Mosh pits TOFFEES IN A PICKLE SAYS BALL
EVERTON supremo Farhad Moshiri must make his biggest signing of the summer – someone who can run the club. That’s the verdict of former Goodison Park hero Michael Ball as Frank Lampard’s side face an uphill struggle to be ready for their Premier League opener with Chelsea on August 6. After a 4-0 thrashing by Minnesota United and growing levels of discontent within the fanbase, Moshiri is under growing scrutiny. To f f e e s fans are so fed up that they staged their own protest outside Goodison Park yesterday.
Ball said: “Farhad Moshiri is supposed to be a very successful businessman and accountant. Surely if any of his companies were run like Everton, I think heads would roll.
“Unfortunately, he is probably listening to the wrong people who think they can change the club from outside, or he’s taken the wrong advice.
“But he needs to step away. I think over the last six years, it’s proved the majority of decisions he’s handled or has been a part of haven’t worked out.
“Everton fans want to see more communication from the board. We’ve seen other chairmen express how they want their football club to be run, what their targets are, and how they’re going to achieve it.
I think that’s what fans want to hear.”
Everton’s wage bill has been helped by shedding more than £80million-worth of players but they remain thin on reinforcements, with James Tarkowski constituting their only transfer business to date.
Ball (below) added: “Tarkowski’s come in as a much-needed leader, but Everton needed to strengthen all over.
“Last season, a lot of Evertonians probably thought the starting eleven is pretty decent, but you don’t get to play your starting XI often. Players got injured and suspended, and it weakened our starting eleven for the majority of the season. There’s no reason that can’t happen again.
“Relying on the players and squad from last year to try and save us this year is looking a bit nerve-wracking right now. The season’s only two weeks away, nothing’s really coming through the door and the guys who are going to come in have got to hit the ground running.” Speculation over Anthony Gordon’s future has dogged Everton since last season’s successful battle against relegation, a situation Ball knows all too well as a fellow homegrown talent.
The one-time England international, however, is encouraged by how Lampard has handled the situation.
Ball said: “Myself, Richard Dunne, Gavin McCann, Franny Jeffers – quite a few – all left the club and they brought in experienced players to sort of ride the storm. “It’s great to see that Frank Lampard has sort of put the blocks on that with the board to say, ‘Anthony is going nowhere.’ Hopefully they can tie him down to a long-term deal and start building a team around players like Anthony.”