REID IS STILL FEELING BLUE
PETER REID was manager of Sunderland in 1997 when the Wearsiders were relegated and they moved into their new Stadium of Light home as a Championship club.
And he would hate the same scenario to happen for Everton.
Reid is haunted by the memory of a defeat at Wimbledon that sent the Black Cats down when Coventry beat Tottenham on the final day.
Sunderland remain one of only three teams to have dropped out of the Premier League despite collecting 40 points.
Everton are not scheduled to move away from their 130-year-old home at Goodison Park and into a new £500million stadium at Bramleymoore Dock until the summer of 2024, but their former midfielder believes the current fight against relegation points to longterm issues at the club.
Frank Lampard is Everton’s seventh manager since Farhad Moshri took over in February 2016. The Blues have spent in excess of £560million in the transfer market over the same period.
“Mr Moshiri came to Everton with big plans and he’s still got big plans,” said Reid (above). “But, for now, it’s all about staying in the Premier League.
“The new stadium will be world class but it will be a nightmare if Everton aren’t in the top division when it opens.
“I’m a glass-half-full man. I still think Everton can get out of the position they are in and beat relegation. That’s the only thing Frank Lampard and his players should be thinking about.
“But if they stay up, the club has got to address the problems that have got them in this mess in the first place. The standard of recruitment at Goodison hasn’t been anywhere near good enough.”
Reid, 66 next month, said the revolving door at Goodison has blocked progress, too.
“It doesn’t help when managers come and go in the blink of an eye,” he added. “It means Frank inherited a squad containing players brought in by three or four different managers.
“Different managers will have different ideas, so it’s important they have an influence in the transfer market. “But there has to be an underlying recruitment strategy at every club – and that stays the same even when there is a change of manager. “The top clubs have a recruitment structure, a philosophy that’s laid down like a foundation stone.
“Look at Liverpool and Manchester City.
“You can be sure Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola will have a big say on the players that their clubs buy.
“But it won’t all fall apart when they leave because there is a longterm recruitment plan in place. I don’t think Everton have got that.
“It’s something that has to be addressed and Frank Lampard will be aware of that having been at Chelsea.
“If it isn’t, then the problems we’ve seen this season aren’t going to go away.”