As the team who were the fall guys on the day that Leicester City lifted the title, trips to the King Power Stadium have taught Everton that the Premier League is at times still capable of producing unpredictable outcomes but such upsets work both ways and the Blues most endeavour to ensure this latest visit is not their last. Since returning to the top flight in 2014 after a decade long absence, the clever Foxes have shown Everton how it’s done when it comes to launching a sustainable challenge to the division’s established powers.
This correspondent has recalled many times that while I was fortunate enough to witness a significant moment in sporting history at the King Power Stadium on the day that Claudio Ranieri invited his compatriot Andrea Bocelli to sing Nessun Dorma before kick-off as his team prepared to lift their glittering prize, covering the game for the ECHO provided a sobering realisation of how far off the pace Everton were, and now six years later they’re much further still. Leicester City’s champions triumphed 3-1 that day but in truth the scoreline did not reflect their dominance on a day they could have won by a much greater margin.
Jamie Vardy missed a penalty but along with his team-mates was still having a party while Kevin Mirallas’ consolation strike did not arrive until two minutes before full-time. Roberto Martinez’s hapless side resembled the opposition stooges basketball exhibition side the Harlem Globetrotters used to run rings around and it was no surprise that the Catalan’s Blues reign lasted less than a week longer as he was sacked after their following game, a 3-0 reversal at Sunderland that secured Premier League survival for Sam Allardyce’s Black Cats.
These were the opening weeks of the Farhad Moshiri era at Everton and like so many new owners, the Monaco-based businessman decided to bring in his own manager with his first choice of Ronald Koeman picked because of the star quality he brought to compete alongside Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho in England’s north west, a region the Blues benefactor dubbed “the new Hollywood of football.” The Dutchman secured European football in his first season but after a summer of big money transfers in 2017 when Everton went on a record spending spree but lost Romelu Lukaku, things unravelled quickly for their manager and haven’t truly recovered since for the team.
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Impressed like the rest of the game by Leicester’s miracle, Mr Moshiri even hired Leicester’s chief scout Steve Walsh – the man credited with unearthing hidden gems such as the aforementioned Vardy plus Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante from the French league – as Everton’s first director of football but he was unable to pluck as many diamonds from the rough at Goodison and instead presided over the now infamous expensive acquisitions of three number 10s in one window when Davy Klaassen, Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson all arrived. Walsh, who was axed at the end of the 2017/18 season, has subsequently claimed he had deals lined up for the Blues to bring in Hull City pair Andy Robertson and Harry Maguire plus a cut-price agreement for wonderkid Erling Haaland but wasn’t backed by the club, which makes you wonder why recruitment has proven so dysfunctional with from what looks on the outside to be little in terms of joined up thinking.
While the dream turned sour quickly for Ranieri after Leicester’s miracle season – the Italian was sacked the following February – the club remain something of an exemplar to others like Everton how those outside of the ‘Big Six’ can operate. After a short spell under Craig Shakespeare – who would later oversee the Blues’ 3-0 win in Cyprus over Apollon Limassol in a Europa League dead rubber as first team coach for an absent Allardyce – and then the underwhelming Claude Puel who had previously been Koeman’s successor at Southampton, the Foxes have even come through the shocking tragedy of chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s death in a helicopter crash in the stadium car park to blossom again under Brendan Rodgers who last season steered them to a first FA Cup in their history.
That success at Wembley, against a Chelsea side who a fortnight later would be crowned champions of Europe, ensured that Leicester City have lifted all three domestic trophies (they also won a brace of League Cups under another Ulsterman Martin O’Neill in 1997 and 2000 prior to the Thai ownership) since Everton secured their last major honour in the shape of the 1995 FA Cup. While Mr Moshiri has squandered around half a billion pounds in a rebuilding the squad only for it to go backwards, the Foxes, competing in a similar market, have made a string of astute purchases.
Overall their spending has been more modest than the Blues but when Leicester do go big with their transfers, they tend to get it right such as £32million for Youri Tielemans or Wesley Fofana who could cost them up to £36.5million. Their latest continental adventure might have ended this week with a narrow defeat in the Eternal City to Mourinho’s Roma in the new UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finals but it must be remembered that the glorious triumph over Bayern Munich some 37 years ago remains Everton’s only appearance in the last four of any European competition.
Starting with a 2-2 draw on the opening day in 2014/15, a game that produced a ‘worldie’ from Aiden McGeady, the Blues have experienced what seems like the full gamut of emotions on their trips to the King Power Stadium. Along with the chastening experience against the champions in 2016, there has been a last-gasp defeat through a VAR call in Marco Silva’s final days in December 2019 but a hat-trick of victories too, including last season’s 2-0 success courtesy of goals from Richarlison and Mason Holgate.
Back in 2015/16 though, a series of factors seemed to conspire to enable a team of 5,000/1 shots to create English football’s biggest triumph of the underdog of modern times. This season there has been a perfect storm of reasons – readers won’t need me to spell them out to them – why Everton find themselves in their current predicament and as unfortunate as they may be, years of mistakes left them vulnerable to such issues.
Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, Leicester City remain a sobering reminder to the Blues of an alternate reality they could now be inhabiting had they been more prudent but a positive result could go a long way to ensuring that Everton get to play them again next season as Frank Lampard’s side desperately attempt to end their travel sickness.
