Dean up front and Southall in goal. Nobody needs convincing. The real argument is how much of Howard Kendall's mid-80s team you can squeeze in, and whether anyone from the Moyes years deserves to stand next to them.
Most of this team played at Goodison. Now the club has left it for the new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock, that feels worth saying.
I've gone 4-4-2, because that's how the 1985 side played and half of this team comes from it.
The team
Goalkeeper
Neville Southall. 578 league games between 1981 and 1998, more than anyone in Everton's history, and that's before you add the cups. Football Writers' Footballer of the Year in 1985. If you grew up watching him, you picture a big Welshman in a baggy shirt pulling off a save, then looking furious about it.
Defence
Gary Stevens, right back (1982 to 1988). Right back in the 1984 cup final, in Rotterdam and in both title sides, and he went to the 1986 World Cup with England. Séamus Coleman has the longer story. Signed from Sligo Rovers in 2009 for very little, he went on to captain the club and played well over 300 league games. I went back and forth on this one. In the end I wanted the full back from the title sides, but if you put Coleman in, I won't argue much.
Brian Labone, centre back. One club, 451 league games from 1958 to 1971, and captain when Everton won the FA Cup in 1966 and the league in 1970.
Kevin Ratcliffe, centre back (1980 to 1992). He was the captain who lifted the FA Cup in 1984, the league title in 1985 and the Cup Winners' Cup in Rotterdam the same year. Quick enough to cover for everyone, which meant the rest of the team could push up. He gets the armband here as well. Sorry, Brian.
Leighton Baines, left back. My first modern pick, and I don't think it's a brave one. He played 348 league games between 2007 and 2020, took most of the set pieces, and for a few seasons in the early 2010s he was the best attacking left back in England. Ray Wilson won the World Cup in 1966 as an Everton player, and Pat Van Den Hauwe was a hard man in a title side. Wilson has the medal nobody else here has. I still take Baines.
Midfield
Trevor Steven, right midfield (1983 to 1989). Signed from Burnley, he gave the 1985 team its width on the right and scored in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Rapid Vienna.
Peter Reid, centre midfield (1982 to 1989). PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1985. He wasn't flash. He won the ball back and gave it to someone better placed, all afternoon, and the whole team ran off him.
Alan Ball, centre midfield. Everton signed him in 1966, straight after he'd won the World Cup with England at 21. Alongside Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall he made up the midfield that won the league in 1970, the one older fans still call the Holy Trinity. I can only fit one of them in, and I'm going with Ball.
Kevin Sheedy, left midfield. Ipswich, FA Cup quarter-final, 1985. Sheedy curls a free kick in, the referee orders a retake, and he puts the second one in the other corner. He also got the third goal in Rotterdam that May, and he was at the club from 1982 to 1992.
Attack
Dixie Dean, striker (1925 to 1937). 349 league goals in 399 games for Everton. 60 of them came in 1927-28, still the English top-flight record almost a hundred years later.
Graeme Sharp, striker (1980 to 1991). 322 league games, and Everton's top scorer since the war. He scored the first goal in the 1984 FA Cup final against Watford, and the volley that won the derby at Anfield in October 1984. Andy Gray was the louder story, but Sharp was there for eleven years.
Manager
Howard Kendall. Two league titles, an FA Cup and a European trophy. The night that sums him up is the 3-1 against Bayern Munich at Goodison in the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final in April 1985, which plenty of fans still call the best night the old ground ever had. Harry Catterick won two titles and a cup in the 1960s, so it's close.
Cahill and Jagielka
Tim Cahill (2004 to 2012). I really wanted him in. He came from Millwall, finished top scorer in his first season when Moyes took Everton to fourth, and won headers a man his size had no business winning. If you play a 4-4-1-1 with Cahill behind Dean, you've got a strong case. But to fit him in my 4-4-2 I'd have to drop Ball or Reid, and I can't.
Phil Jagielka (2007 to 2019). Twelve years and 322 league games, most of them as a very good Premier League centre back. He scored the winning penalty in the 2009 FA Cup semi-final shootout against Manchester United at Wembley, and hit that late volley to draw at Anfield in 2014. Labone and Ratcliffe are just better. Put him in the squad, and if you rate the Premier League above the old First Division, start him.
Close but not quite
- Andy Gray (1983 to 1985). 49 league games, a header in the 1984 cup final and a goal in Rotterdam. Two seasons, and he made both of them count. I still leave him on the bench.
- Alex Young (1960 to 1968). The Golden Vision, and a title winner in 1963. If you saw Young play you'll think I've lost my mind leaving him out. You might be right.
- Bob Latchford (1974 to 1981). 30 league goals in 1977-78.
- Dave Watson (1986 to 2001). 419 league games and captain when Everton beat Manchester United in the 1995 FA Cup final.
- Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall as players. The other two-thirds of the Holy Trinity.
- Gary Lineker (1985 to 1986). 30 league goals in his one season.
- Tommy Lawton (1936 to 1939). Dean's successor, and a title winner in 1939.
- Wayne Rooney and Romelu Lukaku. Rooney's first spell made his name. Lukaku scored a lot of goals in four seasons, counting his loan year, and left.
- Jordan Pickford. Signed from Sunderland in 2017 and England's number one for years. Southall is in the way.
Quick answers
Who is Everton's record goalscorer? Dixie Dean, with 349 league goals between 1925 and 1937.
Who has played the most games for Everton? Neville Southall.
Build your own
Plenty of Everton fans would rather have the 1985 team on the wall than any all-time XI, or the side that beat United at Wembley in 1995. You can build either of them, or your own Sunday league side, in our team builder. We email you a proof before anything is printed. If you'd rather have a classic team ready to go, have a look at our Everton prints.