Players past and present continue to speak of the deep sense of belonging that comes with wearing the royal blue. Everton has been the scene of the most productive years of many careers. Yet all too often in the modern era, it has also become a stepping stone, a place where potential stagnates before flourishing elsewhere.
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Moving to Everton may be a blessing, but this is not a charity club. Everton is one of the great institutions of English football, built on success, level and a fierce competitive ambition. The desire to get back to the top persists, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s career offers a sobering example of how far the club has come and what must change to restore it.
Calvert-Lewin’s record at Everton reads reasonably well at first glance: 71 goals in 273 appearances after joining from Sheffield United for just £1.5 million at the age of 19. On paper, that represents solid value.
However, if we look closer, a more uncomfortable truth emerges. Carlo Ancelotti’s 18-month reign represented the most prolific period of Calvert-Lewin’s career: 36 goals in 80 games over a couple of seasons placed him among the Premier League’s most effective forwards.
Outside of that period, injuries and prolonged droughts defined his time on Merseyside.
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If we leave aside the Ancelotti era, his output drops to approximately one goal every 6 games, a figure that exposes the extent to which his reputation was built on a brief tactical alignment. Since leaving Everton on a free transfer and joining Leeds Utd this summer, the 28-year-old has rediscovered that form – 8 goals in 17 appearances, with at least one goal in each of his last 6 games, suggest a reborn striker.
Fundamentally, the pattern is familiar. His goals are scored almost exclusively inside the area, between the posts. At Everton, Calvert-Lewin was routinely asked to go wide, deep, chase channels and survive on scraps. Possibilities were limited, confidence was eroded and, inevitably, his body broke down too.
Under the right system, Calvert-Lewin prospered. Without it, their limitations were exposed and amplified.
This is not an isolated case. Over the last decade, the only striker to truly flourish at Everton was Romelu Lukaku, a world-class talent capable of transcending dysfunction.
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The rest, many of them signed for significant fees, have failed to make an impact. Cenk Tosun, Neal Maupay and Beto were boring signings and lived up to their modest expectations. Moise Kean left and rebuilt his reputation elsewhere.
The pattern is unmistakable. It is something Everton must urgently address, particularly with Thierno Barry at the start of his Premier League journey. Hiring mistakes are important, but the deeper problem lies in the lack of identity and consistency.
Too often, Everton have failed to maximize the strengths of their players, instead forcing them into systems that breed hesitancy rather than confidence. Years of turmoil, management turnover and short-term thinking have stripped the team of creativity, balance and clarity.
Even on good days, Everton have seemed rigid and predictable: a team easily stifled. Resilient defense and fleeting individual moments saved the club from relegation, but survival cannot be the ceiling. Progress now demands a cohesive, long-term, purpose-based transfer strategy.
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Everton must evaluate what they do well, recruit to improve those qualities and fill the gaps intelligently. There is real attacking talent to develop in Iliman Ndiaye, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Tyler Dibling, among others. The challenge is to build a team that complements and elevates them.
The saying that “the best form of defense is attack” seems increasingly lost at Everton. Over the past few seasons, they have consistently ranked among the league leaders in blocks and saves, a statistic that tells its own story.
Everton are resilient and well-trained at the back, but too passive on the rest of the pitch. This imbalance is no longer sustainable. The next phase of recruiting must prioritize attacking intent and technical quality across the team, not simply survival.
Which brings us back to Barry. His potential is evident and his rise from France’s fifth division to the Premier League in four years has been remarkable. His first season in England was always a learning curve. What matters now is the environment around you. There is no value in forcing him into a role that doesn’t suit his strengths or align with the club’s long-term vision.
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The next two transfer windows are essential. Everton must stop oscillating between strategies and commit to one that is coherent, sustainable and effective. Only then can the club ensure that when Everton touch a player, they elevate him, and not the other way around.
Reader comments (5)
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Spread this far and wide, like the mystical Meg did in 1995 when she told everyone Everton were going to win the FA Cup!
In 1966, when Everton won the cup, it was the Chinese year of the horse. Everyone knows that the cycle is every twelve years, so this is the fifth time it has been the Chinese year of the horse since 1966.
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But there are different horses: fire, wood, water, etc., and just like 1966, this is the year of the fire horse. It hasn’t been the year of the firehorse since 1966 (I’ll have to double check), so it’s the biggest omen yet: that the Blues are going to win the cup!
Happy New Year to everyone connected to ToffeeWeb, bring out the fire water and celebrate the fire horse, singing “Let’s win the cup!”😂😭
I really share a lot of your sentiment, Matthew, and I love seeing the way promoted teams like Leeds Utd, with cheaper squads, take on their Premier League opponents with energy and appetite.
There’s a lot to like about that as a neutral, and I’m happy for Dom that this style of play suits him, but it may not work out very well over time.
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Good luck to him, but he is now an ex-player and you will rightly see our business evolve in the transfer market.
If our current manager is in the owners’ long-term plans, then a coherent plan should emerge. If that doesn’t exist and we see little activity, I’ll wonder what the owners are up to.
They have a dividend payment due to investors, so cash flow may well be limited, but without further investment we are left pretty much where we are, safe, but very much a work in progress.
I suspect that’s where we are.