Dream big: the phrase is on a maroon billboard, painted in gold letters, but it will strike a chord with all those embarking on a new, Blue pilgrimage.
Those two words haven’t come from Everton’s marketing team. They are linked to the conversion of the old Tobacco Warehouse, the biggest in the world when it was built in 1901, on the dock road into luxury flats. The reality, though, is that this is precisely the time for Everton to dream big.
Hill Dickinson Stadium – the new shimmering jewel on the waterfront, constructed at a cost of more than £500million – will be close to its 52,888 capacity on Saturday afternoon when Everton conclude their preparations for the new campaign and what an occasion this will be.
For a club that spent much of the last decade in turmoil – skittling managers because of substandard players, all the while squabbling with authorities over financial matters – Roma’s visit represents the first pristine page on a new book. The potential to write meaningful stories from here is limitless.
‘I can’t wait to go in there,’ says Claire Hill, a lifelong Evertonian who is admiring the view of the arena as it glistens in the midday sun. ‘I hadn’t been to either of the first two test events because I wanted to see what it was like when it was full and it was all Blue and it was bouncing.
‘I used to go to Goodison with my mum and dad, that was my match-going experience for 30 years. I lost my dad no so long ago and we have a stone with his name on outside this stadium. I’ll feel like he is here with me when I go from now on with my one of my sons, Ethan. It’s going to be a fresh start.’
Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium on the Bramley-Moore Dock
The stadium’s first competitive match is just over two weeks away, when Brighton visit in the Premier League
Yet some have looked at the club from the outside and wondered whether things are running as they should be. In America last week, during a whistle-stop three-game tour, David Moyes was stony-faced when he gave a synopsis of Everton’s transfer activity.
Things hadn’t been helped by results. A 1-1 draw with Accrington Stanley, preceded defeats by Blackburn, Bournemouth and West Ham and Moyes, impatient to drag the club he loves forward into the realms where he believes it should be, didn’t hold back.
‘We’re not ready to start the Premier League season,” said Moyes. ‘I’m not overly concerned (by the results) because I don’t have the players I need and I want. We’re up against it right from the start. We knew before we came to the US we were going to be really up against it.
‘It was never going to be us coming here and winning games. Our attacking play, at the moment, has been really poor. We haven’t created enough chances. I’ve never had one of these times. In the past, I have had to sign a lot of players, but I’ve never had to do so many in one window.’
Perhaps not but Moyes is a wise, old head in these situations and, it must be stressed, this is a new Everton: the largesse and naivety of the Farhad Moshiri era, when the wrong individuals were bought for too much money, won’t be tolerated now under new owners, the Friedkin Group.
To date, Everton have brought in five players: Thierno Barry, a striker from Villarreal, Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers; Adam Aznou, a young left back from Bayern Munich; Carlos Alcaraz, who enjoyed a successful loan spell last season, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Chelsea.
There will, however, be more. Jack Grealish is being pursued vigorously and would be the kind of addition that could light up Hill Dickinson Stadium, a genuine star. He would benefit from working with Moyes, too, as while much would be asked of him, he’d be made to feel a million dollars.
Moyes has always wanted to give his squads the best of everything and he ensured one of the places they stayed in America was Manhattan, so the group could have time to bond and enjoy a meal in New York. Spirit has always been crucial at Everton and Moyes wants to create the best environment.
Spirit has always been crucial at Everton and manager David Moyes wants to create the best environment
Adam Aznou had already made an impression since joining from Bayern Munich this summer
Grealish will know this but he has other options. Napoli want to take him from Manchester City and Atletico Madrid have tested the water. Both can offer Champions League football. Can they, though, offer a fanbase who would adore him from the start and will him onto show-stopping performances?
Talks will continue, primarily around salaries and fees. Grealish may initially have been reticent about Everton’s interest but Moyes is persuasive and it would be no surprise if, towards the end of the window, the England international becomes one of an influx of additions.
Interest in Aston Villa captain John McGinn is strong. The situation isn’t straightforward, as Villa don’t want to sell, but profit and sustainability concerns may force them to offload at some point and the Scottish dynamo has all the characteristics to lift a team and dressing room. In many ways, he is a perfect Moyes player.
Everton had an overhaul of their technical department in the summer, stepping away from their old director of football model to a ‘leadership structure’ with new chief executive Angus Kinnear, who arrived from Leeds, sanctioning four appointments.
Highly rated former Manchester United academy director Nick Cox was brought in to be technical director; James Smith will become the new director of scouting and recruitment after leaving Manchester City; Chris Howarth will direct Everton’s football strategy & analytics operations and Nick Hammond is leading the player trading activity.
Of that quartet, Smith’s appointment is significant. He had a huge influence during Moyes’s first spell at the club in terms of recruitment and was instrumental in identifying several players who helped secure a string of top six finishes. His judgment is outstanding; his work ethic is impeccable.
Another key figure who will be involved going forward is the much-respected Mick Doherty, a scout whom Moyes trusts. Doherty recently spent two seasons working with Atalanta and his rich CV includes time at Chelsea, Sunderland and Celtic.
Getting the foundations right is vital for Everton and while, inevitably, there have been early teething troubles, there is a sense of calm amongst the fanbase. It doesn’t take much for anger to blow up in their corner of social media when things aren’t going well but this summer has been calm.
Napoli and Atletico Madrid can offer Champions League football, but can they offer a fanbase who would adore him from the start and will him onto show-stopping performances?
Leeds away is the first game, on the opening Monday night of the season, before Hill Dickinson Stadium finally opens its doors for a competitive game for the first time on August 24 against Brighton.
‘I feel this is our chance for the club to have a new dawn,’ says Craig Harrison, a fan of 40 years, who breaks off from admiring a wonderful echo of the past with his wife, Helen – Alan Ball’s famous white boots in a glass case – in the new club store to discussing the future.
‘I want this to be the period when we go and win something. It’s been 30 years, a lifetime for so many fans.
‘I’ve been a bit frustrated after some of the pre-season games but only about the results. I don’t mind us taking time about transfers. We have got to get them right from now.’
The overwhelming feeling is that they will. Dewsbury-Hall, for instance, is a terrific addition. Always highly regarded by Brendan Rodgers, when they worked together at Leicester, the interview he gave after his arrival from Stamford Bridge was a reminder of how special joining Everton should be.
‘Everton’s one of the biggest clubs in the country, and I think that in the next couple of years, the future is going to be bright,’ he enthused. ‘It was an easy decision in the end to come here and play for this club. Just sitting here in the stadium, it’s unbelievable.’
It certainly is: £50million was invested in preserving the heritage, such as the bollards to which ships would be tied up and the tramlines that would whisk cargo away. Liverpool’s waterfront has always been synonymous as a gateway to new frontiers and pursuing big dreams.
‘This is life-changing,’ says Rachel Flood, whose mum, Angela Burns, has run the Bramley Moore pub opposite the stadium for 33 years.
‘We are a family of Blues and we have watched the stadium go up, brick-by-brick over the last five years and it’s just been incredible.
‘It felt like every other day, you would see something new and be like: “Oh wow! Look at that now!” Everyone is going to be welcome here.
‘We want to see more bars and places to eat in the area, more people coming to enjoy this part of town. We’ve waited so long for it. Now it’s finally here.’
And so, too, is the moment for Everton to dream big.