Everton's Ultimate 25-Man Premier League Squad

Though they have just the one Champions League play-off defeat to show for it, Everton have introduced some truly fantastic talents to Premier League football.

If there’s one thing you’d associate Everton players with it’s defensive solidity and longevity, but some mercurial attackers have also had the privilege of passing through Goodison Park.

Is it even possible to produce a viable 25-man squad out of this collection of legends? Well, let’s have a look-see…

Goalkeepers

Tim Howard - The USMNT number one was a part of the Goodison Park furniture for yonks, most amusingly reacting with disdain after he accidentally scored from a goal kick against Bolton.

Neville Southall - It feels slightly naughty to put the genuinely legendary keeper second in this list, but things were starting to wind down for Southall at this point, despite his heroics in the 1995 FA Cup final.

Jordan Pickford - The feisty keeper with tiny arms and a big heart has had a mixed start to his Everton career, but there are surely greater things to come from the World Cup hero...hopefully.

Right Backs

Seamus Coleman - Before that horrific injury against Wales, the Irishman was one of the very best full backs in the league, and one of the Premier League’s greatest ever bargains, signing for a measly £60,000 from Sligo Rovers.

Tony Hibbert - ‘If Hibbert scores, we riot’, the Everton fans promised their long-serving, dependable right-back, and they delivered, producing a full-scale pitch invasion after he scored in his testimonial .

Left Backs

Leighton Baines - Perhaps on account of an international career in Ashley Cole’s shadow, and looking like he plays bass for The Jam, Baines has been criminally underrated by Premier League fans, with the set-piece wizard racking up 53 assists before full backs pitching in was cool.

Lucas Digne - The magician's apprentice didn’t take long to arrive, with the former Football Manager wonderkid with a wand of a left foot now Bainesy's heir in Everton’s new-look side.

Centre Backs

Dave Watson - This old-school hardman was the reverse Jamie Carragher, exchanging Liverpool colours for royal blue and becoming the third longest-serving player at Goodison Park, captaining the Toffees at the grand old age of 37.

Phil Jagielka - Yet another Everton defender born with the longevity gene, ‘Jags’ most famously sent Everton fans into raptures by whacking one in the top bins from 30 yards in the last minute of a Merseyside derby.

Joleon Lescott - You’re thinking about the car tweet, aren’t you? Before he was aggravating Villa fans, Lescott indisputably earned his nice Mercedes during three and a bit seasons at Everton - during which his teammates twice voted him Player of the Year.

David Unsworth - He certainly wouldn’t be the manager of this squad, but ‘Rhino’’s love of a tackle and occasional foraging in the opposition half endeared him to (and frustrated) the Everton faithful for many years.

Central Midfielders

Mikel Arteta - Creative, intelligent and a fantastic leader…the Spanish playmaker, who made over 200 appearances for Everton, he might make a pretty good manager one of these days!

Gary Speed - The boyhood Everton fan left the club in tumultuous circumstances, but what a reliable source of footballing inspiration he was in his short time in Merseyside.

Idrissa Gueye - One of few former Everton players who can claim to have dominated Real Madrid’s midfield outside of a FIFA match, the Senegalese anchorman was one of the Premier League’s toughest propositions before moving to PSG.

Marouane Fellaini - It’s not fair that the Belgian became synonymous with dour Mourinhoball given his often stunning form at Everton. He scored goals! Lots of them! And often at quite important times!

Right & Left Midfielders

Andrei Kanchelskis - Kanchelskis' sweary tiff with Fergie is one of the best things that ever happened to Everton, with the Russian's brief love affair with the Blues seeing him famously put Liverpool to the sword.

Richarlison - 'Heeeee's Brazilian, he only cost £50 million...'
You know (and we can’t print) the rest, and the versatile former Watford man is paying every pound of that £50m back as he develops into one of the league’s most rounded offensive threats.

Steven Pienaar - A creative and entertaining player who just couldn’t quite cut the mustard at the highest level (what was that move to Spurs all about?), and shared a telepathic understanding with Baines on the left.

Kevin Mirallas - Inconsistent to the point of mass supporter frustration, the sporadic moments when the Belgian did deliver (and how!) mean that he shades it in ahead of a 35-year-old David Ginola.

Attacking Midfielders

Wayne Rooney - Annihilated Arsenal at 16, went to Manchester United, broke United and England’s goalscoring records, came back to Everton, scored from the halfway line against West Ham. A good shift.

Peter Beardsley - The legendary Liverpool man crossed the Merseyside divide to spend a couple of seasons in the twilight of his career at Everton, but it wasn’t any kind of farewell tour as he bagged 32 goals in 95 games.

Ross Barkley - Ross ‘The Boss’ Barkley is seemingly only one touch away from some Gascoigne-esque magic at all times, and it might never get better for him than his pre-Chelsea days as a raw midfielder at Everton.

Strikers

Romelu Lukaku - What Big Rom achieved in the Premier League in his early 20s has been long underappreciated, but in plain terms, he was bagging goals for fun, and only Harry Kane stood between him and the 2016-17 Golden Boot.

Tim Cahill - The man who was so aerially proficient that ‘he leapt like an absolute Tim Cahill’ is an idiom among salmons, the sight of Cahill testing a few jabs out on the corner flag is sorely missed.

Duncan Ferguson - What better place to end than with Big Dunc, a man who headed each and every ball as if it had just insulted his nan, and nearly dragged Everton to the promised land of Champions League football.