Former Everton forward Adrian Heath has revealed he was worried for his old club as far back as July and believes they are paying the price for poor recruitment.
Everton can guarantee Premier League survival with three points against Bournemouth tomorrow afternoon, but if they slip up, then relegation rivals Leicester City and Leeds United could both preserve their own top-flight futures.
It is the second consecutive season in which Everton find themselves battling to avoid the drop. Last term, they survived after coming from behind to beat Crystal Palace at Goodison Park in the penultimate game of their campaign.
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And Heath has revealed that he started to fear for his old club when they were beaten by his Minnesota United side back in July. A strong Blues outfit was dismantled 4-0 after Heath’s side raced into a three-goal lead at the break.
"We [Minnesota] played Everton in pre-season, and I’m not sure everything felt right," he told The Times. "If you get your recruitment wrong, then it comes back to bite you in the end, and that has been the biggest problem.
"When you consider what money has been spent and what their major assets are on the field, then it is incredible, really.
"Dychey [Sean Dyche] was a good appointment. The pragmatism that he brings will just about get them over the line, but, as we said this time last year, there have got to be changes.
"We can’t go through this again. If we get away with it this time, it looks like it will be because it’s a low points total. We have been lucky if that is the case."
Heath, who won two league titles, an FA Cup, and the Cup Winners' Cup with the Blues, was also part of Howard Kendall’s coaching staff the day the Blues stayed up by the skin of their teeth.
Kendall’s side were in the bottom three and hosted Coventry City, needing to better Bolton Wanderers’ result away to Chelsea to stay up. And although they didn’t claim all three points against the Sky Blues, the 1-1 draw at Goodison was good enough for Everton, as Bolton were beaten 2-0 by Chelsea.
"It was probably the biggest game of all my time at Everton," Heath says, recalling the tie. "Howard [Kendall] had taken us to a hotel over the water, Thornton Hall, the night before, and I remember sitting with him and Viv [Busby, assistant manager] after dinner for a couple of glasses of wine.
"The boss just said: 'Everything we have ever achieved will go out the window if we get relegated, boys.'
"It was one of those things that resonated straight away. I struggled to get to sleep. Waking up on the morning of the game, I had a knot in my stomach.
"For me and the boss whose career was synonymous with Everton, it would have been the worst day of our football lives if we had gone down."
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