Everton are in desperate need of some trophies. The last time Everton won a trophy was the 1995 FA Cup. Which means that Everton have gone a full 16 seasons without a trophy. (Not including the Community Shield of course which Everton won at the start of the 1995/96 season). Is that bad?? Compared to many other clubs it's actually not that bad. But Let’s compare it to other years in which we have gone without a trophy. 1946-1962 - (17 full seasons) 1996-2011 - (16) <----- 1892-1905 - (14) 1971-1983 - (13) 1920-1927 - (8) 1907-1914 - (8) 1988-1994 - (7) 1934-1938 - (5) 1967-1969 - (3) 1929-1931 - (3) 1964-1965 - (2) 1888-1890 - (2) 1986 - (1) That’s right folks. Everton are close to equalling the unwanted record of going 17 seasons full seasons without a trophy. Which includes the major domestic or continental trophies. But what about David Moyes record in the competition? Quite frankly it’s amazingly poor. Considering Everton actually have one of the best records out of all the clubs in the F.A Cup. F.A Cup Winners: 5 1906, 1933, 1966, 1984, 1995 F.A Cup Finalists: 8 (13) 1893, 1897, 1907, 1968, 1985, 1986, 1989, 2009 F.A Cup Semi-finalists: 11 (24) 1898, 1905, 1910, 1915, 1931, 1950, 1953, 1969, 1971, 1977, 1980, F.A Cup Quarterfinalists 17 (41) 1895, 1896, 1903, 1908, 1912, 1913, 1921, 1935, 1939, 1956, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2002, David Moyes has added just one season to the above record in his decade in charge. Achieving the 2009 FA Cup Final. Apart from that we have not gone to even the Quarterfinal......of any competition!! Apart from a League Cup Semi-final in 2008. Moyes has not even achieved a Quarterfinal in the League Cup!. Yet all we hear about is success, how “successful” David Moyes has been at Everton. His record in the Cups is poor. People say Moyes has unfinished business. Damn right he has unfinished business.
Come to think of it. I think Everton hold the record (with Liverpool) for not going more than 17 seasons without a trophy! Here are other clubs records which equals our current or worse. (including only Newcastle, Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Chelsea) *League cancelled due to WW1 or WW2 1970-2011 - (42) Newcastle Utd 1977-2010 - (34) Manchester City 1907-1954 - (38) Chelsea* 1891-1939 - (35) Arsenal* 1912-1947 - (26) Manchester Utd* 1921-1956 - (26) Aston Villa 1971-1996 - (25) Chelsea 1905-1933 - (25) Manchester City 1922-1950 - (23) Tottenham* 1924-1946 - (17) Liverpool* 1948-1963 - (16) Liverpool 1954-1969 - (16) Arsenal 1997-2011 - (15) Aston Villa
My problem with our lack of trophies under Moyes is that he doesn't seem to take the League Cup seriously enough. In the 16 seasons since Everton won the FA Cup in 1994-95, only one club not in the traditional "Big 4" (or todays "Big 5") has won the FA Cup: Portsmouth in 2007-08. So I think it's reasonable to say that Everton has very little chance of winning the FA Cup until we get an owner with deep pockets. In the League Cup, however, in those same 16 seasons, half of the winners have been clubs without the huge payrolls of the big clubs: Aston Villa, Leicester City (twice), Tottenham (twice), Blackburn, Middlesbrough, and Birmingham. For us to have a realistic chance of winning a trophy, Moyes needs to realize the League Cup is our best shot by far. And that means that the Everton needs to field its strongest lineup at all stages of the League Cup. And not use the League Cup as an opportunity to give our reserves a rare start (and that especially applies to our backup goalkeepers -- that means you, Mucha!)
If you look at the 5th Round of the F.A Cup Saturday 18th February Chelsea v Birmingham City Everton v Blackpool Norwich City v Leicester City Millwall v Bolton Wanderers Sunderland v Arsenal Sunday 19th February Crawley Town v Stoke City Stevenage v Tottenham Liverpool v Brighton I'd say we've got a great chance, especially with our form picking up. And Moyes and the players finally realizing that the reason we've been poor all season is because we didn't do things that we did two years ago. Closing down players, pressing them hard and giving 100%.
Stoke City, Portsmouth in 2010, Cardiff City in 2007, West Ham in 2006, Millwall in 2004, Southampton in 2003. All them teams reached the final. (Obviously we did in 2009) All it takes is one game. On our day we can beat anyone.
I like your optimism. I certainly agree that we should have a better chance of beating a big club than say Millwall or Cardiff City in a winner-take-all match.
Assuming we get past Blackpool -- not a gimme by any means -- I think our chance of reaching the finals will depend a lot on the draw for the quarterfinals. Hopefully, we'll see something like the earlier rounds where two EPL favorites faced off thereby eliminating one of them from the Cup. Unfortunately, there were far too many David vs. Goliath matches in the 5th Round to help us much in the quaterfinals.