Moshiri & Co can’t run a club for Toffee
Frank axed amidst ‘chaos’ with Dyche and Bielsa now in frame
EVERTON are in turmoil on and off the pitch after Frank Lampard was sacked but the club took five hours to confirm the move.
Fans had already told owner Farhad Moshiri he was overseeing “chaos and dysfunction” even before being left in limbo over the manager’s position.
Marcelo Bielsa and Sean Dyche are the front-runners to replace Lampard, who was told his fate yesterday in a phone call from Moshiri.
Former Leeds boss Bielsa has been approached by the Everton owner but it is not clear if the Iranian has the backing of the rest of the board to appoint him.
Ex-Southampton gaffer Ralph Hasenhuttl is another manager who previously had admirers at Goodison.
The potential candidates point to the lack of cohesive thinking. Former Burnley gaffer Dyche is bookies’ favourite and would base survival on a strong defence. He is keen on a full-time return to the Premier League. Bielsa sees attack as the best form of defence while Hasenhuttl was sacked by the Toffees’ relegation rivals Southampton in November.
Lampard’s survival had been on a knife-edge for several weeks and the Premier League strugglers did little to dispel the criticism of fans yesterday.
Everton are now searching for their eighth permanent manager in seven years but the board are also ready to make a stop-gap appointment until the end of the season.
It emerged around 3pm that Everton had sacked Lampard but there was no official statement until 8.15pm.
Assistant boss Joe Edwards and first-team coaches Paul Clement, Ashley Cole and Chris Jones will also leave.
Stranded in the bottom three and with supporters demanding the board quit the club, their next game on February 4 will be against leaders Arsenal when more fan protests are planned.
A coalition of 67 fan and social media groups and 21 official supporters’ clubs told owner Moshiri he must take “radical steps to stop the rot”. The NSNOW group said: “Nothing tells the story of Everton’s mismanagement under the current owner and board more than the fact we now need to appoint our eighth ‘permanent’ manager since 2016.
“The chaos and dysfunction within Everton’s leadership has got us in this position. The owner needs to take urgent and radical steps to stop the rot. Or sell to someone who will. “We wish Frank all the best. His replacement needs to be appointed by Kevin Thelwell [director of football] and football experts, not the owner and board.”