Everton (away) 2002 FA Cup

Beattie was somewhat less than superb, and Moyes’ search for a quality goal scorer took him first to Andy Johnson and then Yakubu, bought from Middlesbrough in 2007. The Nigerian is one of few players to make an impact at both ‘Boro and Everton in recent years, and is probably more fondly remembered on Merseyside than Teesside. Much of that is down to the manner of his departure from each club. Yakubu left ‘Boro almost kicking and screaming, reportedly falling out with the chairman and reportedly handing in a transfer request late in the summer transfer window. He left Everton with a whimper. While there was general dismay that Everton had allowed both Yakubu and Jermaine Beckford to leave on transfer deadline day in 2011 having brought in only Stracqualursi to aid the fragile Louis Saha, the problem was more that it left Moyes with only two centre-forwards, not that Yakubu was too important to sell.

A horrific knee injury in November 2008 cut short his Everton career after a storming first season and once the long road to recovery was complete Everton had moved on. Yakubu was not as valuable to Everton after taking nearly a year to return from injury and everyone knew it. The player’s form and fitness dropped in kind, creating a vicious circle that saw Yakubu dropped for not performing, which led to performances ever more apathetic when he was called upon. The Nigerian went from lethal to lumbering and the summer move to Blackburn was best for all concerned.

Looking back at the state of Everton in 2002 the best you could honestly have said about the club was that it couldn’t have gotten much worse, except even that isn’t true either, since the only way it could have gotten worse was relegation. The list of proud sides who dropped out of the Premier League and are yet to return is long and chilling – Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United are just three, each with histories as glorious as Everton’s, and each beset by the kind of financial strife that very nearly ruined the Toffees. It may still, if something doesn’t change in the near future, either a new owner or investor for Everton or, far less likely, football comes to its senses and some sort of sanity is restored to the balance sheets. Under a less skilled, less inspirational manager Everton would have struggled to avoid the drop in 2002, never mind since then when at various times the banks have been pushing Everton to sell their most valuable assets, the players, to soothe their debts. Moyes has always coped manfully and for that alone deserves the enduring respect of Evertonians and perhaps the wider football community.

When talk of a takeover comes up a cautionary tale is often made out of Blackburn Rovers and the Venky’s fiasco, with it rightly pointed out that Everton do not want to go down that route. By the same token, Everton do not want to go the way of one of the sides who perished from the top flight through a lack of investment, or investment in the wrong areas overseen by the wrong manager, of which, sadly, from the outside Middlesbrough under Gareth Southgate and Gordon Strachan appear to be an example. Everton have at least got the right manager, even if a decade ago that seemed a long way off. Relegation was avoided in 2002 by seven points and three places, and only once have Everton finished lower than that under Moyes – 2003/04 when they dropped to 17^th, having muddled through a mediocre season and essentially stopped playing once safety from relegation had been confirmed with half a dozen games to go. Everton didn’t win any of their last six that year, the only real aberration on Moyes’ record of top-half, top-eight, top-five and top-four finishes.

Today, Everton are still a hard-working outfit – Moyes’ fiercest critics would argue he is only slightly less defensively minded than Walter Smith – but at least there is a dash of flair from Royston Drenthe and Steven Pienaar on either flank. But what matters most is Everton’s identity, shaped in the image of Moyes, has changed from the dour, permanently disappointed and disappointing Smith. Moyes may not be glamorous and his teams may not play champagne football but he restored Everton’s pride, fight and future. The 10 years since Everton lost to ‘Boro in the Cup have seen huge changes at the losers and at the winners, but in the long-term, those roles have been firmly reversed from the result of the match in 2002.