2021/22 Frank Lampard

[tommytowne]

Chris Sutton is a complete idiot who hates Everton. If people are listening to him over Lampard then we really are in a mess

Effing Sutton and that sperm stain that is Stephen Warnock absolutely boil my piss.
At the moment we're easy pickings for lazy journalists and pundits alike. One more reason if ever one was needed for us to stay up and rub their frigging noses in the crap they spout.

 

[barneygumble]

The old "players gave their all back in the day" shout. Funny but no one was saying this back then, you can pick up any random WSAG for example, from most of the 1990s (bar 95 & 96) and the same stuff appears:

"Players are lazy tw*ts"
"No pride, no passion"
"worst team we've had for 20 years" etc etc.


Yet years later someone will say "at least we tried back then". NO ONE was saying this back then, especially a week or two before the final day of the season when we were often still in a relegation battle (with the exception of probably Dave Watson, everyone got called out for not giving enough effort).

I actually think it’s a case of the players just not being good enough certainly for the 97-98 season.

Look at that 97-98 season. Claus Thomson, Mitch Ward, Farrelly, Carl Tiler, Earl Barrett an ageing and declining Southall, Short and Watson.

That side of 97-98, went away and got some massive results, home to Arsenal, Leeds, Liverpool, Blackburn and Chelsea were hugely significant in staying up.

This squad doesn’t lack the talent, if just doesn’t have leadership in anyway, and the years of neglect in the market, failing to add quality shows immensely, when we have no real reliable centre halves, no bite in midfield and we’re relying on a Winger to play upfront and score us goals.

97-98 was writing on the wall for me, that’s the worst Everton team I’ve seen, they defied everything and stayed up.

This side is the most expensive in history and we’re relying on Anthony Gordon to save us.

 

[Dykovski200]

We need to send a message to the so called journalists who are implying that the fans want Lampard sacked and also to the players, who need to know that the fans back the manager and have had enough of them bottling. When we run out at Goodison against Manchester United, we need to give a resounding rendition of Super Frankie Lampard. We then need to drive the players on, it should be possible to get a reaction from them against United, these are the kind of fixtures our bottling beauts normally bother to turn up for.

To be quite honest, if we lose our away games against West Ham and Burnley, it may well be too late by the time we are back at Goodison. Lose against Burnley and we are probably gone.

I agree we have to back Lampard now, whoever came in wouldn’t have got a tune out of these players unfortunately, big Dunc wouldn’t have done it either.
We are 3 point above relegation with games in hand over the two above us, beat Burnley and Watford and I think we’re safe, lose them and it’s over.

 

[ToffeeTim]

The media are acting like this is a manager lashing out the first moment a team gets into difficulties. But this is the culmination of 3 or 4 years for a lot of this squad. They've had countless managers replaced, they've been defended publicly time and time again, but they are actually getting worse rather than better. Their mentality has been nothing short of disgraceful for a very long time.

If the media had been paying attention and actually watching our games, they would understand what this is about. I can only assume that most of those pundits having a pop barely watch us play. The players deserved that sort of public dressing down years ago. Now it's up to them to respond. If they don't respond well, then they are finished at this level and will prove to the world they are not good enough for top flight football. That's definitely not in their interests. Lampard got it spot on with what he said, and if the media don't like, then I couldn't give a toss.

 

[toffee-L]

We could stay up by virtue of the 3 teams below us being so dreadful they're somehow worse than us.

Equally as worrying for me is how I can't see us not being in this situation next year. The turnover of the squad isn't going to be big enough to change things and even if it was who would be convinced our recruitment will improve? Somehow in January we spent good money on two full backs who aren't ready for the league whilst we're in a relegation battle.

I seem to remember Villa clinging on one season with a good run at the end before sucumbing 12 months later. We are very much on that path. For as much as it isn't his fault, Lampard looks out of ideas already. If we do survive, it's going to be a huge summer for him in terms of thinking about what we can do to improve because the sad reality is that the majority of this group aren't going anywhere.

I wouldn't say Lampard is out of ideas, more so that his 'Plan A' has unravelled - particularly away from home. I would argue that being aggressive is probably still the right call though because our players aren't capable of parking the bus and not conceding, and playing that way completely blunts our already exceedingly mediocre attacking output - so he doesn't really have that many good choices. I think the Palace game however will hopefully spur him into action for changing much of the personnel though, I hope to see more of Alli, El Ghazi, Mykolenko and Patterson and Branthwaite because I refuse to believe they could do worse than what we have been using.

I tend to agree though that if we somehow cling on this season that we are just simply delaying the inevitable. If we do remain in the Premier League, I think the only way we will be able to overhaul the squad would be to sell the likes of Pickford, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin all in one go. But I think the club will foolishly try everything possible to resist that happening. As we saw with Digne, many fans are unfortunately still adverse to seeing this squad get gutted too, which makes me worry that we'll see minimum turnover in the summer if we do somehow stay up.

 

[bag a yoko]

Its nice to know a club is as stupid as Everton. Even more so when they managed to get shot of him. I hope they cant wriggle out of the obligation.

They spent about the same on him as they sold Kulusevski for if the press is to be believed.

That's almost as bad as our moves in the market.

 

[ToffeeTim]

I wouldn't say Lampard is out of ideas, more so that his 'Plan A' has unravelled - particularly away from home. I would argue that being aggressive is probably still the right call though because our players aren't capable of parking the bus and not conceding, and playing that way completely blunts our already exceedingly mediocre attacking output - so he doesn't really have that many good choices. I think the Palace game however will hopefully spur him into action for changing much of the personnel though, I hope to see more of Alli, El Ghazi, Mykolenko and Patterson and Branthwaite because I refuse to believe they could do worse than what we have been using.

I tend to agree though that if we somehow cling on this season that we are just simply delaying the inevitable. If we do remain in the Premier League, I think the only way we will be able to overhaul the squad would be to sell the likes of Pickford, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin all in one go. But I think the club will foolishly try everything possible to resist that happening. As we saw with Digne, many fans are unfortunately still adverse to seeing this squad get gutted too, which makes me worry that we'll see minimum turnover in the summer if we do somehow stay up.

That's not true at all. But the time to do it is not in a January window, and the way to do it is not by scapegoating and targeting individuals.

Everyone needs to be made available for sale. I mean everyone. No favourites, no exceptions, no sentimentality.

 

[Nymzee]

Its nice to know a club is as stupid as Everton. Even more so when they managed to get shot of him. I hope they cant wriggle out of the obligation.

I doubt they can except for their own poor performance which is in no interest of theirs.

Sometimes obligations are based on appearances but I highly doubt we'd agree to something like that when the club could purposely not play him to trigger it.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Not hostile I was just expecting you to answer "yeh but"

No, I genuinely couldn't think of many since stones left us and Lukaku.

 

[toffee-L]

That's not true at all. But the time to do it is not in a January window, and the way to do it is not by scapegoating and targeting individuals.

Everyone needs to be made available for sale. I mean everyone. No favourites, no exceptions, no sentimentality.

The situation was ridiculous backing a manager clinging on by his fingernails, but my statement absolutely is correct that many fans pushed back against him being sold despite the fact he was playing ever bit as poorly as the other crappers we have in our team now.

I had absolutely no dog in the Benitez Vs Digne (and by extension, the rest of the squad) fight, both were utterly failing on every single level of what the club was paying them to do. And one side of that equation is still failing miserably.

I agree with your last paragraph completely. But do you think if some headcase club offers us £75m for Richarlison, there won't be a sizeable group on here saying "you don't sell your best players" - despite all of the evidence we've seen this season that we don't actually have any good players at all? Which is essentially my point with Digne.

 

[BlueToff]

I wouldn't say Lampard is out of ideas, more so that his 'Plan A' has unravelled - particularly away from home. I would argue that being aggressive is probably still the right call though because our players aren't capable of parking the bus and not conceding, and playing that way completely blunts our already exceedingly mediocre attacking output - so he doesn't really have that many good choices. I think the Palace game however will hopefully spur him into action for changing much of the personnel though, I hope to see more of Alli, El Ghazi, Mykolenko and Patterson and Branthwaite because I refuse to believe they could do worse than what we have been using.

I tend to agree though that if we somehow cling on this season that we are just simply delaying the inevitable. If we do remain in the Premier League, I think the only way we will be able to overhaul the squad would be to sell the likes of Pickford, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin all in one go. But I think the club will foolishly try everything possible to resist that happening. As we saw with Digne, many fans are unfortunately still adverse to seeing this squad get gutted too, which makes me worry that we'll see minimum turnover in the summer if we do somehow stay up.

You don't sell all of your better players at once. You accept that one or two may go but the actual tosh needs to be moved.

If we sell Pickford (we won't unless we go down btw), DCL and Richarlison, what does it matter, because we're still left with Holgate, Keane and Gomes. I accept at least one 'good' player needs to go, but we need to shift the other, actual, true crap or we'll be in the same place.

Also, the Digne thing wasn't about being adverse to a player leaving. It was a) why the player was being sold (because of a manager who should not have been here and b) he was going in the middle of a season when we needed all the quality we could get and c) his replacement was totally unproven at a high level

 

[The binman chronicles]

Chris Sutton, ex manager of Lincoln City who lost 23 and won 14.

Pretty sure he has no idea what it takes to be a football manager.

He's a bell but we all know that this is a gamble. Get a reaction at West Ham great, if we lose 4-0/5-0 and the players turn on him then our home form might disappear too.

I think Lampard is a big enough name that he can perhaps get away with it - but proof is in the pudding.

 

[Nymzee]

No, I genuinely couldn't think of many since stones left us and Lukaku.

Too busy vaping your life away.

 

[toffee-L]

You don't sell all of your better players at once. You accept that one or two may go but the actual tosh needs to be moved.

If we sell Pickford (we won't unless we go down btw), DCL and Richarlison, what does it matter, because we're still left with Holgate, Keane and Gomes. I accept at least one 'good' player needs to go, but we need to shift the other, actual, true crap or we'll be in the same place.

Also, the Digne thing wasn't about being adverse to a player leaving. It was a) why the player was being sold (because of a manager who should not have been here and b) he was going in the middle of a season when we needed all the quality we could get and c) his replacement was totally unproven at a high level

We don't have any good players, so even though it sounds very football manager we should be entertaining offers for absolutely everyone this summer. We should be looking at shifting the more 'sellable' assets we have first because they'll fetch the most money, allowing us not only to replace them with maybe two players but also improving our balance sheet as well. They are also far easier to shift that the likes of Keane and Gomes, who will both probably be here until their contracts expire.

Yes, the circumstances of allowing Benitez to exile Digne was laughable, but the theory of selling when we did wasn't at all. He was playing appallingly, his performance away at Villa is still the worst individual performance any Everton player has put in this season and he's been gone for nearly three months.

When someone offers you a big bag of dough for a 28 year old on £120k a week who's absolutely phoning it in, you don't ask questions. You take it and run.

 

[ToffeeTim]

The situation was ridiculous backing a manager clinging on by his fingernails, but my statement absolutely is correct that many fans pushed back against him being sold despite the fact he was playing ever bit as poorly as the other crappers we have in our team now.

I had absolutely no dog in the Benitez Vs Digne (and by extension, the rest of the squad) fight, both were utterly failing on every single level of what the club was paying them to do. And one side of that equation is still failing miserably.

I agree with your last paragraph completely. But do you think if some headcase club offers us £75m for Richarlison, there won't be a sizeable group on here saying "you don't sell your best players" - despite all of the evidence we've seen this season that we don't actually have any good players at all? Which is essentially my point with Digne.

I think January is the wrong time to sell first team players, so that's why I didn't really get it. Especially when we tried to replace him with someone playing in a far inferior league. The deal in isolation, to sell a 28/29 year old for 25m, was fine. The problem was we had no back up and the replacement looks far off the quality needed for this league.

The time to overhaul is during the summer. Regardless of what happens, we need to see a mass exodus. That means taking whatever is offered and not pricing our woeful players out of the market.