trophies – GAME OF THE PEOPLE

EVERTON fans won’t need reminding that they are going through a tough time this season and their recent FA Cup defeat at Manchester United meant the rest of the campaign will be all about preserving their Premier League status.

Everton’s followers have waited 28 years for a glimpse of silverware. It was 1995 when they last won a major prize, beating Manchester United at the old Wembley stadium. Although they have been part of the Premier League since it started, in recent years life has been quite precarious.

For most clubs, winning a trophy is an unlikely event, but success is also measured by promotion to a higher level. Only 43 clubs have won major honours, 49 of the 92 have never won silverware but every single club has, at some stage, won promotion. Of those that have won pieces of objet d’art in the past, Bradford City and Barnsley have been waiting for 112 and 111 years respectively to add to their haul. Sheffield United, Huddersfield Town and Cardiff City will all be celebrating the centenary of their last major triumph.

Everton’s 28-year stretch is the longest in their history without a prize for the cabinet. The previous longest barren spell was 24 years between 1939 and 1963, although the club was promoted in 1954 back to the first division. Everton’s run is notable because, for a long time, they were one of English football’s blue riband clubs.

Ipswich Town are another club who are enduring a long, painful period without some form of success. Now playing in League One, they have not won a trophy since 1981 and last enjoyed promotion in 2000. If they don’t go up this season – they are currently third in the table – it will be 23 years without a glimpse of bunting.

Tottenham’s lack of silverware is well documented and fans from rivals like Arsenal and Chelsea taunt Spurs for their lack of the killer touch.

Their last prize was the EFL Cup in 2008 and if they don’t break their duck this season, it will be 15 years since their last hurrah. Tottenham’s trophies down the years have usually come in clusters: 1961 – 1967, five; 1971 – 1973, three; 1981 – 1984, three. They’ve won just three cups in 30 years, a record that wouldn’t be tolerated at some clubs.

		Last success – years ago	Source/Competition	Year
1	Everton	28	FA Cup	1995
2	Ipswich Town	23	Promotion	2000
3	Carlisle United	17	Promotion	2006
	Colchester United	17	Promotion	2006
5	Derby County	16	Promotion	2007
	Walsall	16	Promotion	2007
7	Tottenham Hotspur	15	EFL Cup	2008
	Stoke City	15	Promotion	2008
9	Birmingham City	12	EFL Cup	2011
	Stevenage	12	Promotion	2011
11	West Ham United	11	Promotion	2012
	Southampton	11	Promotion	2012
	Reading	11	Promotion	2012
	Sheffield Wednesday	11	Promotion	2012
	Crawley Town	11	Promotion	2012
16	Crystal Palace	10	Promotion	2013
	Swansea City	10	EFL Cup	2013
	Gillingham	10	Promotion	2013
	Bradford City	10	Promotion	2013
	Mansfield Town	10	Promotion	2013
	Newport	10	Promotion	2013

For Everton, Tottenham, Newcastle United (last trophy 1969) and West Ham (1980 FA Cup), desolate periods without success become all the more galling in this age of winner takes all. In fact, of the 60 domestic competitions over the past 20 years, 88% have been won by just six clubs (Manchester City 14, Chelsea 13, Manchester United 12, Arsenal 7, Liverpool 6, Tottenham 1). On top of that, Chelsea (4), Liverpool (2) and Manchester United (2), have won eight European trophies since 2003.

Of the 92 clubs in the EFL and Premier, 53 have experienced some form of success within five years, while another 24 have waited for between six and 10 years. Only two, Everton and Ipswich, have gone beyond 20 years. How long will they have to wait?

Traditionally, Everton have had to wait an average of around eight or nine years between trophies, but the current gap of 28 years has taken that average to around 10 years. Of the current big six clubs, Liverpool and Manchester United have an average of less than four years, Arsenal five years and Chelsea six. Manchester City’s average between trophies is currently nine years, but each season that passes changes that situation.

EVERTON and Tottenham fought-out an exciting FA Cup fith round tie this week, with the Toffees winning by the odd goal in nine. It has been 26 years since Everton lifted a trophy, 33 since the league title last ended up at Goodison Park. Having made it to the last eight, the blue half of Liverpool must have fancied the chances of Carlo Ancelotti finally ending the most barren spell in Everton’s history. They now face Manchester City in the quarter-finals – a big ask.

Everton have had periods when success eluded them, such as between 1939 and 1963 and 1970 and 1984, but in 2020, the club created an unwanted record in making it a quarter of a century without a tin pot in the boardroom. Everton reached the FA Cup final in 2009, but they were beaten by Chelsea.

Of the last eight in the FA Cup, six have been past winners with just Bournemouth and Leicester City still to win the competition. Of course, there are Premier League clubs who have never secured a major prize: Brighton, Crystal Palace and Fulham, who have all been to a Wembley final but have never won important silverware. Equally, there are others whose finest moments are becoming rather sepia-tinted, such as Aston Villa (1996), Burnley (1960), Leeds United (1992), West Ham (1980), West Bromwich Albion (1968), Wolves (1980), Newcastle United (1969), Southampton (1976) and Sheffield United (1926). For all of these clubs, the definition of “success” has come in the form of a promotion winning campaign.

Garlands comes in all shapes and sizes, but for the elite band of clubs that have dominated football for the past two decades, success translates into titles and cup wins. Since 2000-01, the so-called “big six” clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham have won 53 out of 60 domestic honours in English football. Of these, Tottenham have won just one, the Football League Cup in 2008, although they have a chance of winning the Football League Cup in 2020-21. The only club to win the Premier title from outside the top six was Leicester City in 2016.

In addition, the only English clubs to win European honours in that timeframe have come from the six, Chelsea (2012, 2013, 2019) and Liverpool (2001, 2005, 2019) lifting three apiece and Manchester United two (2008, 2017). Arsenal (2006) and Tottenham (2019) have both been beaten finalists in the Champions League, but Manchester City have yet to extend their era of success to Europe.

It is easy to presume that today’s successful clubs have always been regular visitors to the winners’ podium, but that’s not the case. Tottenham went 30 years after their 1921 FA Cup victory before they were triumphant once more, while Arsenal didn’t start winning until 1930. Chelsea didn’t win a thing until their 50^th year and then went 26 years without silverware between 1971 and 1997. Before Manchester City were bought by Abu Dhabi investors, they hadn’t won a single trophy between 1976 and 2011. Manchester United’s leanest era was between 1911 and 1948 and as they were fond of reminding everyone, they didn’t win the league title for 26 years until they were champions in 1993. As for Liverpool, although they didn’t win the league for 30 years, they still managed to pick up trophies in the period between 1990 and 2020.

For the majority of the 92 clubs that make-up the Premier and English Football League, promotion and a cup run are the best they can realistically hope for. Interestingly, of the current Premier, the most recent success for 12 of the 20 clubs has been promotion, all of which has been achieved between 2012 and 2020.

In the Championship, only two clubs can count a trophy as their most recent triumph, Birmingham in 2011 and Swansea in 2013. Nineteen clubs have won promotion since 2012, with three former Premier clubs, Derby County, Stoke City and Nottingham Forest, last winning promotion of any sort in 2007 (Derby) and 2008 (Stoke and Forest).

League One, surprisingly, has two clubs who have won major prizes in the 21^st century, Portsmouth (2008) and Wigan Athletic (2013). There are other clubs who have held silverware, but not recently: Swindon (1969), Charlton (1947), Blackpool (1953), Wimbledon (1988), Oxford United (1986), Sunderland (1973) and Ipswich Town (1981). All bar two members of the division have enjoyed promotion success since 2011, namely Ipswich (2000) and Sunderland (2007).

In League Two, the club that has waited the longest period of time without any form of success is Oldham Athletic, who last won promotion in 1990-91 from the old division two to the top flight. Oldham’s current situation has been well publicised, but the club’s decline over the past 27 years has seen them fall from the Premier League to the second tier (1994), second to third tier (1997) and finally, a slump to the bottom rung (2018).

Supporters of all clubs live in hope of an unforgettable season, which for most is moving up a division. Very few clubs have not experienced this over the past 15 years but some, such as the big six and Everton are unlikely to be in that bracket given the way the modern game has been shaped. It shows that hope is certainly not forlorn.

There are also clubs that have not had a glimpse of a trophy for decades, so when you hear fans complaining about 10 years without a bauble, you sympathise with the loyal followers of Newcastle and Sunderland and those that have never even tasted true glory. We all accept that football is a game of winners and losers and that nobody has the divine right to expect regular success. It is widely acknowledged that in the modern era, the rich are generally the winners and romantic fairy tales are rare. We also know that the margin between victory and defeat is precariously narrow. Yet even though we are aware of all these terms and conditions, there are still some clubs that have been losers for far too long.

@GameofthePeople