Everton fans have been made to suffer over the last few years, seeing all the hope and expectation that came with the new ownership dissipate into relegation dogfights.
It marks a desperately unfortunate turn of events, in which untold riches were squandered, having since left them in a deep financial hole.
Now seeking to escape it, as well as avoiding the drop, Sean Dyche is undergoing a trying balancing act alongside Kevin Thelwell; two of the hardest-working individuals in football at the moment.
However, unfortunately for most supporters, the Toffees are not a thing you can just pick up and put down as and when. It is something which has dominated many people’s lives for years, and therefore the rough must be taken with the smooth.
Given the former has been far more apparent of late, Jamie Carragher had the fortune of being able to change his views early on in his career.
Jamie Carragher on supporting Everton
Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Overlap, he would offer the following story to detail his steady change from a boyhood Everton fan into a Liverpool supporter.
The 46-year-old claimed: ‘It’s interesting, I was a massive fan, even when I was playing for Liverpool reserves if there was a derby I still wanted Everton to win.
‘And then, I’ll never forget, the first time would’ve been 1996 when subs went from 2 or 3 to 5. We’d just won the Youth Cup, I was 18, I was on the bench and Liverpool’s first game of the season was away at Middlesbrough.
‘But, Newcastle played Everton on the first game of the season, and it was Alan Shearer’s first Premier League game and Everton were winning 2-0 at half time. And I went out to warm up at half time and my dad was in the crowd and I was going to my dad ‘It’s 2-0!’.
‘So it wasn’t like I just played for Liverpool, that’s it. It just sort of, you get into derby games you start playing for Liverpool, you start getting a bit of verbal, you’re going out, in the streets, you’re going for a bevvy. It just slowly goes from, basically from one end to the other.’
Everton fans deserve a team worth supporting
As a fanbase that has remained unwavering, continuing to follow the club in their thousands despite these hard times, they surely deserve a little bit of success.
And that success does not have to come in the form of vast silverware or Premier League titles, but just a team that can compete in every game and give these supporters some hope.
For years now they have gone without, resigned to the fact that almost every trip away to a top side was effectively a write-off and overseeing the steady decline of Goodison Park’s fortress status.
Dyche has made positive strides with this side, but desperately needs more quality from his players to see their tangible progress exemplified on the pitch.
Hopefully, their current training camp in Portugal can pay dividends after so many years of mediocrity.
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