da betcris： After kicking off the summer with a flurry of impressive signings, including two club-record transfers, Everton fans have probably already forgotten about Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley. But that shouldn’t gloss over the almighty challenge Ronald Koeman faces next season.
da bet esporte： Losing one key player is difficult enough, let alone two, and although Lukaku’s departure to Manchester United has generated the funds and room within the squad for Koeman to reshape the first team around his own ideals, he must also make a variety of different players from a variety of different backgrounds gel in an incredibly short space of time.
History tells us that’s a painfully difficult task; Tottenham’s implosion after Gareth Bale’s world-record move to Real Madrid, despite the fanfare surrounding the arrivals of Roberto Soldado and Paulinho, and Liverpool’s failed attempt to replace Luis Suarez with holistic depth particularly coming to mind.
However, filling the void of a top talent doesn’t necessarily require enormous investment in the transfer market or a spate of exotic signings. Intriguingly, Everton provide the perfect example.
The year was 2004 and the Toffees had just escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth, finishing the 2003/04 campaign in 17th place – albeit six points clear of the drop line. Many were already tipping Everton for relegation the next season by the time David Moyes’ second full term in charge had come to an end – even more so when the Goodison Park outfit were forced to surrender their star entity Wayne Rooney to Manchester United on transfer deadline day.
Rooney had bagged nine crucial goals the campaign previous and emerged as easily the most exciting youngster in European football during the European Championship that summer. The hole he left behind in a relegation-threatened team seemed impossible to fill.
But that summer also saw Everton make one equally shrewd long-term investment in Tim Cahill, an unorthodox Aussie who had somehow found his way into Millwall’s academy as a youngster.
The season previous, as Everton battled for their top-flight status, Cahill had inspired the second-tier side’s unexpected march to the FA Cup final – even scoring the winner against Sunderland in the semi-final. The £1.5million transfer fee to take him from the Football League to Merseyside soon proved to be amongst the smartest money Moyes ever spent.
In terms of natural ability, Cahill was never quite in the same bracket as Rooney. But the attacking midfielder was an exceptionally smart player in terms of movement, something which when combined with a phenomenal leap made him a deadly threat in the air, and possessed all the grit, nastiness and determination you’d expect of a youngster who’d risen through the ranks at Millwall.
And whilst Cahill couldn’t replace Rooney’s world-class quality, he could at the very least replace his goals. In fact, Cahill’s first season at Goodison actually outscored Rooney’s last, grabbing eleven compared to nine – equating to just shy of 25% of all Everton’s goals that season as Moyes’ boys transformed from being prime relegation candidates to the newest members of the Premier League’s top four.
Of course, that wasn’t all just down to Cahill. Fellow summer signing Marcus Bent, arriving from Ipswich, popped up with six goals during his first season at Everton, two of which proved to be match-winners over Middlesbrough and Manchester City. Likewise, a defence that had looked so shaky previous was suddenly holding its own, David Weir and Alan Stubbs forming what soon proved to be an iconic Everton centre-back partnership.
Then there was the not-so-small matter of Thomas Gravesen; a technically talented yet aggressive midfielder whose availability and form would lead to a move to none other than Real Madrid halfway through the season.
Combined together and utilising a 4-5-1 formation that had suddenly become the new vogue in the Premier League, Everton started the season with a bang, winning seven of their first ten games and claiming an almighty 0-0 draw at Old Trafford. From then on, there was little relenting and a 1-0 win over bitter rivals Liverpool in December saw Moyes’ side rise to second in the table, just four points behind table-toppers Chelsea and 22 clear of the relegation zone – rather staggering considering how the season previous had ended.
But just as talk of a genuine title bid began to materialise, Everton’s march towards the Premier League’s summit started to run out of steam. A few weeks later, Everton suffered their first back-to-back defeats of the season at the hands of Charlton and Spurs and from that point on, the Toffees’ average points per game dropped from 1.9 to just 1.2. Defeat to Liverpool at Anfield and subsequently a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Arsenal particularly damaged their top four hopes.
It all boiled down to the penultimate game of the season. Everton faced an unpredictable Newcastle side at Goodison, whilst the two clubs contesting them for a place in the top four, Liverpool and Bolton, faced Portsmouth and Arsenal respectively. If results went their way, Everton could be celebrating Champions League football by the end of the day; if they didn’t, the Toffees would have to go into the final game of the campaign with qualification balancing on a knife-edge, knowing one mistake could make all the difference.
In a game not exactly notorious in the grand scheme of Premier League history, it was Everton who came out on top, the goals in a 2-0 win rather fittingly provided by Cahill and Weir. Liverpool, meanwhile, lost to Arsenal and Portsmouth held Bolton to a draw at Fratton Park. 12 months on from staving off relegation, Everton were now sealing a spot in the top four with a game to spare.
For all the adoration of Cahill as arguably the Premier League’s most inspired signing that summer, Everton’s 2004/05 campaign was about much more than that. Barring the addition of the Aussie at the expense of Rooney and Bent arriving from Ipswich, Moyes still depended on essentially the same group of players – although James Beattie and Mikel Arteta arrived later in the season – and their ability to collectively overcome not only a relegation scare but also the departure of the club’s biggest talent.
In fact, overcome is a far too modest description for a side that improved their final standing by 13 places, going from Everton’s worst campaign to their best campaign of the Premier League era.
Whilst such a passive approach to replacing a star player nowadays would create a storm in itself, regardless of whether results would later justify it, there’s a lot to be learned from Everton’s iconic season. As important as new signings is the willingness to step up from those already at the club, for a select few individuals to make themselves the new stars of the team. For all the illustrious signings arriving at Goodison this summer, it’s vital those already at the club are ready to fill Lukaku and Barkley’s void.