Unbeaten start lifts Everton mood as loyal fans refuse to mourn 31 years without a trophy

Everton's unbeaten start to the Premier League season and their progress in the Carabao Cup have prompted a minor outbreak of something rarely felt among their fanbase in recent times – optimism.

It is guarded optimism, understandably, but the mood has shifted since the fury that followed a badly botched transfer window, typified by a shambolic final day that left manager David Moyes with only 18 senior outfield players. A move for AS Monaco striker Folarin Balogun fell through when he walked away from the deal after problems with the medical, while Iliman Ndiaye – arguably Everton's best player – was sold to Manchester City for £65m.

It is against this backdrop that Moyes seeks to end Everton's 31-year search for success that has saddled them with an unwanted record. Since the turn of the century, Everton are the only club in English football's current top four tiers who have not won a trophy – their last being the 1995 FA Cup triumph against Manchester United at the old Wembley – or been promoted.

So is it a life of misery – or celebration?

So is supporting Everton a life of unrelenting sporting misery? Or is there still joy and celebration to be had in following one of the grand old English football institutions?

Former player Leon Osman, who made 433 appearances for Everton between 2003 and 2016, scoring 58 goals, says: "Yes, there have been disappointments and those years without trophies, but let me tell you this – I wouldn't swap being an Evertonian for anything in the world."

And prominent Everton fan Dr David France, who calculates he has travelled two million miles – the equivalent of going to the moon and back four times – to watch his beloved club from his home in the United States, told BBC Sport: "I can explain what I celebrate, even if we haven't had tangible success for so long. I celebrate being an Evertonian."

Others who also celebrate supporting Everton include Andy Burnham and Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, who both attended the 1-0 EFL Cup win against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Hill Dickinson Stadium that set up a last-16 home tie with Newcastle United.

The statistics that pile on the pain

The statistics that pile pain on Everton and their fans reflect those occasional highs and more regular lows – but always accompanied by fiercely passionate, loyal support and sold-out games, at Goodison Park and the magnificent new Hill Dickinson Stadium.

And Everton remain one of only six Premier League originals, along with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, who have never dropped out of the top tier. Elsewhere, Everton's tale of the tape is not so flattering:

• Since 2000, they have lost two FA Cup semi-finals, winning a third against Manchester United on penalties in 2009, only to lose to Chelsea in the final.
• They have been knocked out eight times at the first time of asking in the FA Cup third round.
• In the EFL Cup, they have only reached the semi-finals twice, in 2008 and 2016, losing both.
• In the league since 2000, Everton have failed to win at Chelsea in 27 attempts, won only twice at Manchester United, once at Arsenal and Liverpool and five times at Manchester City – although they did win an FA Cup fourth-round replay at Stamford Bridge in 2011.
• In the 53 Merseyside derbies in the Premier League in this time, Everton have won only five and lost 28.

Their ledger is balanced by a dramatic FA Cup fourth-round replay win against Liverpool in 2009, secured with Dan Gosling's last-minute goal in extra time, as well as a crucial 1-0 derby win that was part of their finest season in this fallow period.

Of course, to enjoy the rush of promotion, Everton would first have to suffer the pain of relegation – and it nearly happened this millennium. Everton, last relegated in 1951, stayed up by beating Bournemouth on the final day of the 2022-23 season, having only guaranteed safety in the previous campaign by coming from two goals down to beat Crystal Palace in their penultimate game on a night of thunderous sporting theatre at Goodison Park.

The 2004-05 'miracle' and Villarreal heartbreak

In 2004-05, Everton manager David Moyes performed what then Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger described as "a miracle" when, after selling Wayne Rooney to Manchester United, he guided them to fourth place and into the Champions League.

It was a campaign that contained another of Everton's celebratory moments, when Duncan Ferguson tormented Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United, scoring the winner with a trademark header from Mikel Arteta's free-kick on another memorable Goodison night.

Sadly, Everton's journey into the Champions League qualifying round ended in heartbreak and controversy when, after losing the first leg 2-1 at home to eventual semi-finalists Villarreal, referee Pierluigi Collina mysteriously ruled out a late Ferguson header that would have sent the tie into extra time. They eventually went out 4-2 on aggregate following a decision that still rankles today.

Osman: 'I would argue very strongly against 26 years of misery'

Osman is well qualified to answer the misery-or-celebration question, having enjoyed a distinguished first-team career at Everton stretching between 2003 and 2016.

"We've had some disappointments in those times, certainly in terms of not winning anything, but we've had some good days along the way, good moments," he told BBC Sport. "We've reached semi-finals, an FA Cup final, some great celebrations. We had some great trips in Europe – I think about us winning in Nuremberg in the Uefa Cup with thousands of our fans there to enjoy it.

"I certainly don't feel it's been 26 years of misery. I would argue very strongly against that. When we qualified for the Champions League in 2005, that was an incredible achievement, given the clubs we were up against. We did something very special in that season."

He added: "I am more upset than any Evertonian in the world that we haven't won anything in the last 20-30 years, certainly in the period I played when I could affect it, but there has never been a single moment when I would swap being an Evertonian for anyone else.

"It's better to be an Evertonian than to support any other club, and you mark my words, if and when we do get silverware, just you watch those celebrations. They will be something else."

Dr France: 'We are no longer the best of the rest'

The fan's verdict comes from Dr France, whose devotion to Everton can be measured in those two million miles – the result of countless transatlantic trips the 78-year-old has made from Arizona in the United States, the country which has been his base since 1977.

Dr France is no ordinary Everton fan. He attended his first game on 4 September 1957, when Everton drew 3-3 with Manchester United's Busby Babes. He established the Everton Former Players' Foundation in 1999 and is the club's premier archivist, with more than 20,000 items of memorabilia, which he transferred into public ownership via The Everton Collection Charitable Trust and is now maintained at the Liverpool Record Office.

"I think we missed the boat after the Premier League ship sailed. We are no longer the best of the rest," Dr France acknowledges. "For about a 10-year period under David Moyes we averaged about sixth or seventh and we had the odd hard-luck story, and more recently for a three-year period we could almost be described as a laughing stock. Hopefully that's no longer the case.

"We aren't with the Aston Villas and the Newcastles, who are challenging for the best of the rest, but we live in hope."

And how much has his devotion to Everton cost him? "A robust seven-figure Littlewoods Pools jackpot," he says.

Everton may still be waiting for tangible success, but as Osman insists, when the silverware finally does come, the celebrations will be something else entirely.