On a slight tangent, I'm always fascinated by those who leave Everton in search of greener pastures.
Moyes said it best back in the day: "Very few people leave Everton and go on to better things."
This is largely true - and those that do go on to better things tend to be the "very few people" he mentions.
Moyes, though he did win a pot with the Hammers, exemplifies the truism himself. He has said Everton is his club. He is walking evidence that most people peak at Everton.
Sure, Rooney, Stones, and, perhaps, Arteta went on to "better things", but they were our better players - and our better players tend to be those who could indeed have played for a title-competing side. The rest? Lucky to have our shirt. Barkley's career went largely nowhere. Richarlison's went down the toilet - not entirely unpredictably. Let's see where Anthony Gordon is in a year or two.
Even people like Joleon Lescott - a star of the Eveton team - who go on to win things elsewhere often find themselves marginalised and their career fizzling out quite quicky. Lescott left us controversially for City and won things - but by the time of the 2014 World Cup, it was his erstwhile Evertonian comrades-in-arms, Jagielka and Baines who were in the England side in Brazil, and not Lescott, who wasn't playing enough for City by then. Evidence, if ever it was needed, that you can have a good international career at Everton (if not win trophies).
Hopefully, this is about to change and people like Branthwaite can stay at Everton, win things, and play for England.
