Everton's Struggles: A Season of Stagnation and Hope
For much of last season, Everton were staring at the sky, not the trapdoor.
Jack Grealish arrived on loan and lit the place up. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall kept deciding tight games almost by himself. Thierno Barry and Beto, written off early, finally found their range. The mood changed. So did the expectations.
A 3-0 demolition of Chelsea on 21 March pushed Everton up to eighth, three points off the Champions League places with seven to play. Hill Dickinson Stadium felt like a launchpad. Europe no longer sounded fanciful. It sounded imminent.
Then the season caved in.
Everton did not win another league game. Not one. It was the longest winless run since David Moyes walked back through the door in 2025. The turning point came quietly: a 2-2 draw at Brentford on 11 April. From there, form fell off a cliff. Across the remainder of the campaign, only Burnley and Wolves matched Everton’s inability to win a single match, and both of those sides went down.
Everton weren’t relegated. They just played like a relegation team when it mattered most.
A tale of two 13ths
By the time Sunderland rolled into town for the final home game, there was still something to salvage. European football remained on the table. In his programme notes, CEO Angus Kinnear tried to capture the mood, calling himself “happily dissatisfied” with the season. It was a strange phrase on a strange afternoon.
Sunderland, newly promoted and fearless, won 3-1. They rode that surge all the way to seventh and a first European campaign in 53 years. Everton, beaten and bewildered, stayed where they were: 13th.
For Moyes, the symmetry is cruel. Two full seasons back in charge. Two 13th-place finishes. On paper, it looks like stasis. In reality, the context has changed.
When he rejoined 18 months ago, Everton were a point above the bottom three and sinking under the weight of financial breaches, points deductions and constant flirtation with disaster. He dragged them 23 points clear of relegation that first year. Stability, at last, felt possible.
Then came the summer of 2025. A club-record net spend of £97m. A new stadium. A reset. The outcome? Still 13th, with just one extra point to show for it.
Former midfielder Leon Osman, though, sees something more than the bare numbers.
“When David Moyes first came in, we flew out the blocks and had a great start,” he said. “That continued for well over a year before the first sort of low period, which was the end of last season.
“I still feel that we made progress last season, which is what we wanted, along with stability.”
Progress, then, but not the kind that makes highlight reels.
Moyes versus the market
Moyes, now 63, has been blunt about the realities of competing with the league’s financial heavyweights. Over the past five years, Everton rank only 15th among current Premier League sides for net spend.
The problem for him is that the table doesn’t listen to balance sheets.
Bournemouth spent less than anyone last summer and actually turned a profit of £81m. They finished sixth. Brighton made £41m in the market and still came eighth. Both clubs have built slick recruitment structures and clear identities. Everton, by contrast, are still trying to work out exactly what they want to be.
Even the move to the gleaming Hill Dickinson Stadium has not yet delivered the bounce the club hoped for. Their home return of 1.2 points per game was the worst of any side starting life in a new Premier League ground. Away from home, they looked like a top-seven team. At home, they looked lost.
Osman argues that Bournemouth and Brighton are “further along in their development” and that Everton are still adjusting after years of chaos. He also points to the moment the season really turned: Grealish’s injury in January.
The numbers back him up. With Grealish in the side, Everton won 45% of their league games and averaged 1.6 points per match. Without him, the win rate dropped to 22%, the points return to one per game.
“David Moyes is an intense manager and by the end of the season, a small squad couldn't quite last,” Osman said. For all the talk of net spend and stadiums, fatigue and thin resources told their own story.
Yet he remains convinced Moyes is the right man to finish what he started.
“Changes take time. No one is thinking about relegation which shows you what Moyes has done. He's got 12 months remaining and I'd expect him to see that out.”
Grealish back, Ndiaye in the spotlight
If Bournemouth and Brighton are the models, Everton’s transfer work still looks like an unfinished sketch.
Under former owner Farhad Moshiri, eight players signed for at least £20m walked away for nothing. Years of expensive churn left little residual value. The Friedkin Group tried to change the approach last summer, bringing in nine players with a clear tilt towards youth. The payoff has been mixed.
Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall justified the investment. Tyler Dibling, a £35m winger from Southampton, started only six league games. Left-back Adam Aznou, signed from Bayern Munich, is still waiting for his Premier League debut.
Barry, 23, dominated the air more than any other player in his first Premier League season but still looked raw in front of goal. Merlin Rohl, 24, barely featured until May, then suddenly impressed across four consecutive starts.
Now the window turns again. According to BBC Radio Merseyside’s Giulia Bould, Everton expect Grealish to return on loan later in the window as he recovers from a stress fracture in his foot. His wages, though, remain eye-watering at around £200,000 a week.
Iliman Ndiaye, meanwhile, is drawing interest from Saudi Arabia.
“I'd welcome Grealish back but only at a price that suits Everton,” Osman said. On Ndiaye, he was clear: “I'd hate to lose him. There may come a point that the price is right and Everton can reinvest in two or three players but I think they should do everything they can to keep him.”
For a club with a small squad and limited room for error, losing top-end talent without a smart plan to replace it would be reckless.
Youth, trust and a shrinking core
The numbers underline just how stretched Moyes has been. He used only 22 players in the league last season, fewer than any other manager. His 128 substitutions were at least six fewer than anyone else. Whether through caution, trust or necessity, he leaned heavily on a tight core.
At the same time, Everton keep pouring money into development players.
Central midfielder Hayden Hackney arrived from Middlesbrough in July for £16.5m. Tyrique George, 20, joined permanently from Chelsea for £18m after a loan spell on Merseyside. Alistair Johnston of Celtic is the latest name linked to the long-standing problem at right-back. Christian Norgaard, 32 and currently at Arsenal, is reportedly close to adding experience in midfield.
The strategy is clear on paper: buy young, build value, lower the age profile. The average age of signings in Moyes’ second spell sits under 24, with three recruits aged 20 or younger. The reality on the pitch tells a different tale.
Players aged 21 or under clocked just 1,088 league minutes last season, leaving Everton 17th in the Premier League for youth involvement. The pathway exists in theory; in practice, it remains blocked.
That tension is about to sharpen. Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye have gone, taking more than 600 Premier League appearances out of the dressing room. James Garner, a key figure in midfield, will miss the start of the season after groin surgery.
Suddenly, the manager who has been reluctant to lean on youngsters may have little choice but to trust them.
“They need to show they're capable and deserve to play,” Osman said. “I'm hoping that a year in, understanding the demands that are required, players like Dibling and George will make that progression and then suddenly our squad looks more trustworthy.”
Moyes is heading into the final year of his contract with a squad that is younger, thinner and still searching for its true level. The stadium is new, the ownership refreshed, the danger of relegation eased. Yet the table says 13th, again.
The next step is obvious. The question is whether this Everton, and this manager, can finally take it.
