“Good times!” Like the proclamation in Chic’s disco classic, these two words came to define Everton chairman Bill Kenwright’s response to frustrated fans when they confronted him in the street in the shadow of Goodison Park’s Main Stand back in January. Unlike in a pre-pandemic world, Duncan Ferguson’s second coming as caretaker manager had failed to produce the shot in the arm needed to revive a flagging season for the Blues.
There was no tub-thumping victory on this occasion like the 3-1 success over Frank Lampard’s Chelsea in December 2019 but rather an uninspiring 1-0 reversal to Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa, deploying the sort of direct approach that wouldn’t have been considered sophisticated in the Scot’s early days on Merseyside as a centre-forward back in the 1990s, let alone 2022.
Everton were in desperate need of inspiration and some kind of reclamation of their identity after enduring the real life football hell of a nightmare run under former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez, a figure still revered by many at Anfield after delivering a Champions League and FA Cup for the Reds. In the end though, it was what Kenwright would later describe as “an unacceptably disappointing run of results” under the Spaniard that ensured his reign would be the shortest of any permanent manager in the club’s history rather than the sideshow of his past employment across Stanley Park.
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Even though a fair share of pundits had warned it would “all end in tears,” surely even the most pessimistic Blue opposed to Farhad Moshiri hiring the former Kop Idol, in what was the most controversial appointment in the most passionate city in English football, could not have envisaged that the wheels would come off so quickly for Benitez, especially after an encouraging start which saw Everton go into the October international break in fourth place after a well-earned 1-1 draw at Manchester United.
Benitez’s sacking would ultimately lead the Blues into appointing Lampard as his successor but not before a rather public dalliance with Vitor Pereira, which included a live telephone call to Sky Sports News in which the Portuguese coach talked himself up for the job in what was arguably the most toe-curling footage since the video of Paul Scholes’ amateur chiropody.
Indeed, the first name reportedly considered within just hours of Benitez’s sacking the day after the 2-1 defeat at Norwich City was a more familiar one than Pereira’s, the proverbial ‘bad penny’ of Everton managerial searches that keeps coming back, none other than Roberto Martinez, the man who Moshiri sacked as Blues boss just weeks after taking control of the club back in 2016. It was understood that Goodison Park chiefs were even willing for the Catalan to combine club duties with his role as Belgium national team coach going into the World Cup finals it Qatar later this year before receiving no encouragement for the maverick move from his employers in Brussels.
Which brings us to April 6. On this day in 2014, Martinez enjoyed what is now considered to be the high-point of his Everton tenure as he pulled off a tactical masterstroke to outwit the managerial legend known as ‘The Professor’, Arsene Wenger. Switching his main striker Romelu Lukaku on the right wing, Arsenal were run ragged in a 3-0 defeat at Goodison Park.
The Blues were in devastating form. This was the sixth of seven consecutive victories after being beaten 4-1 by the Gunners at the Emirates in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. But while Martinez won the battle, make no mistake, Wenger still won the war. Arsenal would secure Champions League football for the 16th consecutive season (they’d get to 19 in 2017), seven points clear of Everton who despite finishing on 72 points (their highest-ever total in the Premier League era and 11 points more than when they came fourth in 2005), had to settle for fifth.
While missing out on club football’s land of milk and honey was a disappointment, Martinez’s achievements in his first season, adding a new, more expressive element to the solid foundations predecessor David Moyes had left after over 11 years at the helm, earned him a bumper new five-year contract. Such generosity would prove costly for the Blues when he was sacked on the back of two consecutive bottom-half finishes in 2015 and 2016 but even the relatively giddy heights of 11th seem like halcyon days now given the club’s current predicament.
Martinez was axed ahead of Everton’s final fixture of 2015/16 at home to already-relegated Norwich City with his presence in the dugout deemed potentially too toxic for what was goalkeeper Tim Howard’s farewell appearance after a decade of service at Goodison Park. A midweek 3-0 drubbing that secured survival for Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland proved to be his last game in charge, hot on the heels of a sorry 3-1 loss at Leicester City on the day the Foxes received the trophy for being the Premier League’s most-unlikely champions.
As someone present for that momentous day at the King Power Stadium when home manager Claudio Ranieri’s compatriot Andrea Bocelli wowed the crowd with his rendition of Nessun Dorma, this correspondent can safely tell you that there was never any chance of Everton’s players spoiling the party. They resembled the opposition stooges who the Harlem Globetrotters used to run rings around in basketball exhibition games and in truth the final score could have been anything with the 3-1 margin not doing justice to the hosts’ dominance.
This was a season in which everything fell into place for pre-season 5,000/1 shots Leicester to pull off the biggest shock in English football history but conversely, so many stars have aligned this season to leave Everton fighting for their Premier League lives. If they do suffer a first relegation in 71 years then fingers will be pointed in many directions. The owner, the two managers, injuries, VAR, the list goes on… but ultimately only the players can save them.
We all know that recruitment during the Moshiri era has been poor and that vast sums that the owner has invested into the club have often been squandered. Certainly when it comes to getting ‘bang for your buck’, the aforementioned Leicester City – who have since added an FA Cup to their Premier League title – continue to be a far more impressive example of how to challenge the division’s established elites and a lesson to the Blues over how it should be done.
However, there is still more than enough talent within Lampard’s squad to keep them in the top flight and they need to prove that tonight to ensure that April 6 does not become a date linked to infamy among the Everton annals despite Sean Dyche’s suggestions that such so-called ‘six-pointers’ don’t actually define seasons.
A first Premier League away victory since Brighton & Hove Albion on August 28 might allow long-suffering Blues to sleep more easily tonight while a draw at least ensures Burnley to not cut the gap. Let’s not think about defeats for now. Regardless of the result though, Evertonians can be forgiven for looking back wistfully at what their team were achieving on the pitch on this day in 2014 and ask the question of: ‘Where did it all go wrong?’ Good times? There haven’t been many for a long time now.
