barry also said that this season’s struggles have not put the squad off qualifying for Europe in the future, although they must heed the lessons of this campaign.
“Europe is somewhere the club wants to be. We want European football and ideally you need to manage it better than we did this season.”
With Everton languishing in mid-table though, and with West Ham securing qualification through the Fair Play table, European football won’t be a problem for the Toffee’s next season. As a result, Barry claims they must start delivering from the word go when the season starts in August.
“We need to come back in pre-season firing. We need to enjoy a good pre-season and then hit the ground running when the Premier League season starts. We have no excuses next year with European football and players being tired. We need to start well and go from there.”
