Everton's 2025-26 Season: From European Hope to Relegation Fear

For much of last season, Everton were staring at the sky.

Jack Grealish, borrowed and brilliant, lit up the early months. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall kept deciding tight games. Thierno Barry and Beto, written off before Christmas, finally found their range. When Chelsea were swept aside 3-0 on 21 March, Everton sat eighth, three points off the Champions League with seven to play.

The fanbase didn’t just dare to dream. It started to plan.

Then the season fell apart.

No wins in those final seven fixtures. The worst run of David Moyes’ second spell since he walked back through the door in 2025. A 2-2 draw at Brentford on 11 April was the first crack in the veneer; from that point on, Everton’s form was relegation-standard. Over the run-in, only Burnley and Wolves matched their failure to win a single game.

From the fringes of Europe to the form table’s bottom three. Same team, same manager, utterly different animal.

A familiar finish that felt very different

By the time Sunderland arrived for Everton’s final home game of 2025-26, there was still a sliver of European hope. New stadium, big spend, a chance to sign off with something tangible.

In his programme notes, CEO Angus Kinnear chose the phrase “happily dissatisfied” to sum up the campaign. It jarred. Ninety minutes and a 3-1 defeat later, it sounded even stranger.

Promoted Sunderland would finish seventh and book European football for the first time in 53 years. Everton, beaten and booed, would end up 13th.

Thirteenth again, in fact. Same position as the previous season, two identical league finishes that could not have been received more differently.

When Moyes returned 18 months ago, Everton were a point above the drop. He dragged them 23 points clear of danger by the end of that first campaign and was hailed as the steady hand the club had lacked through years of financial breaches, points deductions and survival scraps.

Last summer, backed by the Friedkin Group, Everton pushed harder than ever. A club-record net spend of £97m. A squad reshaped. One extra point. The same place.

For former midfielder Leon Osman, that still counts as progress.

“When David Moyes first came in, we flew out the blocks and had a great start,” he said. “That continued for well over a year before the first sort of low period, which was the end of last season. I still feel that we made progress last season, which is what we wanted, along with stability.”

Stability has been rare currency at Everton. Moyes has at least brought that back. The question now is whether he can add anything more.

Moyes, money and a misfiring new home

At 63, Moyes has spoken openly about the struggle to keep pace with the Premier League’s financial elite. Over the past five years, Everton rank only 15th among current top-flight clubs for net spend.

That argument took a hit last season. Bournemouth spent the least in the division in the summer, actually banking a profit of £81m, and still finished sixth. Brighton made £41m in the market and came eighth.

Everton, by contrast, spent big, moved into the gleaming Hill Dickinson Stadium and promptly turned their new home into a problem. Their 1.2 points-per-game return there was the lowest by any side starting life in a new Premier League ground. On the road, they were a top-seven team. At home, they looked like nervous tenants.

Osman believes context matters. Bournemouth and Brighton, he argues, are “further along in their development”, more settled in their identities and recruitment models. Everton, still coming out of a turbulent era and adapting to a new stadium, felt fragile.

Losing Grealish in January underlined that fragility. The numbers are brutal. With him, Everton won 45% of their league games, averaging 1.6 points per match. Without him, the win rate fell to 22%, the points to one per game.

“David Moyes is an intense manager and by the end of the season, a small squad couldn't quite last,” Osman said. It showed. Legs went. Ideas dried up. The same players kept being asked the same questions.

Moyes used just 22 players in the league, fewer than any other manager. He made 128 substitutions, at least six fewer than anyone else. In an era of deep benches and rolling rotations, Everton looked thin and tired.

Yet one thing, Osman insists, has changed.

“Changes take time. No one is thinking about relegation which shows you what Moyes has done. He's got 12 months remaining and I'd expect him to see that out.”

Grealish on the horizon, Ndiaye in the spotlight

If Bournemouth and Brighton are the models, Everton are still sketching their blueprint.

The Moshiri years left scars. Eight players signed for £20m or more walked away for nothing. Value evaporated. Wages lingered. When the tap finally turned back on under the Friedkin Group last summer, nine new players arrived, many of them young, many of them unproven.

Some calls have been inspired. Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall have delivered. Others remain question marks.

Tyler Dibling cost £35m from Southampton and started only six league games. Adam Aznou, plucked from Bayern Munich, is still waiting for his Premier League debut at left-back. Barry, 23, won more aerial duels than anyone in his first season in the division but veered from dominant to wasteful. Merlin Rohl needed months to get a look-in before finally impressing with four strong starts in May.

There is, though, one familiar face on the horizon. BBC Radio Merseyside reporter Giulia Bould says Grealish is set to re-sign on loan towards the end of the window as he recovers from a stress fracture in his foot. His wages are expected to remain around £200,000 a week – a heavy number for a club still trying to repair its balance sheet.

Osman would still do it – with conditions.

“I’d welcome Grealish back but only at a price that suits Everton,” he said.

The other big decision sits at the opposite end of the pitch. Iliman Ndiaye has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia. For a club with one of the smaller squads in the league, losing elite quality without smart reinvestment would be a dangerous step.

“Ndiaye, I'd hate to lose him,” Osman admitted. “There may come a point that the price is right and Everton can reinvest in two or three players but I think they should do everything they can to keep him.”

That is the tightrope. Cash in and risk ripping out another pillar, or hold firm and hope Moyes can squeeze more out of a group that already looked stretched.

Youth, trust and a shrinking core

On paper, Everton are building for tomorrow. The reality on the pitch tells a different story.

Central midfielder Hayden Hackney, 24, has arrived from Middlesbrough for £16.5m. Tyrique George, 20, cost £18m from Chelsea after a loan spell on Merseyside. The average age of signings in Moyes’ second stint is under 24, with three recruits 20 or younger.

Yet last season, players aged 21 or under logged only 1,088 minutes in the league. That ranked Everton 17th in the division for youth involvement. The club are buying potential; Moyes is still leaning heavily on experience.

That experience has just taken a hit. Seamus Coleman and Idrissa Gueye have gone, taking more than 600 Premier League appearances with them. James Garner, a key presence in midfield, is set to miss the start of the season after groin surgery.

No wonder the club are looking at 32-year-old Arsenal midfielder Christian Norgaard and have been linked with Celtic’s Alistair Johnston at right-back. For all the talk of pathways and development, Everton are still hunting ready-made adults to fill the gaps.

As it stands, Moyes could soon be relying on the very youngsters he has been reluctant to trust.

“They need to show they're capable and deserve to play,” Osman said. The challenge is clear. Dibling, George and the rest have to meet the standard, and quickly.

“I'm hoping that a year in, understanding the demands that are required, players like Dibling and George will make that progression and then suddenly our squad looks more trustworthy.”

Everton stand at a familiar crossroads: a respected manager in his final contract year, a squad caught between eras, a fanbase torn between gratitude for stability and hunger for something bolder. The league will not wait. The question is whether Everton are finally ready to stop looking up and start climbing.