Everton’s 2025: A New Home, Renewed Hope and Moyes’ Defining Farewell Message

For Everton supporters, 2025 will be remembered as the year the club finally turned a corner — symbolised by a striking image that captured both heritage and renewal. Ahead of Everton’s final home match of the year at Hill Dickinson Stadium, the tallest tifo ever unveiled at a Premier League fixture stood proudly in tribute to the club’s identity and rebirth.

Dominated by an imposing depiction of the Everton Lock-Up — Prince Rupert’s Tower, a Grade II listed building opened in 1787 — the display carried the message “On the banks of the Royal Blue Mersey”. It was a powerful visual statement, signalling a new era on the waterfront and a sense that, after years of frustration, Evertonians had finally reclaimed their club.

Goodison Park, affectionately known as The Grand Old Lady and England’s first purpose-built football stadium, had long been the beating heart of Everton Football Club. Yet, despite its rich history and unmatched legacy, time had taken its toll. Financial realities were stark: documents submitted during Everton’s appeal against their initial points deduction for breaching profitability and sustainability rules revealed that Goodison ranked among the bottom three Premier League stadiums for matchday revenue generation.

For more than a generation, Everton had searched for a new home. That prolonged quest coincided with the club’s longest-ever trophy drought, having previously never gone more than 24 years without major silverware. Even after the collapse of the King’s Dock project in the early 2000s, hopes of relocation seemed perpetually delayed by circumstance.

When Everton finally secured their dream site, new obstacles followed. A global pandemic brought football to a standstill behind closed doors, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted global markets, and the spectre of a breakaway European Super League loomed large. On the pitch, the club flirted dangerously with relegation, coming within a single goal of dropping out of the top flight for the first time in 72 years in 2023 after recording the lowest equivalent points total in their history.

Given that backdrop, it was little surprise that many supporters questioned whether the stadium project would ever be completed. Rival fans were quick to mock from the sidelines, dismissing the development as a “sandpit” or predicting it would never be finished. Yet those jibes faded into insignificance as the project reached completion — a landmark achievement delivering both financial uplift and cultural pride to the Liverpool City Region.

Although Everton were handed the keys to Hill Dickinson Stadium just over a year ago, the task of ensuring they arrived there as a Premier League club remained unresolved as 2025 began. A 1–0 defeat away to Bournemouth on 4 January left the Blues stranded on 17 points at the halfway stage of Goodison’s final season — less than half their total from the previous campaign.

Just weeks after The Friedkin Group completed their takeover, a decisive change was made in the dugout. Sean Dyche, the longest-serving manager under Farhad Moshiri’s turbulent ownership, was replaced by David Moyes. In an exclusive interview conducted in Chicago during the Premier League Summer Series, Moyes admitted he feared a relegation would tarnish the legacy of his first 11-year spell at the club.

“Unfortunately, we could have ended up being relegated, but it proved to be the exact opposite,” Moyes reflected.
“It showed that coming back was the right decision.”

The turnaround was remarkable. Everton, who had won just once away from home in the previous 12 months, recorded five Premier League victories on the road under Moyes in the second half of the season, securing safety with five matches to spare. Symbolically, three of those wins came by rivers — the Trent, the Thames and the Tyne — neatly mirroring Everton’s own journey from Walton to the waterfront.

At Goodison, moments of history followed. Abdoulaye Doucouré scored the fastest goal by an Everton player, finding the net after just 10.18 seconds in a 4–0 win over Leicester City. Days later, James Tarkowski struck with the final kick of the final Merseyside derby at the ground, ensuring Everton ended 133 years of rivalry at Goodison without a losing home record to Liverpool.

The farewell itself was fitting. On 18 May, Everton closed the Goodison era with a composed 2–0 victory over Southampton. Iliman Ndiaye settled nerves early before sealing the result in first-half stoppage time — a performance befitting an afternoon when the occasion mattered as much as the football.

Ndiaye then etched his name into Everton folklore once more by scoring the first competitive goal at Hill Dickinson Stadium, opening the scoring in a 2–0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion in August. Results at the new ground have since been mixed, including defeats to Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United, but victories over Crystal Palace, Fulham and Nottingham Forest underlined the stadium’s emerging identity.

Architect Dan Meis designed the arena not only to boost revenue — projected to rise by £60 million annually — but to create an intimidating home environment. Moyes echoed that ambition in his programme notes, urging supporters to make the stadium “as noisy and ferocious as possible”.

Away from home, progress has also been evident. Everton recorded a historic win at Old Trafford, becoming the first side to beat Manchester United away in a Premier League match after having a player sent off. Further successes at Bournemouth and elsewhere underlined the team’s growing resilience.

Despite recent defeats, Everton sat in the top half of the table at Christmas for the first time in five years — and the first time since 2017 with full crowds present. That achievement is even more striking given the modest goal returns of their strikers, a testament to Moyes’ organisational expertise.

The Scot’s pedigree speaks for itself. He delivered nine top-eight finishes during his first spell at Everton and guided West Ham United to consecutive top-seven finishes before ending their 43-year trophy wait with UEFA Conference League glory.

“I’ve got an ambition to see if I can get Everton back towards European football,” Moyes admitted.

That ambition may yet take time, but the direction of travel is unmistakable. As Everton look towards 2026, the club finds itself in a healthier place — structurally, emotionally and competitively.

As Moyes told supporters on the Goodison pitch after the final game there:

“This club felt like a big family, but it looked broken, felt broken — and it doesn’t feel like that anymore.”