GRAY: TOFFEE CHIEFS ARE SHOCKING SHOPPERS
EVERTON legend Andy Gray reckons recruitment is the root cause of his old club’s struggles this season – and NOT manager Marco Silva.
A poor performance against Tottenham today will pile pressure back on the Portuguese boss, with Everton hovering ominously above the drop zone.
But Gray (right) believes the finger of blame needs pointing at all those responsible for buying and selling – including director of football Marcel Brands and majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
Gray said: “I don’t want to see the club changing manager every 18 months, that’s not what we should be doing at Everton.
“So if Silva can galvanise everybody, everyone is behind him, and the players are happy with him — and from what I hear from people within they are — then it’s not a pressure that is going to get him the sack.
“Not unless they really, really look like they are in trouble of getting relegated. And I don’t think that’s going to happen.
“So my major problem with Everton right now — and it has been for the last three or four years — is recruitment.
“Look at Liverpool and ask why they are where they are.
“Yes, Jurgen Klopp is part of the reason, but mainly it’s because their recruitment has been excellent, absolutely top class. But Everton’s recruitment has been absolutely average. “We have left ourselves short at centre-back. And centreforward – we don’t have one. We rely on 19-year-old Moise Kean from Juventus. “Now he might turn out to be the best centreforward Everton have ever had... but not now he isn’t. “And Juventus don’t let a 19-year-old striker leave without a buyback clause if they think he is really going to be any good. “Dominic Calvert-lewin is a nice lad, works his heart out. But is he going to be a 25-goal-aseason striker? I don’t think so.” So what would Gray, who won the old Division One title, the FA
Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in his two years at Everton, get the current youngsters working on.
He said: “Let’s take Calvertlewin, He runs great, he runs the channels and works hard – but maybe sometimes too hard.
“By that, I mean he works hard in the wrong areas.
“He has to work on his one-touch and two-touch finishing — even to the point he’s getting bored with training it.
“At his age I spent hours trying to work on a finish, get it better.
“Terry Venables said to me, ‘Practice makes permanent – practice doing the right things, you get very good at them. But practice the wrong things... you can get very good at doing the wrong thing’.”