How on earth did we survive from Benitez onwards?

[Shogun]

I think we were leading 1-2 and @Shogun posted something about their profligacy/distinct lack of opportunities... and the rest, as they say, is history.

And then he replaced Lampard less than 10 months later!

As the old forum is no longer here to check, I'm going to refute this!

[Bluedylan1]

I think mainly 2 factors for me.

The fans played a massive, kinda unprecedented part. How many relegations from the top flight have there been? Hundreds and hundreds. Has any other fanbase come even close to what we did? It was remarkable. It's kinda been glossed over how remarkable that was by the wider media. Other fanbases get credit for protesting about prices or manager sackings, but ours dragged the club to safety and saved us from possible extinction. I really think they were that important. The players were gone.

And then the other thing was that we were massively lucky that the bar for relegation was incredibly low. We didn't need that many results or points.

[Shogun]

And then the other thing was that we were massively lucky that the bar for relegation was incredibly low. We didn't need that many results or points.

We were fortunate that other clubs fucked up massively as well. The season with beating Bournemouth on the final day saw Leeds go down who stuck with Marsch for too long, got Javi Gracia in and then sacked him for Allardyce. Leicester decided goalkeepers were not that important and held onto Rodgers for too long before only really being left with Dean Smith for a Hail Mary towards the end.

Realistically both of those teams had better players than us I think, they ballsed it up for themselves mostly.

[Kerryblueboy]

Will always despise him for getting rid of our two most creative players digne and James what a horrible appointment he was prime moshiri brain fart

[blueforyou]

When going through a list of our managers in my head, I always forget Benitez

Enough said

[777Kidnappings]

Been called a benitez fan so I do have to be careful. He was both shit and toxic but I do think he gets way too much stick for "his" transfer dealings. James whos had about another 10 free transfers since was on 250k a week. Mykolenko and patterson were being linked long before he arrived and actually came (i think) after he left. Dumfries we neither had the money or the pull to get him over inter Milan.

We actually signed gray , Townsend rondon and a couple of reserve keepers for less than 2m total. He probably did least damage recruitment wise

[crackling]

Yeah i loved watching James for at least half a season, but he didn't seem arsed by the end and appeared to be picking his games. Wasn't he on a plane to Colombia during one game at the end of the season?

Benitez is still a stain.

[toffee_scot]

Luck definitely played a part including there always being at least 3 teams worse than us in terms of quality but also in terms of their off field or management issues. This included Leicester who would have probably finished comfortably mid table if they’d sacked Rodgers much sooner. Our game vs Leicester was a turning point - Pickford’s Lucozade flask would probably fetch £1m at an auction if it went on sale.

The season when Benitez was replaced by Lampard also saw the Everton fans really galvanising and Lampard was good at using that to the team’s advantage. We still had Richarlison back then.

I don’t know to what extent the hiring of Thelwell played a role, and all the work behind the scenes. This was a time when money was very tight. Of course there were still some poor signings made but we made some smarter signings.

[AjaxAndy]

I saw a video on Facebook yesterday of James plucking the ball down from chest height with an insane deft touch, then sliding a perfect pass through to Richarlison who'd peeled off his man beautifully before hitting a hard low shot across the keeper in to the far corner.

That was under Ancelotti and we found ourselves after 5 or 6 games top of the league.

Absolutely insane to remember the hope and happiness we felt for that short period and the horrendous turn things took where we went in to complete free fall as a club.

As others have mentioned we were a Madison penalty away from relegation, and it's extraordinary that we are still a premier league club, and the contrast to those first few games under Ancelotti is crazy.

This season has had it's frustrations, but perspective is everything. Whilst those early Ancelotti days may not be feasible again, and weren't sustainable at the time, I'm delighted to currently be sitting upper mid table with a load of promising young players all giving us a glimmer of hope that maybe we're on the right track again once more.

[Irishbornevertonian]

On the bright side we made some new rivals who we can watch fail.

Get to watch Luton fail in league 1. Leicester hopefully join them and Burnley get relegated by 20 points every other season.

Burnley is an acid test coming up funnily enough. Don’t take all three points from that and I think we should go back Goodison and let the ladies have the Hill Dickinson


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