sport news DOMINIC KING: Frank Lampard was doomed from the very start of his time at ... trends now
Frank Lampard called his squad together at Finch Farm one day last week and left nobody in doubt about what was needed at West Ham.
Everton’s players were told, in no uncertain terms, that balls were required. He wanted to see a week of hard graft on the training pitch and a big show of strength at the London Stadium to begin the process of salvaging a desperate situation.
Really, he should have known better. The vast majority of this squad had accounted for managers with more glittering CVs than his and, after folding meekly 2-0 on Saturday, they have accounted for him, too.
Struggling Everton sit 19th in the Premier League after losing 2-0 to West Ham on Saturday
No announcement has been made yet but it is now simply a matter of time. Lampard has been in football long enough to know that a manager whose record across 44 games reads 24 defeats to 12 wins is unsustainable.
He has had 357 days to try and revive an institution that has completely fallen asunder. He is many things but he is not a magician.
Lampard joins an ever-growing list of managers who have been bestowed with the responsibility of taking Everton forward on Farhad Moshiri’s watch but have been cast aside, the chopping and changing causing havoc along the way.
To see how things have changed, this statistic needs to be carefully digested: David Moyes was Everton manager for 11 years and oversaw 518 matches; the Moshiri era, which began in February 2016, has seen Everton play 304 games — the next man, including caretakers, will be the 12th change in the dugout.
They have won just 12 of 44 games under Frank Lampard's management and lost 24 matches
Nobody has completed two full seasons in the hot seat. It really is remarkable to think that on December 27, 2020 Everton were second in the table.
Since then, the club have collapsed. ‘We were promised the world under Farhad Moshiri, a Hollywood manager and top players to take us into the Champions League in a new stadium,’ said Mark Jackson, who described himself as ‘a long-suffering Blue’ to Sportsmail outside Goodison Park on Saturday.
