Everton’s 31-year trophy wait has not erased the moments supporters celebrate

Everton’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season and progress in the Carabao Cup have brought guarded optimism to supporters after 31 years without a trophy. In a BBC Sport feature published on 28 September, former player Leon Osman and lifelong fan David France described what they still celebrate: memorable results, European trips and the community around the club. Their accounts offer reasons for hope without making the next trophy any more certain.

Everton’s last trophy was the 1995 FA Cup, won against Manchester United at Wembley. BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty says the club is the only member of English football’s current top four divisions to have neither won a trophy nor been promoted since 2000. That comparison is the BBC’s assessment; the more immediate reality for supporters is another season in which cup progress has yet to become silverware.

The victories that remain

Osman, who made 433 Everton appearances and scored 58 goals between 2003 and 2016, told the BBC that the disappointments have not made him wish for a different club. ‘I wouldn’t swap being an Evertonian for anything in the world,’ he said. He pointed to an FA Cup final, semi-finals and European trips, including a win in Nuremberg, as experiences that still count for supporters even though none ended the trophy drought.

The 2004-05 season stands out in that account. David Moyes guided Everton to fourth place and Champions League qualification after Wayne Rooney’s sale to Manchester United. McNulty reports that Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger called the achievement a ‘miracle’. Osman described qualifying for the competition as an exceptional result given the clubs Everton were competing against. The subsequent Champions League qualifying campaign ended against Villarreal, but the league finish remains a distinct achievement in his memories.

For France, belonging is as important as a result. ‘I celebrate being an Evertonian,’ he told the BBC, describing supporters as a family who look after one another. His connection also extends beyond matchdays: he founded the Everton Former Players’ Foundation in 1999. The BBC describes him as the club’s premier archivist and says his collection of more than 20,000 items was transferred into public ownership through the Everton Collection Charitable Trust. It is maintained at Liverpool Record Office.

Why the optimism stays guarded

Survival has sometimes supplied the most intense celebrations. Everton escaped relegation in 2021-22 after beating Crystal Palace in their penultimate match, then needed a final-day result again the following season. On 28 May 2023, Abdoulaye Doucouré scored the only goal against Bournemouth. The win left Everton 17th with 36 points and preserved their uninterrupted Premier League membership. Leicester City and Leeds United went down.

The tension of that afternoon is part of the context for today’s caution. BBC Sport’s match report said Everton were in the relegation zone for part of the day while Leicester led West Ham; Doucouré scored in the 57th minute. Then manager Sean Dyche said there was ‘a lot to do’ and that the club had to ‘strive for more’. The Premier League’s official report records the decisive result and final table, showing how narrowly Everton stayed up.

That unbroken top-flight record is itself unusual: the BBC lists Everton among six clubs that have remained in the Premier League since its 1992 launch. It has not, however, delivered a trophy since 1995. Osman and France do not treat survival, a derby win or a European night as substitutes for silverware. Their point is that those occasions still carry meaning for people who have followed the club through the wait.

The current cup run gives supporters a near-term occasion to follow. Everton’s 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers set up a last-16 home tie with Newcastle United, according to the BBC’s 28 September feature. The unbeaten league start and that cup result explain the renewed optimism, but neither establishes how the season will end. For now, the celebration Osman and France describe rests on results already achieved and the relationships built around watching them.