Pinpointing a moment.....

[TGW89]

Probably the moment a load of coked up Chelsea fans posing as kopites thought they'd do some impromptu team sumo wrestling with Juventus fans at a 572-year old stadium in Belgium.

 

[Ufotone]

When @ToffeeTim started to turn on Frank.....

I then knew where we are heading

 

[OnlyTheBestIsGoodEnough]

When we lost any winning mentality

'we are taking a knife to a gunfight'

'acceptable losses'

Just to name two examples that I can think of

 

[Nealroy]

.... where it all went wrong.

I'll start - the summer of 2017, and we spent in the range of 135,000,000 quid on Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez, Henry Onyekuru, Josh Bowler, Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney, and Nikola Vlasic. Out of those only Pickford and (because he was a free transfer, albeit on exorbitant wages) Rooney proved value for money. No out-and-out striker signed to replace Lukaku, instead relying on a very young, unproven Calvert-Lewin, a hopeless Sandro and a locker-less Oumar Niasse up-front.

Not to mention a few months later we sacked Koeman and had to pay off the balance of his contract, hired Allardyce, and spunked another 50,000,000 on Tosun and Walcott.

That summer had started so promisingly too, given we had European football to look forward to. For my mind, 2017 was the first very clear indication in the post-Moyes era that the Everton board didn't have a clue.

That summer certainly did set the tone of things to come but in terms of taking it to the next level the exit of Carlo and the day that Putin tipped Uncle Uzzy the nod he better start moving his dosh out of the UK probably edge's it for me. I still think we'd be throwing money at the problems otherwise, haphazardly I'm sure, but money nonetheless.

 

[Muggins]

When Moshiri arrived and we all started acting like bells saying " Billionaires lad "

I remember when it happened and a lot of were very nervous we would get fleeced on players and managers by other teams.

Pretty much what happened to be fair.

 

[brucemate]

Th

24/12/99 when a certain Mr W. Kenwright took control of Everton Football Club.

Ths for certain and Moshiri clearly did not question why he had failed to achieve any investment in 17 years a fact which would raise suspicion in any competent billionaire. The record shows we were living hand to mouth under Kenwright aided and abetted by his cronies.

 

[diggerdestroyer]

looking back. moshiri buying the club and of course kenwright whos hands are so dirty in soiling the club.

 

[captainvindaloo]

It was that fateful day in the early 90's. I had just gotten off the escalator at Euston station on a rare trip to London. A woman tried to sell me a "lucky heather flower". I ignorantly brushed passed her and foolishly dismissed what appeared to be an empty promise at the time. If I ever see her again, I'm going to buy every single fecking basket of heather she has and beg she lift the curse off of our club!!!!

 

[Cork Evertonian]

Hindsight is a great thing of course.
But I felt deflated when Martinez was appointed, a relegated manager.
One good season on the back of Moyes foundations.

Yeah we were a respectable and competitive team under Moyes, but Martinez turned us into a shambles.

With the exception of that fluke of a first season Martinez was a fraud. Roberto as a person seems to a be a very nice bloke, but he's still a fraud nonetheless.

David Moyes had his faults for sure, bottling all the really big games etc, but i think the direction Everton have taken since he left, has served to kind of reinforce what a good job he did for us imo.

 

[everton1953]

August 1946 when the league restarted and we had "lost" nearly all our 1939 championship team as a result of the war. There followed 5 years of decline ending in relegation.

 

[Joey66]

Selling Alan Ball!

Seriously I agree with the OP and would add to it Giroud's missus not wanting to move 'up north'. After that Koeman seemed to give up and started turning up like he'd just staggered in from a night on the lash.

Koeman & the DOF started the rot IMO - spent too much time playing golf ..... the money they wasted was unbelievable .... we have spen nearly 1/2 a billion on players high earners & look whats left......

 

[Cork Evertonian]

I don’t know how far back we are going but the psychological blow Heysel dealt to this club just as we had the best team we had ever assembled was massive.

It took years to recover from it, if we ever did, and by that time Peter Johnson was honcho.

All downhill from then onwards.

Heysel wasn't the only factor in our demise as a force, but that's where the rot started.

I honestly think if given the opportunity, we could have had an Ajax/Bayern Munich like European Cup dynasty in the 80's. I honestly think this club would still be a superpower today, if it wasn't for that infamous evening in Brussels.

What's happened has happened though, and of course the real victims are the 39 people who lost their lives that evening.

As a club we may not have the success and modern day profile of our neighbours, but we don't have the shame and disgrace that they have either. No amount of trophies they win will ever change that fact.

 

[Cork Evertonian]

August 1946 when the league restarted and we had "lost" nearly all our 1939 championship team as a result of the war. There followed 5 years of decline ending in relegation.

Two world wars broke out when we were reigning league champions. We really are such an unlucky football club.

We've had a fair bit of success over the years, but we've had an awful lot of heartbreak and disappointment as well sadly.

 

[efcforever]

.... where it all went wrong.

I'll start - the summer of 2017, and we spent in the range of 135,000,000 quid on Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez, Henry Onyekuru, Josh Bowler, Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney, and Nikola Vlasic. Out of those only Pickford and (because he was a free transfer, albeit on exorbitant wages) Rooney proved value for money. No out-and-out striker signed to replace Lukaku, instead relying on a very young, unproven Calvert-Lewin, a hopeless Sandro and a locker-less Oumar Niasse up-front.

Not to mention a few months later we sacked Koeman and had to pay off the balance of his contract, hired Allardyce, and spunked another 50,000,000 on Tosun and Walcott.

That summer had started so promisingly too, given we had European football to look forward to. For my mind, 2017 was the first very clear indication in the post-Moyes era that the Everton board didn't have a clue.

I don't think we have ever recovered from that transfer window. It appears we had Koeman and Walsh making signings independently of each other.

Then in January it got even worse with Tosun and Walcott.

 

[Blue peter]

When my dad told me I was a blue at the age of 5