So what if the Red Devils have retained their Premier League title?

With the wealth of players at their disposal, it was unlikely that they were ever going to finish out of the top two, especially when you have the world’s best player in Cristiano Ronaldo who scored an amazing 44 goals for the champions this season, despite being suspended for three games.

The real winners this season were Everton and perhaps Sunderland, the latter being the only promoted team to survive this campaign. Along with the other 15 clubs in the Premier League, the Toffees weren’t expected to challenge the Big Four, although they put the frighteners on Liverpool for a short while and managed to make some decent progress on a European front.

'Fans cite the Championship as regularly providing more entertainment than the Premier League'


You see, what makes football and sport in general exciting is the competitive element. That’s why fans cite the Championship as regularly providing more entertainment than the Premier League. While the standard of football obviously isn’t as high in the second flight and you won’t see the Preston number seven invent his own type of free-kick, the fact that none of the teams can splurge tens of millions on a player means that games (and the league in general) are evenly-matched.

While Everton have more cash at their disposal than several other Premier League clubs, it’s hard to argue that they landed fifth place this season due to being a moneybags team, throwing cash left right and centre in order to be playing UEFA Cup football. Aside from spending £11m on Yakubu, the Merseyside club have a squad filled with lower-league signings (Joleon Lescott, Tim Cahill and Phil Jagielka), trainees (Leon Osman, Victor Anichebe) and experienced campaigners such as Phil Neville and Lee Carsley.  

Therefore, to finish in fifth position, five points clear of the chasing pack, is an outstanding achievement for a team who were fighting relegation two seasons ago. David Moyes also steered his team to a Carling Cup semi-final against Chelsea and his team were unfortunate to only reach the last 16 of the UEFA Cup after playing Fiorentina off the park for huge chunks of the return leg.

Even if Manchester United win the Champions League next week, it’s hard to argue that their relative achievements are greater than the blue half of Merseyside this term. Never mind Wayne Rooney (once a blue, always a blue) or Nemanja Vidic, what Moyes would give for a Ji-Sung Park or a John O’Shea in his team. Look how much mileage he’s got from Phil Neville (although his passing is reported to be suspect).

Therefore, while Rio Ferdinand is busy spraying champagne at Wes Brown and the rest of the Manchester United team put their silly hats on and show off their silverware, the Everton team know that they have been the outstanding team this season and have been the real winners on relative merit.