Everton in Premier League 2009-10

Everton Football Club are an English professional football club from the city of Liverpool. Having competed in the top division for a record 107 seasons, they have played more top-flight league games than any other English team and have won the League Championship 9 times — the fourth highest of any team. The club competes in the Premier League, being ever-present since the league was founded in 1992.

Formed in 1878, Everton were founding members of The Football League in 1888 and won their first league championship two seasons later. Following four league titles and two FA Cup wins, Everton experienced a lull in the immediate post World War Two period until a revival in the 1960s, winning two league championships and an FA Cup. The mid-1980s represented their most recent period of success, with two League Championship successes, an FA Cup, and the 1985 European Cup Winners' Cup—their first continental trophy. The club's most recent major trophy was the 1995 FA Cup.

The club have a large fanbase and regularly attracts high attendances, averaging over 36,000, 95% of stadium capacity. Everton have a notable rivalry with neighbours Liverpool F.C. and matches between the two sides are known as the Merseyside Derby. Liverpool F.C. were formed in 1892 by a breakaway group consisting of Everton's former president and a few players. The dispute also resulted in Everton leaving Anfield, their home ground at the time. The club have been based at their current home ground, Goodison Park, since 1892. Plans to move to a new 50,000 seater expandable stadium in Kirkby on the Liverpool city border have been delayed due to a public inquiry.

The club's home colours have traditionally been royal blue and white, with notable footballers donning the Everton shirt. The most famous is Dixie Dean, who scored a record 60 league goals in the 1927–28 season. Since 2000, the club has annually recognised notable former players, nominating an "Everton Giant" at the beginning of each season.

After the Heysel Stadium disaster and the subsequent ban of all English clubs from continental football, Everton lost the chance to compete for more European trophies. A large proportion of the title-winning side was broken up following the ban. Kendall himself moved to Athletic Bilbao after the 1987 title triumph and was succeeded by assistant Colin Harvey.

Everton were founder members of the Premier League in 1992, but struggled to find the right manager. Howard Kendall had returned in 1990 but could not repeat his previous success, while his successor, Mike Walker, was statistically the least successful Everton manager to date. When former Everton player Joe Royle took over in 1994 the club's form started to improve; his first game in charge was a 2–0 victory over derby rivals Liverpool. Royle dragged Everton clear of relegation, and also led the club to the FA Cup for the fifth time in its history, defeating Manchester United 1–0 in the final.

The cup triumph was also Everton's passport to the Cup Winners' Cup—their first European campaign in the post-Heysel era. Progress under Joe Royle continued in 1995–96 as they climbed to sixth place in the Premiership.

The following season, 1996–97, was not as successful and the club finished in fifteenth place. Royle quit in March. Club captain, Dave Watson, was given the manager's job temporarily and he helped the club to Premiership survival. Howard Kendall was appointed Everton manager for the third time in 1997, but the appointment proved unsuccessful as Everton finished seventeenth in the Premiership; only avoiding relegation due to their superior goal difference over Bolton Wanderers. Former Rangers manager Walter Smith then took over from Kendall in the summer of 1998 but only managed three successive finishes in the bottom half of the table.

The Everton board finally ran out of patience with Smith and he was sacked in March 2002 with Everton in real danger of relegation. The current manager, David Moyes, was his replacement and delivered Everton to a safe finish in fifteenth place. After that harrowing season, Everton finished seventh, seventeenth, fourth (their highest ever Premiership finish) and eleventh. It was under his management that Wayne Rooney broke into the first team, before being sold to Manchester United for a club record fee of £27 million.

Moyes has broken the club record for highest transfer fee paid on four occasions, signing James Beattie for £6 million in January 2005,[14] Andy Johnson for £8.6 million in summer 2006, Yakubu Aiyegbeni for £11.25 million in summer 2007, and Marouane Fellaini for £15 million in September 2008.

2006–07 saw Everton finish sixth in the league and attain UEFA Cup qualification. In 2007, Everton completed the takeover of the Toxteth Tigers basketball team, with the rebranding of Liverpool's first ever top-flight basketball franchise, the Everton Tigers. 2007-08 saw Everton once again gain European football with a fifth place league finish, although they were eliminated from the 2008-09 UEFA Cup prior to the group stages by Standard Liege. The domestic 2008–09 season saw Everton reach the FA Cup Final for the first time since 1995.

The kit today remains royal blue shirts, white shorts and white socks although when playing teams away who also wear white shorts Everton typically wear all blue. For the 2008–09 season, the away kit is a predominantly white shirt with a navy and grey trim across the chest, accompanied with navy shorts and socks. A third kit was issued consisting of luminous yellow shirt and socks with dark blue shorts, which will also be used as an away kit in European games. Everton's goalkeepers will wear a lime green shirt with light grey shorts and socks at home and all black away.

Everton's current shirt sponsors are Chang Beer. Previous sponsors include NEC, Hafnia, Danka, one2one and Kejian. For the 2008–09 season Everton became the first Premier League team to sell junior replica jerseys without the current name or logo of its main sponsor Chang beer, following a recommendation from the Portman Group that alcoholic brand names be removed from kits sold to children. Everton's current kit manufacturers are Le Coq Sportif, who replaced Umbro from the 2009-2010 season.

The club currently has three megastores, one located near to Goodison Park on Walton Lane, one located at Birkenhead's Pyramids shopping centre, and, most recently opened, a store in the Liverpool One shopping complex, named 'Everton Two'.

Everton originally played in the southeast corner of Stanley Park, which is the site for the new Liverpool F.C. stadium, with the first official match taking place in 1879. In 1882, a man named J. Cruitt donated land at Priory Road which became the club's home before they moved to Anfield, which was Everton's home until 1892.

Ever since those events, a fierce rivalry has existed between Everton and Liverpool, albeit one that is generally perceived as more respectful than many other derbies in English football. This was illustrated by a chain of red and blue scarves that were linked between the gates of both grounds across Stanley Park as a tribute to the Liverpool fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster.

Goodison Park, the first major football stadium to be built in England, was opened in 1892. Goodison Park has staged more top-flight football games than any other ground in the United Kingdom and was the only English club ground to host a semi-final at the 1966 FIFA World Cup. It was also the first English ground to have undersoil heating, the first to have two tiers on all sides.

On 16 June 2006, it was announced that Everton had entered into talks with Knowsley Council and Tesco over the possibility of building a new 55,000 seat stadium in Kirkby. The stadium is expandable to over 60,000. The club took the unusual move of giving its supporters a say in the club's future by holding a ballot on whether or not to move to Kirkby. The ballot returned 59.27% in favour. However, an inquiry into the move to the Kirkby stadium was filed 6 August 2008, delaying the construction by at least 18 months.

The Football Association's bid for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup includes a bid from the city of Liverpool to host some games. Everton have stated that without a new stadium the club would not be able to host such matches.

Everton have a large fanbase with the ninth highest average attendance in England. The reason for being a lowly ninth is that Goodison Park is constrained to a low capacity. The majority of Everton's matchday support comes from the North West of England, primarily Merseyside and Cheshire. Everton also have many fans who travel from North Wales and Ireland. Everton also have many supporters' clubs worldwide, in places such as North America, Singapore, Norway, Lebanon, and Thailand. Everton also have a large supporter base in Australia, with midfield player Tim Cahill and defender Lucas Neill being Australian. The official supporters club is Evertonia, and there are also several fanzines including When Skies are Grey and Speke from the Harbour, which are sold around Goodison Park on match days.

Though Everton not at the top of the Premier League Table but they have always been a great source of entertainment for the fans. Currently they are considered as the hard target among the other Premier League Teams.

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