Everton finished the season in 13th place in the end, after lots of flirting with European football in the weeks prior.
After the last international break, Everton were in a great position in the league table and firmly in the hunt for some kind of European football.
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But a run of seven games without a win to finish the season ended the dream – and it’s safe to say a lot of fans are very unhappy.
It’s likely qualification for Europe will not be as achievable next season, and there is really a sense that Everton passed up a glorious chance.
In recent weeks, the tone of the messages coming out of Everton has left some disappointed.
And a new message from Jake O’Brien today rather sums it all up.
Jake O’Brien’s message sums up the Everton mentality
The feeling from the fans isn’t really matching up with the feeling at Everton.
David Moyes has not really expressed his anger about the way Everton finished the season and neither has the hierarchy.
Instead, the narrative has rather been that circumstances stopped Everton from getting into Europe, and that progress has still been made.
And that formed part of O’Brien’s message on Instagram earlier today.
He said: “And that’s a wrap! Although we didn’t reach our goals this season, we’ve certainly grown a lot as a team.
“Time to rest up, recharge, and enjoy some down time. Appreciate all the support you’ve been immense, home and away. UTFT 💪🏼💙”
The message is fine, but it doesn’t come close to really reflecting how Everton threw things away.
There is no mention of actually feeling angry or bitterly disappointed about that seven-game winless run to end the season.
And that should be the overriding feeling.
Everton absolutely threw it away, but no one at the club seems particularly hurt by that. As if the mentality that’s deeply ingrained won’t allow it. It would be refreshing to hear someone come out and call this out for what it really was.
The feeble message from O’Brien follows on from James Tarkowski also failing to give a particularly strong message. He said after the defeat to Tottenham: “I am proud but the way it has ended is disappointing. We were in an exciting position five or six weeks ago so it hurts and feels a bit rubbish.
“But on reflection in a few weeks time we’ll probably say it wasn’t a bad season.”
There seems to be a focus on ‘growth’. But Everton finished just one point better off than they did last season, so it’s not like massive progress has even been made.
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Yes, there was never any relegation battle. But Everton could have done so much more.
A lot of work needs to be done this summer in the transfer market to get Everton pushing harder next season.
But perhaps the biggest thing of all that’s needed is for the mentality to completely shift.
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