Can Everton still be considered a “big club”?

Are Everton still a big club?

  • Yes

    Votes: 144 60.0%

  • No

    Votes: 65 27.1%

  • About the same lad

    Votes: 31 12.9%
  • Total voters
    240
If we ignore the Pre Premier League era and judge how we are viewed by many neutrals within the context of the Premier League then there are 5 clubs that are instantly way ahead of us - Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City & Chelsea.

Big clubs in the PL era seem to get judged mainly on matchgoing support, top 4-6 finishes (plus european qualification, especially CL), trophy wins, top flight regularity, global popularity and revenue etc. After the 5 clubs mentioned above there are probably another 9 clubs that neutrals would argue could be bigger than us. Sunderland & Wolves would be dimissed, and despite their stand out seasons I think many would concede that Leicester & Forest aren't bigger than Everton due to having smaller support and having spent many of the PL years in the lower divisions. Which leaves the following:

Spurs - 62K Stadium, more recent trophy win, played in a CL final, loads of top 4 finishes, way bigger revenue.
Villa - Bigger Stadium, more recent trophy win, through to CL QF, recent top 4 finish, involved at the top of the league in the early PL era
Newcastle - 52K Stadium, trophy win this season, played several seasons in the CL, recent top 4 finish, involved in a Title race in the 90s.
West Ham - 62K Stadium, recent European Trophy but behind Everton in most other areas even in the PL era.
Leeds - Smaller Stadium, been out of the top flight for most of the last 20 years, but did have a good spell early 00s including a CL Semi Final.

Our FA Cup win was now 30 years ago and although under Moyes we had some top 6 finishes, our 4th placed finish didn't even result in Champions League Football.

So of the above, most are going to have Spurs way ahead of us, with Villa & Newcastle being marginally ahead, despite their relegations. Many would be split on West Ham & Leeds but with West Ham never having been Champions and had no CL Football, I imagine most would agree we are still bigger.

In the current era we have dropped to being about the 9th biggest club in the eyes of many neutral supporters and that is how we seem to get treated in the media, maybe even lower.
 

I think were 3rd on an all time English top division list, still 4/5th in domestic honours, despite not winning a thing for 30 years. Fanbase is huge, so yes were big.

Even the biggest Liverpool fans will tell you that Everton are a big club
 
barneygumble said:
Everton by football purists are a "big" club.

The problem you've got nowadays is the next generations are educated on FIFA and YouTube, nd they give no nod to pre-PL happenings.

Media outlets like Sky, they don't give us, or anyone outside the Top 6 much airtime.

Everton can be considered a big club, when we start putting practice to the preach and start soundly investing in players, being sustainable and climbing the league.

TFG aren't soft. They know full well if they can get Everton into a sound footing, and attractive, they can flip us, and that's how we will end up becoming a force.
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By 'purists' do you mean blokes of a certain age who think the years when they were young are somehow more important than the last 20-30 years when others are young? How many of us were waxing lyrical or talking knowledgably about the teams who won the league in the 1940s and 1950s when Ratcliffe was lifting pots for us?

Or does this 'purity' only apply now we've not been winning for ages?

As far as coverage goes we were 7th last season out of fixtures shown on Sky & TNT with 19 games broadcast. That's a decent amount for a side near the bottom of the table playing pretty terrible football. And we get a hell of a lot more coverage than we did during pre-PL happenings.
 

I don't think recent success can be the only barometer to define a big club, but obviously has an affect. History has to take some of the weight, along with fanbase. We certainly outweigh many clubs with history and fanbase. Having not competed at the top table for an extended period does put us in a similar bracket with some clubs that previously we were clearly bigger than. I'd have put us similar (if slightly behind) Villa or Spurs in size, all be it currently behind them both financially and in recent league finish position. Probably are ahead of Newcastle and West Ham, but again with them both having periods of success recently, we're currently probably considered to be behind them. Once thing is for sure, we are a bigger club than we get credit for, and we are now looking upwards.
 
Everton will always be a big club to me, but I think it depends on your perspective, I work with people in their 20's and they dont see us that way at all, they see us as a small club. To them we are a bottom half of the table team, famous for never being relegated.
For them though, its not the lack of silverware, its the lack of Champions League. If we had qualified for the Champions league on a regular basis they would see us as a big club, more so than if we had won a bunch of FA cups and League Cups in the last 30 years.
 
I think we're generally regarded (fairly in my opinion) as being a big club but not a massive one. Most people would put us in a pot with Villa, Newcastle etc in the bracket below the top 6 or whatever you want to call them. I don't really go in for ranking clubs by size but I think there's a respect for our history, fanbase, and longevity that means neutrals see as being 'big' to a reasonable extent.
 

We were one of the "Big 5" in the 80s and going into the early 90s. But we are nowhere near that now. Club size is a little bit subjective and depends a bit on what generation you belong to IMO.

IMO most neutrals under the age of 45-50 would not consider us a big club because we have not performed like one in that time.

Neutrals in my generation would not consider the likes of Chelsea and Man City as big clubs, but kids growing up now probably do.
 
TraffordBlue said:
If we ignore the Pre Premier League era and judge how we are viewed by many neutrals within the context of the Premier League then there are 5 clubs that are instantly way ahead of us - Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City & Chelsea.

Big clubs in the PL era seem to get judged mainly on matchgoing support, top 4-6 finishes (plus european qualification, especially CL), trophy wins, top flight regularity, global popularity and revenue etc. After the 5 clubs mentioned above there are probably another 9 clubs that neutrals would argue could be bigger than us. Sunderland & Wolves would be dimissed, and despite their stand out seasons I think many would concede that Leicester & Forest aren't bigger than Everton due to having smaller support and having spent many of the PL years in the lower divisions. Which leaves the following:

Spurs - 62K Stadium, more recent trophy win, played in a CL final, loads of top 4 finishes, way bigger revenue.
Villa - Bigger Stadium, more recent trophy win, through to CL QF, recent top 4 finish, involved at the top of the league in the early PL era
Newcastle - 52K Stadium, trophy win this season, played several seasons in the CL, recent top 4 finish, involved in a Title race in the 90s.
West Ham - 62K Stadium, recent European Trophy but behind Everton in most other areas even in the PL era.
Leeds - Smaller Stadium, been out of the top flight for most of the last 20 years, but did have a good spell early 00s including a CL Semi Final.

Our FA Cup win was now 30 years ago and although under Moyes we had some top 6 finishes, our 4th placed finish didn't even result in Champions League Football.

So of the above, most are going to have Spurs way ahead of us, with Villa & Newcastle being marginally ahead, despite their relegations. Many would be split on West Ham & Leeds but with West Ham never having been Champions and had no CL Football, I imagine most would agree we are still bigger.

In the current era we have dropped to being about the 9th biggest club in the eyes of many neutral supporters and that is how we seem to get treated in the media, maybe even lower.
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Good post.

No disrespect to West Ham or Leeds, I wouldn't put them in Everton's bracket.

If things go well with TFG then I would reasonably expect us to compete on a par with both Spurs and Villa.

Newcastle are a different beast in terms of a longer-term view.

I think Chelsea are in reach.

Spurs are only up there in commercial terms.

I don't expect we'll match their turnover anytime soon but I do expect we can match them where it counts and also generally raise our profile to where theirs is, when you consider what they've won - nothing.

We have to try to be part of a "bigger 10" whilst probably allowing that we won't be part of a "big 4/5" consistently.

That certainly means displacing teams like Brighton, Brentford and keeping them or similar clubs displaced.

A bit like no matter how bad we are currently, we're still miles better than the bottom three. On all levels we have to put distance between us and an additional 5 or 6 clubs, such that a terrible season would at worst still mean a relatively comfortable mid table finish.

Spurs are like that now. Sure they're well in the bottom half this year, but they were never relegation threatened (at least in my view) and have a decent chance of winning the Europa League imho. They have the clout to spend to do better to correct things.

I want better than that for Everton, but I'd still swap places with them for now.
 
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Bedfordblue said:
I think the grand history of Everton Football Club, must now be viewed in two distinct time frames.
BM - Before Moshiri
AM - After Moshiri

Before Moshiri (BM), Everton FC was renowned as one of the stalwart clubs in English football, boasting a rich history filled with silverware and consistently competing in the upper echelons of the league. The Toffees were celebrated for their passionate fanbase, formidable home record at Goodison Park, and a reputation for nurturing talented players who would become legends on the world stage. However, After Moshiri (AM), the club entered a tumultuous period marked by erratic investments, managerial instability, and a series of misguided transfer decisions that severely impacted team performance. Farhad Moshiri's ownership was nearly catastrophic, with the club flirting dangerously close to relegation, leading fans to fear an extinction-level event for our beloved team. His tenure has been characterised by financial mismanagement and a loss of identity, leaving Everton's future uncertain and their status as a major force in English football in jeopardy.

However, the emergence of Dan Freidkins TFG as new owners, presents a new opportunity to enter a period of AF (After Friedkin) when once more we can rise to the upper echelons of Football and once more become:
A bIG cLuB
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Make that pre Kenwright and post Kenwright and I’d agree with you. Moshiri just accelerated it, nearly killed the club but at least we came out with a new stadium. Kenwright did the square root of f.a with the exception of being financially backed by nefarious money men and selling every asset the club had.
 
gedefc said:
I think were 3rd on an all time English top division list, still 4/5th in domestic honours, despite not winning a thing for 30 years. Fanbase is huge, so yes were big.

Even the biggest Liverpool fans will tell you that Everton are a big club
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If you’re thinking of top flight titles, we are now fifth behind Utd, the rs, Arsenal and City who went ahead of us with their last title win. We are like the athlete who used to hold a world record, but as new athletes emerge and break it, we are like 9th or 10th on the fasted times list. Unless we become resurgent, our historic achievements will pale into insignificance hence our current relevance to the current general footballing community.
 

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