Tarkowski admits Everton’s season ‘feels a bit rubbish’ after limp finish concludes with Spurs defeat

(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

James Tarkowski has said it 'feels a bit rubbish' that Everton's season petered out with a whimper.

Another toothless performance saw the Toffees beaten 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, extending the club's winless run to seven Premier League games.

Joao Palhinha scored the decisive goal after escaping Michael Keane's attention at a corner kick, scoring at the second attempt after his initial effort came back off the post. The result ensured Spurs survived an ignominious relegation from the Premier League.

For Everton, another lacklustre performance sees the club head into the summer in glum mood.

Having muscled into the chase for Europe in the spring, a sharp fall-off has seen David Moyes's men tumble down the table. Everton end the Premier League campaign 13th for a second straight season, and only a point improved from last season.

Tarkowski says Everton run-in 'hurts' after Blues blow 'exciting position'

"Ultimately the corner decided the game so there are more disappointing ways to lose," Tarkowski reflected to Sky Sports at full-time.

"I didn't think we played very well and it probably took us 75 minutes to get going. It has been a disappointing end to the season and we've drifted down the table. We've ended the season on a bit of a low.

"It's probably just a sign of where we are at as a team. We had a solid away record earlier in the season but have struggle to continue that recently. We have work to do and we knew that anyway. We knew we weren't the finished article.

"I am proud but the way it has ended is disappointing. We were in an exciting position five or six weeks ago so it hurts and feels a bit rubbish. But on reflection in a few weeks time we'll probably say it wasn't a bad season.

"We know the size of the club and where everyone expects to be. We've got to progress and improve next season."

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It wasn't a bad season, says Tarkowski!!! Try telling that to the fans who've had to fork out their hard-earned following you, week-in & week-out.

The home performances have been on the large insipid and ponderous, littered with mistakes. The final 2 months have been downright dreadful. Tarkowski is one of the main culprits with his mistakes and poor defending...

Mind you, he hasn't been on his own in that department. For me, this season has been a complete shitshow -- especially when you get newly promoted Sunderland qualifying for Europe alongside Brighton and Bournemouth.

Stan Grace 2 Posted 24/05/2026 at 19:38:55

Proud? He should only feel embarrassed.

Not a bad season? His expectations are clearly lower than ours.

A change of team captain and manager would help to raise them.

Tony Abrahams 4 Posted 24/05/2026 at 20:09:05

Hopefully the people who make the key decisions don't wait a few weeks before reflecting on the season, then, James.

Before today's game, we had picked up 3 points from a possible 18 at the business end of the season, with the manager continuing to pick the same team.

We have got a CEO telling us he feels happily dissatisfied, and now we have to listen to the team captain saying although he is disappointed, he is also proud, and it will probably feel like we have had a decent season when we all begin to reflect in a few weeks.

Being completely honest, the best thing about today is that I won't have to worry about watching Everton for 3 months, but if Moyes stays, then I'm not sure I will even want to watch us in 3 months time.

Everton FC, a club with a fantastic fan base and a brilliant new state-of-the-art stadium, need to start employing people who want to win, instead of continuing to employ people who embrace mediocrity.

Alan McGuffog 6 Posted 24/05/2026 at 20:46:47

Players are shite. Manager is worse. Owners don't give a monkey's.

But we've a propaganda machine that little roly poly fella in North Korea would love. "Not a bad season"...Christ's tears!

Jamie Gentry 7 Posted 24/05/2026 at 20:51:12

Considering this is our first season in the new stadium, which has been proven to be notoriously problematic for teams in the wake of that transition.

First full season with owners who genuinely appear to have a plan and will drive the club forward in spite of the criminal restraints FFP places upon us or any other club with a modicum of ambition.

Coming off the back of consecutive close shaves with relegation as a result of embarrassingly poor ownership and lack of funds to compete anywhere near the big spenders, this is a small step forward.

It only feels so disappointing because we were in touching distance of Europe, 2 results going the other way was the marginal difference.

Get Jack signed up, then Stones, Toney will follow and perhaps Ben White or another quality right-back. Hold on to the majority of what we have to ensure our squad depth is good and we can be optimistic about challenging for the Top 6.

If Moyes fails then, we can all ask questions, but as he has always over-achieved with the resources at his disposal, I would very much doubt he will.

Roll on next season, UTFT!

Kieran Kinsella 8 Posted 24/05/2026 at 21:04:25

Why did we improve towards the end? Because we brought on young fit hungry subs and took off some of the out-of-form, burnt-out players.

Dewsbury-Hall was brilliant for much of the season but rubbish lately. But he played all last summer so never had time off. Ndyiae looks knackered too and has since the Afcon.

So rest them!! Give someone else other than McNeil more than 15 minutes on the field.

Oliver Molloy 10 Posted 24/05/2026 at 21:31:05

Jamie @7,

Stones looked miserable as can be today -- the realization that Everton probably will be the only club to offer him big wages and playing under Moyes is setting in. Injury-prone and best years behind him, but he is experienced -- ticks all the Moyes boxes.

If Moyes fails, you say -- he already has! A rubbish negative past-it manager -- and if the owners had a plan to drive the club and team forward, then the first thing they should do now is sack him.

Sean Kearns 11 Posted 24/05/2026 at 21:31:56

It's been rubbish for every single season this man has been our captain!!! Why do we all think he's good or something?

Get Stones next to Jarrad Branthwaite next season, maybe with Jake O'brien in a back 3. Tarkowski can bench-warm... and Keane can bounce.

Oliver Molloy 12 Posted 24/05/2026 at 21:41:36

Sean,

Great if you can guarantee his fitness -- then good signing, but the last few years he hasn't played or started many games due to injury issues.

Would you be happy with Stones getting £100k a week over 3 years while not playing many games? That's the risk.

Les Callan 13 Posted 24/05/2026 at 22:06:56

Christ, Sean... imagine Stones fannying about in front of jinky Jordan.

An accident waiting to happen.

Jim Bennings 14 Posted 24/05/2026 at 22:12:25

Well, actually... it was a bit rubbish -- that's why, fella.

Once again, we have billionaire owners; Sunderland win a fuckin playoff 12 months ago, finish 7th, and are in the Europa League! We are Everton, we are still talking about 'stability'!

How much stabilizing does a club need before it decides to actually move the fuck forward?

This season has been a bigger letdown than last season in my view.

Money spent on Dibling last summer, I can't even remember what the lad looks like! Moyes brings George in during January, a player that probably would have improved us if he'd been given the game time some of these underperforming wasters have had since March.

Conservative central defenders, one of them stuck at right-back, not so much a square peg in a round hole but a hexagon in a rectangle!!!

A bang average slower than a wet Sunday left-back that has not had one jot of competition for his place in four bloody years, for fuck's sake... That's a sick joke on the recruitment team. And saying that, we are happy to be mediocre.

Perseverance with Barry, who looks about as half-arsed and piss-weak as he did on Day 1.

Losing both derbies to Uncle Fester's Crisis Club.

Going out of both Cups before the 4th Round was even mentioned.

Losing more home games than we won at the supposed new fortress.

So yes, Tarky fella, I'd say it was a bit rubbish.

Annika Herbert 16 Posted 24/05/2026 at 23:13:38

Jamie @ 7, where the hell has Moyes over-achieved? Because it certainly isn't at Everton.

He was a disaster at Man Utd, failed miserably in Spain, and then got Sunderland relegated. He was always going to fail in Spain because of his outdated, boring, defensive, tactics.

So, after this shit show of a season, you want to see the dinosaur continue his march towards more mediocrity as the Everton boss? Unbelievable!

Ben White is garbage, by the way, and Stones is too injury-prone. If this team gets any older, they will need Zimmer frames just to make it onto the pitch.

Jim Bennings 17 Posted 24/05/2026 at 23:37:26

Ben White isn't the answer.

Stones's career is on the way down; as good a footballer he's been, we've already got a player in Branthwaite where we don't know if he'll play 5 or 35 games a season -- we don't really need another, older version.

Why can't these scouts find the type of player that the likes of Bournemouth capture?

What are our recruitment team doing exactly?

Si Cooper 18 Posted 24/05/2026 at 23:41:50

Annika (16), thank you. Once again you've saved me from having to jump in with a ‘What the fuck!?!' start to my post.

“….perhaps Ben White or another quality right-back. Hold on to the majority of what we have to ensure our squad depth is good and we can be optimistic about challenging for the Top 6.If Moyes fails then, we can all ask questions, but as he has always over-achieved with the resources at his disposal, I would very much doubt he will.”

It has to be a certainty that drugs these days are a lot stronger than they used to be.

Jim Bennings 19 Posted 25/05/2026 at 07:12:13

Moyes hasn't overachieved at all with this season. He's underachieved if anything.

The days between 2002 and 2009 you could justifiably so say that he was overachieving with the funds he had available to him but last summer he was given a significant amount to sign players.

When you consider that we could have signed the same players Sunderland or Bournemouth did, it makes you think, something then is very wrong with this club.

We spent a ton on Tyler Dibling when it's obvious he isn't in favour. If this manager is here come August, he still won't be in favour.

He signed a young left-back but prefers to give the slot every week without fail to the 19th Century style Mykolenko.

We had a whole summer to sign a right-back but again, 16 months on, we still persist with Jake O'Brien there, which has become painfully obvious it's not working at all.

Somehow, we contrived to pay Villarreal money with Frank Spencer's football version, Thierno Barry.

Moyes signed Charly Alcaraz last summer after he impressed very much on loan here, yet this season, almost from Day 1, he's given him next to nothing in terms of games.

He signed Tyrique George in January -- a fast, direct, energetic, potentially exciting prospect -- but has preferred the likes of Dwight McNeil or yesterday to play Merlin Rohl out wide.

Moyes has since March been the architect of his own downfall and it may well now cost him his job; the unfinished business might just be all but over for him here.

Let it sink in, prior to kick-off last Sunday against Sunderland, we were above them -- and leading at half-time; we could well have made the Europa League.

A week on, Sunderland finish 7th and Everton 13th.

If ever you need in a nutshell reminding of the "Everton that" phrase, then this season's finale has been it.

Mal van Schaick 20 Posted 25/05/2026 at 07:28:50

“I thought that we played well but only got going after 75 minutes” Tarkowski? We are supposed to get going from the kick-off!!! If that's the attitude, we know that we are fucked.

A thin squad and choosing the same players and formations over and over again, that's the manager's decision and he thinks that is acceptable to the fans.

If the owners want to show ambition for next season, it's yet another clearout and rebuild... or else, more of the same -- and that does not show ambition.

Andy Meighan 21 Posted 25/05/2026 at 12:17:43

I apologise for my foul language here, but what an insulting twat.

Most of us have shelled out hard earned money for season tickets to watch you feel a bit disappointed, your performances alongside your mate Donkey Keane and Obrien actually knock me sick.

Not a chance you were ever getting dropped though and you actually think you're far better than what you are, I've got news for you you're not honestly.

I think the only people who should feel disappointed are us long suffering mugs who have to pay for the privilege of watching you and your mates go through the motions game after game.

In future just keep your fuckin trap shut, or if they do wheel you out the first thing you could do is apologise to the thousands who paid to watch that abomination of a performance.

Just go and take everyone of the squad with you because Branthwaite apart the rest of them are fucking bang average players, and that includes the vastly overrated Ndiaye, oops sorry forgot hes tired isn't he.

Once again apologies for my profanities.

Jack Convery 22 Posted 25/05/2026 at 14:07:59

They embarrass Evertonians everywhere with that display and he says we're disappointed. Sod that Tarks, you've been playing crap for months - maybe you are carrying an injury - but we do have another CB on our books who is playing out of position and out of his depth at RB. Tell Moyes to do something, other than carry plan A, in to every match week in week out. Ask him, why did he give Seamus a one year contract, so he could play for Ireland. Why did he pay millions on Dibbling, Aznou and Rohl and not bloody play them. Ask him, who the feck thought Barry was a CF, which he clearly isn't and made it impossible for us to have someone effective in holding the ball up the pitch. Once Grealish was out that option was completely terminated. Did you point out to him, that Illiam and Keirnan were goosed a month ago and to give George a try and maybe just maybe, play Armstrong / Charlie to give us fresh legs. The guy is a joke and those who enable him are no better.

I believe Seamus said no to a coaching role, is because he wants no part in the Moyesiahs' management charade. We are going nowhere and you and the players must know that. Time some of you stood up and called it out, like we fans do or has the cat got your tongue. The collapse in the last 7 games has been inexplicable. Come out and explain it to us please. As they say the Truth is Out There. It just needs some one to say it.

A really, pissed off Evertonian.

Jeff Spiers 23 Posted 25/05/2026 at 15:30:07

Jack. First class post! I see a long hard season ahead

Jay Harris 24 Posted 25/05/2026 at 16:49:48

I don't think any of our players or the board could tell you our motto of Nil Satis Nisi Optimum.

Nothing but the best is good enough.

Executive team, manager and players should be made to write that out 100 times and then act on it either by resigning or starting to act in accordance with it.

How we the supporters can identify our weakness at RB and goalscoring for the last 5 years and it is still our achilles heel is beyond me.

In failing to address that in a timely manner we now have an aging squad in Tarkowski, Keane and Gana Gueye that also now need replacing.

One can only hope that the talk of going for Solly March (31) and John Stones (old and injury prone) is just paper talk because if they sign players like these and not the likes of Tyrique George then more mediocrity will follow.

Jack Convery 25 Posted 25/05/2026 at 18:13:28

A quote from Non Exec Director Peter Charrington, of Spurs. Taken from an open letter to Spurs fans today.

Change Spurs to Everton and it's the same scenario at our Club:

"The qualities that make Spurs distinct, our football, our ambition, the connection between the team and its supporters, had been allowed to fade. Football success had not been driving our decisions.

"We did not have the right expertise in key roles. We did not build squads good enough to compete in the most demanding league in the world."

Mike Gaynes 26 Posted 25/05/2026 at 18:30:58

Yep, Jack, except Spurs' payroll this season was more than double ours, and we still finished 8 points ahead of them, after ending 10 points above them last season.

I'd still 1000% rather be an Everton supporter.

Jack Convery 27 Posted 25/05/2026 at 18:40:06

Right you are Mike but I truly believe, we've become a money making stadium, with a team attached !

Only removing Moyes and bringing in someone, like Glasner and supporting him in the transfer market, would stop me thinking that way.

Mike Gaynes 28 Posted 25/05/2026 at 19:24:27

*Chuckle*

Good one, Jack. I would say only that it takes longer to build a quality club than it does a quality stadium... and it's harder to get the financing arranged.

Tony Abrahams 29 Posted 25/05/2026 at 19:41:18

Football success had not been driving our decisions. A simple sentence but one that has been inside the walls of Everton, since Peter Johnson, overspent one summer about 35 years ago.

You could argue that Moshiri, wanted to change this, but with the biggest curse in the entire history of our 148 year existence staying on as chairman, that saying about a fool and his money, rang true.

The stadium has cost a lot of money, I’m sure a very good coach could deliver us success for a lot less, but when you consider how cheaply The Silent Friedkin’s, purchased Everton, then hopefully they’ve got a lot of money to spend.🤞

I have been worried about the people behind the scenes not being aligned, but one thing that has become very noticeable is that nobody at Everton football club, comes across with any notion whatsoever, that they are actually driven by real success.