New stadium, record signings, the European Cup - Peter Johnson dreamed big for Everton

Like Bill Kenwright, Peter Johnson, the Everton chairman who first had serious aspirations to leave Goodison Park, never lived to see the Blues move into their new stadium. But while the club’s future home enters the final year of its build on the banks of the Mersey, the same issues that dogged Johnson’s tumultuous tenure remain a generation on.

Johnson, who died aged 84 on Wednesday, became the third Everton chairman to pass away over the past 18 months after Kenwright on October 23 last year and Dr David Marsh on August 19, 2022. While the trio were all very different individuals in terms of their contributions to the club in terms of character, commitment and commerce, ultimately they were all left chasing a dream of when the Blues’ proud motto ‘Nil Satis Nisi Optimum’ was a requirement rather than mere hopeful aspiration.

Everton’s main off-the-field driving force in their glory days of the mid-1980s, Sir Philip Carter is today honoured with having the Park End Stand at Goodison named after him, opposite the Howard Kendall Gwladys Street, to mark the achievements of the manager who rewarded his loyalty with the club’s most-successful period. However, while Carter was a leading figure in the creation of the Premier League, it appeared in the eyes of many that the Blues – whose average gate was just 20,457 in 1992/93 and had stagnated on and off the field during Sir John Moores’ dotage – were the least well-equipped of what was then ‘The Big Five’ (along with Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur) to deal with the transition into English football’s new-look top flight and what would become world football’s most lucrative, and competitive, domestic division.

Self-made man Moores’ Littlewoods