Jeffers in hunt for a ‘new Roo’
EVERTON legend Andy Gray was so shocked by his old side’s performance on Thursday that he texted a couple of his former team-mates to double check what he had just seen.
Ronald Koeman’s men went down 2-1 at home to French side Lyon in the Europa League and the manner of the defeat, and ugly second-half brawl, will have worried the club’s owners.
And it compounded a miserable run which has seen them win just two of their last 12 games.
Gray (above) reckons that if things don’t pick up against Arsenal today and Chelsea in the EFL Cup on Wednesday that Everton might have no choice but to find a replacement for the Dutchman.
The striker turned television pundit said: “I watched on Thursday in despair and I texted two or three old team-mates to clarify what I’d seen was right. I wanted one of them to say, ‘No, no, no…’ But they came back and said exactly what I was thinking.
“We can laugh about it but it’s Everton, a club we hold dearly in our hearts, and it is sad to see. I watched a squad devoid of confidence, devoid of belief and without leadership.
“If Ashley Williams thinks shoving a goalkeeper to the ground is leadership… No, it’s not.
“What I will ask is, ‘If not Koeman then who?’. It’s always easy for people to say, ‘He has to go’.
“But if they go into the two games against Arsenal and Chelsea, and don’t show some sort of improvement, particularly against Arsenal, then something will have to change. I’m not Deeney’s assessment after Arsenal’s defeat at Watford last weekend that Wenger and his men don’t have what it takes for a fight.
“If Arsene Wenger wasn’t so tough, he would have walked away from Arsenal a long time ago,” said Reid (right).
“After what he’s achieved at the club – not just in terms of winning trophies, but also delivering success at a time when a saying they have to win those games but just give the fans something to cheer about.”
Everton have struggled for goals following Romelu Lukaku’s switch to Manchester United in the summer.
But Gray added: “The situation is really disappointing but it’s far too easy to say, ‘Well, we’ve lost Romelu so it was always going to be this way’. That’s not good enough.
“Yes, it’s a loss. But it’s really bad management that it was allowed to happen without — and I’m not going to say a replacement, because you can’t replace someone like Lukaku new stadium and new training ground had to be financed – he could have left at the first sign of trouble.
“And those same fans who are now giving him so much grief would have been demanding that the club put up a statue in his honour.
“But the one thing that distinguishes the very best from the unless you’re paying £80million or £90m back out — but they left themselves really bare by not doing something to ease the blow of his loss. “That would be Koeman’s biggest sin this summer. The manager has to carry the can for that — it was no secret, we all knew Lukaku was going, knew months before that it was happening. He did too. “There are plenty of strikers around Europe who might have cost £30m, £35m, even £40m who would have come to Everton and eased the loss. “A good coach has to find a way of replacing 25 goals and getting other players to up the ante. “If they got five last year they get 10 this year. “So there are all sorts of ways rest is that they don’t quit when things take a turn for the worst. “I understand Arsenal fans’ frustration at the failure to win the title for so long. “But clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City have changed the landscape of the game because they have owners who are prepared to spend whatever it you can absorb the loss of someone like Lukaku (below) but I don’t think we have, which has been the disappointing thing.
“What Koeman is going through is what Howard Kendall went through in 1983, when I joined the club.
“I joined amidst clamours for Howard to be sacked, petitions being signed, ‘Kendall must go’.
“The difference is Howard didn’t have the luxury of spending more than £200m trying to assemble a team, which is what the club have given Ronald.
“You have been given that to spend to shape your team and a year down the line, are they any better? No, they’re not. And they should be.
“People say, ‘It’s been a tough start’. Really? Look at Burnley’s start, look what Sean Dyche has done.
“Look at Watford. Only two teams have beaten them this season and that’s Manchester City and Chelsea. The buck stops with the coach.” takes. And Manchester United have gone three years without the title – despite investing a lot of money in the team since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
“But Arsene has stuck with the philosophy that made him the manager he is – and, for me, that’s a sign of strength rather than weakness.” Everton’s community project “Home is Where the Heart is” sees the U-23s raising funds to help the homeless.