Frank Lampard has revealed what he wanted to alter the most when he joined Everton.
On Monday Night Football, the former Toffees manager discussed his arrival at Goodison Park and the club’s ‘consigned’ attitude toward relegation.
Everton had not finished worse than 12th in the Premier League in 18 years prior to Lampard’s arrival in January 2022.
However, he joined Everton when they were only four points above the bottom three with 18 games remaining in the season. Despite the fact that this is merely the beginning of the club’s demise, Lampard said that there was a lot of concern on Merseyside about the Toffees’ future in the Premier League.
“The amount of Everton fans who work behind the scenes, the kit men, the people there – everybody there is Everton,” Lampard stated to Sky Sports.
“It’s almost as if there’s a good and a bad side to that.” The best part is that they live it, love it, and are yearning for the club because they feel it. But there was also that pessimism where they were like, ‘well, we’ve been here before, this is going to be a terrible season,’ you know? As a fan, I do it.
“I was surprised by the extent of that, and I’m not talking about the fans, but I was surprised by the extent of being relegated.” The club was filled with a sense of desperation. That was the thing I thought I needed to change the most. I had several meetings with players and staff where I told them, “We have to lose this.”
Lampard eventually led Everton to safety, retaining their 68-year Premier League existence with one game still to play. However, the next year he faced the same challenges and was eventually fired a year after his appointment.
Everton supporters should only expect a relegation struggle from now on.
While the Toffees had not faced relegation in a long time prior to the 2021-22 season, they had appeared to be on the decline for some time.
For a long time, fans had to put up with awful transfers and disappointing ownership, and it was only a matter of time until everything went south.
Frank Lampard is arguably unfit to lead the Premier League, but he was only one of the unfortunates caught in the crossfire at Finch Farm.
There will be the same mood and fast departing managers at Everton until things significantly alter – however it remains to be seen whether their imminent takeover will be the difference.
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