Trevor Steven: Everton had to sack manager Frank Lampard – the worst thing the board could have done was nothing
Former Everton star Trevor Steven on why the club had little choice but to replace Frank Lampard with a new manager – and why Sean Dyche would be a good choice to step in.
It has been nothing short of crushing to witness Everton’s decline in recent years.
They are an iconic club who have a unique relationships with their supporters and who used to sit at the top table of the game. That feels a very long time ago now.
Today, second bottom of the Premier League, Everton have been cut adrift and have to swim against the tide to get back.
Even more disheartening than the bad results has been the division in the club, which had reached an unprecedented level.
I know how passionate the Everton fans can be, and crowds dropped to 9,000 not long after I arrived because the team was bad. But we turned it around.
This time I didn’t see how they were going to turn a corner. The team seemed to be sleepwalking into deeper trouble.
And that made me fearful. Everton fans won’t accept relegation and I really don’t want to see any increase in hostilities.
Everton have assembled a group of players who don’t seem to understand the standards expected and what it means to play for the club.
Some of them are simply not good enough, but you also have to ask whether they were being coached well enough too.
At this point everyone associated with the club has to remove the emotion and concentrate on the challenge: to get to 40 points.
That means taking 25 from the 54 available in the second half of the season. I’m all for Lampard but what Everton need is an immediate turnaround.
We don’t have time to change the board and in any case that isn’t going to deliver the points that the team needs.
So as much as it hurts me to say it, the only options available were to sack Lampard or back him to the hilt.
Sean Dyche would be good replacement for Frank Lampard
I changed my mind several times in writing this column, but I’m going with my initial thoughts: it is time for change in the dugout.
If I was to back Lampard I’d be doing so on blind faith because I haven’t seen any change in sine three or four weeks before the World Cup.
Would Everton be better off appointing Sean Dyche, who has seen and done it before? At this point, I think so.
Is he guaranteed to turn results around? No. But he also has experience of leading a team straight back up from the Championship if the worst happens.
And with more than a week to go until their next game, this was always going to be an opportune time to let Lampard go.
A lot has gone wrong at Everton over the past decade or so, but the club can’t say that they haven’t had everything at their disposal.
They’ve had plenty of money to spend and the loyal support of fans who keep coming week after week, despite everything.
Maybe they have given up too early on some managers, and all that chopping and changing has worked against them.
The success Arsenal are now enjoying under Mikel Arteta just shows the importance of patience and having a plan.
Last season Everton and Lampard survived relegation but only by the skin of their teeth, thanks to a goal that I’m sure Michael Keane hasn’t even come close to repeating in training.
The worst thing that the board could do now is nothing. Waiting for a few more games to look for a new manager, when they may be even further from safety and the transfer window has closed, would have been shambolic.
Trevor Steven is a former England footballer who played at two World Cups and two European Championships. @TrevorSteven63.