Everton legend Peter Reid reckons the Blues are fighting for their Premier League lives because of repeated mistakes in the transfer market. Owner Farhad Moshiri has bankrolled a spending spree of around half a billion pounds on the squad since taking control at Goodison Park in 2016 but during that time the team have slumped from competing in Europe to the relegation zone.
Reid, who won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award in 1984/85, Everton’s most-successful season when they secured the League Championship and the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, told the Mirror : “Listen, you’ve got your coaching and man-management, but one of the biggest things is recruitment of players. It has got to be spot-on. You’ve got to get a lot more right than you get wrong.”
Currently in the relegation zone with five matches left to play, Everton are in danger of dropping out of the top flight for the first time since 1951 and Reid warns that despite them possessing a squad full of internationals, they cannot fall into the trap of believing they’re ‘too good to go down.’ The 65-year-old said: “You’re surprised to see them down there because of the amount they’ve spent. But one thing in football which is sacrosanct is that the league table doesn’t lie.
ROYAL BLUE COLUMN: Everton suffer shocking 400-mile curse that needs to end for club to stay up
READ MORE: Jesse Marsch explains Leeds United dressing room reaction to Everton beating Chelsea
“That’s a fact that Everton are in the bottom three, Leeds and Burnley are above them and it’s a dogfight. In every game you’ve to pay huge respect to your opponent because that’s what football is like.”
While Norwich City have already been relegated at Watford – Everton’s opponents on Wednesday – look set to join them, there is still plenty to play for between Frank Lampard’s side plus rivals Burnley and Leeds United. Huyton-born Reid admits he can’t predict which way it’s going to go and said: “I’d be lying if I said I knew. If you give me £100 and say lay it on, I would not have a clue. What is clear is that no-one has a divine right to stay in the league.”
