Louis Saha has suggested that Everton dropping down to the Championship could actually prove to be a positive for his former club in the long run.
Fears over the Toffees dropping to the second tier for the first time since 1954 were heightened in midweek as they suffered a dramatic 3-2 defeat at the hands of Burnley. A draw at Turf Moor would have put Everton in the driving seat fr survival but Maxwell Cornet’s winner mean they sit just one point above the bottom three with a daunting run of fixtures to come.
That gruelling schedule kicks off this weekend with Frank Lampard’s side welcoming Manchester United to Goodison Park with both sides desperate for all three points. The loss at Burnley has piled the pressure on Lampard, who has failed to arrest the slump which started under Rafa Benitez.
And Saha, who played for both Everton and United, believes that while Lampard was an underwhelming choice, sacking him now would be a silly move. He has also predicted that relegation could give the Toffees a welcome chance to restructure the club behind the scenes after several years of underperformance.
"It's unlikely. I think it will be a really silly move and will show that the board has made a mistake again,” Saha told BoyleSports EPL about the possibility of sacking Lampard. “They've made some bad mistakes. I come back to Lucas Digne, getting rid of him was a really bad move as he provided for the strikers.
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"I really love this club and it's got all the potential in the world to do amazing things. You see Leicester, West Ham and other clubs doing well, I just don't understand it.
"It's not a matter of the player or managers, it's something else. But eight games is not enough for any manager to come as this club is not a casino. It needs structure, but if the club goes down for some restoration, maybe that's the way."
Despite believing that Lampard hadn’t done enough to be handed the reins earlier this year, Saha thinks that with a pre-season he would be able to implement his ideas better, but warned an instant return is far from guaranteed.
Saha added: "He'll have a better time frame to organise his tactics. The way he's been drawn into that team it's not easy. I think you can see there's a few players who haven't played as much as expected.
"The new season is different, the Championship is hard so I really wouldn't wish it on him and doing some sort of yo-yo is not always possible, so Everton need to fight until the end and hopefully Lampard can stay in the job and prove me wrong."
"Carlo Ancelotti and other managers didn't do much better in terms of structure and animation in terms of losing games that they shouldn't have."
