Jan 6
Liverpool Echo calls on Everton’s owners to speak to fans as team struggles
The Liverpool Echo has demanded Everton FC owners answer criticism from fans as the club struggle in the Premier League.
In a powerful front page, the Echo said silence was not an option, with Everton FC writer Joe Thomas arguing that what is going on at Goodison Park goes beyond football.
He wrote: “The situation is too desperate for a vacuum of leadership. Fans who directed their anger at chairman Bill Kenwright, chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale and those around them deserve a response.
“Should Everton’s season continue through to another horrific battle for survival, the board and majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri will no doubt call for a repeat of the electric scenes that saved the club last season.
“To do so without answering the concerns of those supporters would be arrogant and complacent. Who is doing what to save Everton? Why should they be backed? What reassurance do they think can be taken from their presence?
“The questions are relevant because one of football’s most storied teams is back on Premier League life support, only this time without the talisman [Richarlison, who was sold in the summer] whose heroics were crucial to survival just eight months ago.”
It’s all a far cry from last summer, when the Echo shared the last-gasp jubilation of fans when Everton survived the drop at the end of the season.
At the time, the Echo urged the club ‘not to put us through this again.’
But Joe added: “Since that incredible night in late May, what has changed? Players have come and gone and during the summer transfer window Frank Lampard took on the unenviable mission of seeking to instil a backbone to the mismatched, Frankenstein squad he inherited.
“But, it has to be acknowledged, any positives were only positive in context. They could not afford to keep one of their best players. They had to move late in the market because of the uncertainty over survival and then the preference to sell first.
“Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell were hamstrung. The squad they pieced together now sits in the relegation zone after three consecutive home defeats and, while they have to take responsibility for some of that, both have always been fighting the legacy of decisions that have hampered their options.”
