Everton Football Club

Everton Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool. The club has competed in the top division for a record 109 seasons and have won the League Championship nine times.^\n\n\nFormed in 1878, Everton were founding members of The Football League in 1888 and won their first league championship two seasons later. Following four league titles and twoFA Cup wins, Everton experienced a lull in the immediate post World War Two period until a revival in the 1960s which saw the club win two league championships and an FA Cup. The mid-1980s represented their most recent period of success, with two League Championship successes, an FA Cup, and the 1985 European Cup Winners’ Cup. The club’s most recent major trophy was the 1995 FA Cup. The club’s supporters are known as Evertonians.\n\nEverton have a rivalry with neighbours Liverpool F.C. and the two sides contest the Merseyside Derby. The club have been based at Goodison Park since 1892.\n\nThe club’s home colours are royal blue and white. Everton player Dixie Dean scored a record 60 league goals in the 1927–28 season.\n\n

\n\n \n\nHistory of Everton\n\nEverton was founded as St Domingo’s in 1878 so that people from the parish of St Domingo’s Methodist Church in Everton could play sport year round —cricket was played in summer. The club was renamed Everton a year later after the local area, as people outside the parish wished to participate.^\n\n\nThe club was a founding member of The Football League in 1888–1889, winning their first League Championship title in the 1890–91 season. Everton won the FA Cup for the first time in 1906 and the League title again in 1914–15. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 interrupted the football programme while Everton were champions, something that would again occur in 1939.^\n\n\nIt was not until 1927 that Everton’s first sustained period of success began. In 1925 the club signed Dixie Dean from Tranmere Rovers who, in 1927–28, set the record for league goals in a single season with 60 goals in 39 league games, a record that still stands to this day. Dean helped Everton to achieve their third league title.^\n\n\nEverton were relegated to the Second Division two years later during internal turmoil at the club. However, the club was promoted at the first attempt scoring a record number of goals in the second division. On return to the top flight in 1931–32, Everton wasted no time in reaffirming their status and won a fourth League title at the first opportunity. Everton also won their second FA Cup in 1933 with a 3–0 win against Manchester City in the final. The era ended in 1938–39 with a fifth League title.^\n\n\nThe outbreak of the Second World War again saw the suspension of League football, and when official competition resumed in 1946 the Everton team had been split and paled in comparison to the pre-war team. Everton were relegated for the second time in 1950–51 and did not return until 1953–54, finishing as runners-up in their third season in the Second Division. The club have been a top flight presence ever since.^\n\n\nEverton’s second successful era started when Harry Catterick was made manager in 1961. In 1962–63, his second season in charge, Everton won the League title and in 1966 the FA Cup followed with a 3–2 win over Sheffield Wednesday. Everton again reached the final in 1968, but this time were unable to overcome West Bromwich Albion at Wembley. Two seasons later in1969–70, Everton won the League championship, nine points clear of nearest rivals Leeds United. During this period, Everton were the first English club to achieve five consecutive years in European competitions—seasons 1961–62 to 1966–67.\n\nHowever, the success did not last; the team finished fourteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth and seventh in the following seasons. Harry Catterick retired but his successors failed to win any silverware for the remainder of the 1970s. Though the club mounted title challenges finishing fourth in 1974–75 under manager Billy Bingham, and under manager Gordon Lee, third in 1977–78and fourth the following season. Manager Gordon Lee was sacked in 1981.^\n\n\n\nThe European success came after first beating University College Dublin, Inter Bratislava and Fortuna Sittard, Everton defeated German giants Bayern Munich 3–1 in the semi-finals, despite trailing at half time (in a match voted the greatest in Goodison Park history) and recorded the same scoreline over Austrian club Rapid Vienna in the final.^[13]Howard Kendall took over as manager and guided Everton to their most successful era. Domestically, Everton won the FA Cup in 1984 and two league titles in 1984–85 and 1986–87 and the club’s first and so far only European trophy securing the European Cup Winners’ Cup in the 1985 final^[12]\n\nHaving won both the league and Cup Winners Cup in 1985, Everton came very close to winning a treble, but lost to Manchester United in the FA Cupfinal.^[12] The following season, 1985–86, Everton were runners up to neighbours Liverpool in both the league and the FA Cup, but did recapture the league title in 1986–87.\n\nAfter the Heysel Stadium disaster and the subsequent ban of all English clubs from continental football, Everton lost the chance to compete for more European trophies. A large proportion of the title-winning side was broken up following the ban. Kendall himself moved to Athletic Bilbao after the 1987 title triumph and was succeeded by assistant Colin Harvey. Harvey took Everton to the 1989 final, but lost 3–2 after Extra time to Liverpool.\n\nEverton were founder members of the Premier League in 1992, but struggled to find the right manager. Howard Kendall had returned in 1990 but could not repeat his previous success, while his successor, Mike Walker, was statistically the least successful Everton manager to date. When former Everton playerJoe Royle took over in 1994 the club’s form started to improve; his first game in charge was a 2–0 victory over derby rivals Liverpool. Royle dragged Everton clear of relegation, leading the club to the FA Cup for the fifth time in its history, defeating Manchester United 1–0 in the final.\n

\n \n\nThe cup triumph was also Everton’s passport to the Cup Winners’ Cup—their first European campaign in the post-Heysel era. Progress under Joe Royle continued in 1995–96 as they climbed to sixth place in the Premiership.^[12]A fifteenth place finish the following season saw Royle resign towards the end of the campaign, to be temporarily replaced by club captain, Dave Watson. Howard Kendall was appointed Everton manager for the third time in 1997, but the appointment proved unsuccessful as Everton finished seventeenth in the Premiership; only avoiding relegation due to their superior goal difference over Bolton Wanderers. Former Rangers manager Walter Smith then took over from Kendall in the summer of 1998 but only managed three successive finishes in the bottom half of the table.^[12]\n\nThe Everton board finally ran out of patience with Smith and he was sacked in March 2002 after an FA Cup exit at Middlesbrough, with Everton in real danger of relegation. The current manager, David Moyes, was his replacement and delivered Everton to a safe finish in fifteenth place.^[15][16] In 2002–03 Everton finished seventh, their highest finish since 1996. A fourth place finish in 2004–05, qualified Everton for the Champions League qualifying round. The team failed to make it through to the Champions League group stage and were then eliminated from the UEFA Cup. Everton qualified for the 2007–08 and 2008–09 UEFA Cup competitions and they were runners-up in the 2009 FA Cup Final.\n\nMoyes has broken the club record for highest transfer fee paid on four occasions, signing James Beattie for £6 million in January 2005, Andy Johnson for £8.6 million in summer 2006,^[18]Yakubu for £11.25 million in summer 2007, and Marouane Fellaini for £15 million in September 2008. It was under David Moyes’s management that Wayne Rooney broke into the first team, before being sold to Manchester United for a club record fee of £27 million.^\n\n\n \n\nThe Evertons Crest\n\nAt the end of the 1937–38 season, Everton secretary Theo Kelly, who later became the club’s first manager, wanted to design a club necktie. It was agreed that the colour be blue and Kelly was given the task of designing a crest to be featured on the necktie. Kelly worked on it for four months, until deciding on a reproduction of Prince Rupert’s Tower, which stands in the heart of the Everton district.^[29]\n\nThe Tower has been inextricably linked with the Everton area since its construction in 1787. It was originally used as a bridewell to incarcerate mainly drunks and minor criminals, and it still stands today on Everton Brow in Netherfield Road. The tower was accompanied by two laurel wreaths on either side and, according to the College of Arms in London, Kelly chose to include the laurels as they were the sign of winners. The crest was accompanied by the club motto, “Nil Satis Nisi Optimum”, meaning “Nothing but the best is good enough”.\n

\n \n\nThe club rarely incorporated a badge of any description on its shirts. An interwoven “EFC” design was adopted between 1922 and 1930 before the club reverted to plain royal blue shirts, until 1972 when bold “EFC” lettering was added. The crest designed by Kelly was first used on the team’s shirts in 1978 and has remained there ever since, undergoing gradual change to become the version used today.\n\n \n\nSupporters & Rivalries \n\nEverton have a large fanbase, with the eighth highest average attendance in the Premier League in the 2008–09 season. The majority of Everton’s matchday support comes from the North West of England, primarily Merseyside,Cheshire, West Lancashire and parts of Western Greater Manchester along with many fans who travel from North Wales and Ireland. Within the city of Liverpool support for Everton and city rivals Liverpool is not determined by geographical basis with supporters mixed across the city. However Everton’s support heartland is traditionally based in the North West of the city and in the southern parts of Sefton. Everton also have many supporters’ clubs worldwide,^[52] in places such as North America, Singapore, Norway, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia,^[55] Thailand, and Australia. The official supporters club is Evertonia, and there are also several fanzines including When Skies are Grey and Speke from the Harbour, which are sold around Goodison Park on match days.\n\nEverton regularly take large numbers away from home both domestically and in European fixtures. The club implements a loyalty points scheme offering the first opportunity to purchase away tickets to season ticket holders who have attended the most away matches. Everton often sell out the full allocation in away grounds and tickets sell particularly well for North West England away matches. In October 2009, Everton took 7,000 travelling fans to Benfica, their largest ever away crowd in Europe since the 1985 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final.\n\nEverton’s biggest rivalry is with neighbours Liverpool, against whom they contest the Merseyside derby. The Merseyside derby is usually a sellout fixture, and has been known as the “friendly derby” because both sets of fans can often been seen side by side red and blue inside the stadium both at Anfield and Goodison Park.\n\nRecently on the field, matches tend to be extremely stormy affairs; the derby has had more red cards than any other fixture in Premiership history. The rivalry stems from an internal dispute between Everton officials and the owners of Anfield, which was then Everton’s home ground, resulting in Everton moving to Goodison Park, and the subsequent formation of Liverpool F.C., in 1892.\n

Current squad: As of 31 January 2013.

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Out on loan

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\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n No. Position Player 19 MF Magaye Gueye (at Stade Brest until the end of the 2012–13 season) 20 MF Ross Barkley (at Leeds United until 12 February 2013) \n

\n \n\nSource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everton_F.C.