“If the board sack Lampard it’s another failure by them” proclaimed Neville Southall after Everton’s increasingly grim season sunk to new depths with a shambolic 4-1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion. Less than 12 months ago, Frank Lampard became the sixth managerial appointment in as many years of the Farhad Moshiri regime and his arrival was heralded as a fresh start.
Unlike predecessor Rafael Benitez, the former Liverpool boss who was arguably the most-controversial appointment in the history of the most-passionate city in English football – a decision that owner Moshiri went alone on – Lampard was understood to be the unanimous choice of all Goodison Park’s power brokers. A unifying figure after the disharmony that had come before, Lampard proved an instant hit with the fanbase who chanted his name in his first game in charge, a 4-1 victory over Brentford in the FA Cup fourth round.
It was a rarefied honour that had only been bestowed on one previous Moshiri hiring, the legendary Carlo Ancelotti. But Lampard, famously one of the smartest men in football, is intelligent enough to recognise that merely understanding the Evertonian psyche is not enough to survive as Blues boss, let alone succeed, as if they were the only credentials then there would be some 39,000 candidates at least.
Benitez wasn’t sacked because of his previous employment across Stanley Park but rather a sequence of results that chairman Bill Kenwright would later describe as “unacceptably disappointing.” The Spaniard won just one of his final 13 Premier League matches in charge, a run that included nine defeats… Lampard has won one of his last 10 Premier League games, seven of which have been lost.
Everton narrowly avoided what was almost their first relegation in 71 years last season, finishing with the joint lowest equivalent points total (39) in the club’s history. Their 21 Premier League defeats in 2022 equalled the club record for the most in a calendar year (with 1997 and 2005) and with just 15 points from 18 matches so far this term they’re currently on course for an even worse haul.
Such grim reading could well have prompted the axe to have fallen on Blues bosses in the past but it’s recognised by both those at the top of the club and the long-suffering paying spectators in the stands that the toxic cycle of ‘hiring and firing’ cannot continue on an annual basis. As Southall pointed out on Twitter, accountability must also be taken by those who brought Lampard in.
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Monaco-based Moshiri made what has become an increasingly rare trip to Merseyside to be photographed with Lampard on the day he was appointed, alongside the chairman. Moshiri hasn’t watched a competitive game of the current manager’s tenure in the flesh though with his most recent visit to Goodison Park being the 5-2 capitulation against Watford under Benitez over 14 months ago.
Some Everton fans chanted “sack the board” as their team were being dismantled on the pitch in a humiliating start to 2023. Owner Moshiri is not actually a board member with the club’s official website listing the board of directors as consisting of Bill Kenwright; Finance Director Grant Ingles; former player Graeme Sharp, a non-executive Director; and Chief Executive Officer Denise Barrett-Baxendale, who told supporters at the end of 2022 that it had been “a year of resilience and progression.”
Professor Barrett-Baxendale went on to describe how the strategic review initiated by herself and the board provided a road map to change in their football operations and how new director of football Kevin Thelwell was delivering such transformations. This included a “120-point action plan for our footballing operations strategy that Kevin is delivering, with short, medium and long-term actions and objectives clearly defined.”
Such developments may well help to bear fruit at various levels of the club in the future but the objective that is keeping beleaguered Blues awake at night is the action plan to get to 40 points by the end of May because right now it looks a long way off. The current mess appears to be the result of many years of mismanagement and for all the attempts to avoid repeating the “mistakes” that Moshiri admitted had been made when apologising to the fanbase in an open letter last June, the chickens now look to be coming home to roost at Goodison Park.
Following Everton's first game after sacking Benitez last January, a dour 1-0 home defeat to Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa under Duncan Ferguson's caretaker stewardship, the chairman, who first joined the board in 1989, spoke to some frustrated supporters on Goodison Road and their conversation included him telling them that they'd had "good times" but the months that have followed have set a series of new lows and and for Everton to find themselves in this position again, nobody can avoid scrutiny.
Just what are the realistic alternatives though? Consortiums interested in potential takeovers over the summer ultimately did not deliver.
Jack Walker, the Blackburn Rovers owner when they were crowned champions back in 1995, the year of the Blues’ last major trophy, was the last local lad made good to steer his childhood team to the top. It’s not like there are a queue of billionaires who once stood in the boys’ pen at Goodison, clambering to buy Moshiri out and we all know what kind of people do invest in Premier League clubs these days – namely US tycoons or if you’re really fortunate/prepared to abandon all your principles, a petrodollar-fuelled sportswashing group.
Everton supporters went the extra mile with passionate stadium welcomes long before kick-off and even raucous send offs from Finch Farm ahead of away fixtures to help get their under-achieving team over the line in last season’s relegation battle but the emotional roller-coaster proved to be a draining experience and it would seem from the quiet resignation of many in the stands against Brighton, a growing realisation that they might have to go through it all again in consecutive campaigns has left them lacking the stomach for another fight. Too often it seems like a one-sided relationship with the team providing little in terms of inspiration for the fans to get behind.
It’s been claimed that many of the Blues’ on-field woes of recent years have been down to a supposed lack of mental resilience among their players so to try and rectify that issue, Lampard brought in strong characters like James Tarkowski, Amadou Onana and Conor Coady but the implosions continue to dog the team. After Everton’s 3-0 thrashing at Bournemouth in their final fixture before the World Cup break – the struggling Cherries’ only victory in their last eight Premier League games by the way – Coady did not mince his words with his damning assessment of the horror show they had produced.
The on-loan defender said: “It was nothing that represents an Everton team, Everton football club, represents our supporters, nothing. So one hard look in the mirror for every single one of us that plays for this football club.”
Coady himself couldn’t play in the next fixture at home to his parent club Wolverhampton Wanderers but what did the Blues do after six weeks of stewing on such an abomination? They promptly lost 2-1 to a team who were propping up the division. A gutsy 1-1 draw at reigning champions Manchester City on New Year’s Eve provided an unexpected boost but such morale-boosting results become redundant when followed up by such pathetic displays as the 4-1 collapse against Brighton a mere three days later.
This is not a vintage Everton team but while they might not be primed for challenging for a European place – last earned at the end of Moshiri’s first season before all the record-breaking spending began – they should still be performing considerably better and showing much more consistency. When asked individually, the players often speak about how they don’t think the team will be dragged into a relegation battle but while you can admire their confidence, is it actually delusion or an over-estimation of their abilities because the truth is that they’re already in one again.
The infuriating thing given the team’s struggles is that Moshiri is not one of these football owners who won’t put his hand in his pocket and he also admitted last summer: “we have not always spent significant amounts of money wisely.” Seldom has a club squandered so much to become so bad and in contrast the likes of Brighton have established themselves as effective Premier League outfits at a fraction of Everton’s outlay through much more astute recruitment and they’re far from being the only ones.
This correspondent wrote after the Brighton defeat that it was almost like there are two Evertons right now, the one that struggles so badly on the field and the brighter future that could lie ahead at the new stadium but even the once-in-a-lifetime event of that beautiful building being constructed by the banks of the Mersey that should have supporters’ hearts bursting with pride, cannot be enjoyed at the moment because of all the heartache caused by the team’s malaise. Delivering the club’s future home at Bramley-Moore Dock is the one element of Moshiri’s ownership which has been an unequivocal success in sharp contrast to the downward spiral in football fortunes but Everton desperately need a team worthy of the 52,888 capacity venue and that of course is one that is secure in the Premier League.
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