Everton Board’s indecision undermining season

As we await today’s Premier League clash with Everton taking on Tottenham Hotspur, I feel increasingly that the indecision of the Board is beginning to sabotage this season.

Whether Everton defeat them or lose to Spurs this afternoon, it seems that the hierarchy at Goodison Park will continue to drag their feet and this in my view is contributing significantly to undermining the team’s season.

As I said in several previous articles on this site, I don’t know what it will actually take for the owner, chief executive or director of football to make a decision and move for a new manager before this season is also lost again.

As I write this and following Saturday’s Premier League games, Everton are now back in 17th place! This is utterly unacceptable.

I am sick and tired of the Blues being in this league position and I really I’m getting to the point where I don’t know what it will take for the board or someone in authority to get a grip of this situation.

It’s November now and we are already 10 points adrift of fourth placed Leicester City. For God’s sake promoted Sheffield United are sixth and sitting in a European place!

As I’ve previously said, Leicester don’t have a more talented squad of players than Everton, and yet are right in the position where frankly the Blues should be given the money spent on players and the ridiculously easy fixtures the Toffees have had to start the season.

I’m not going to go over all the arguments again about Marco Silva, these have been said many times on this and other sites.

You have to ask though what is going on when the club’s season is drifting so badly and yet there appears to be no response from the board?

The Toffees go from one game to the next with no one knowing whether Silva will be still be here next week, next month or in January! Results don’t seem to matter as Everton lurch from one fixture to the next with no certainty.

This is very damaging to the players, frustrating for the fans and even destabilising for the manager. If they are going to stick with Silva this season regardless, then the board need to say so unequivocally and publically.

I know that traditionally that is usually regarded as the ‘kiss of death’ to a coach, but it might at least give some certainty, for the moment.

But owner Farhad Moshiri is currently silent and CEO Denise Barratt-Baxendale is, I suspect, out of her depth in this situation.

That leaves one man, who actually should be the one charged with taking this decision; Marcel Brands.

Brands is now on the board and is effectively in charge of Everton’s football development. But does he have the freedom to make that decision or even want to?

The Dutchman has had a long honeymoon period at the club. His excellent reputation for finding young talent and helping mold very successful sides on a relatively limited budget, was basically what Everton needed.

And so his arrival in the summer of 2018 was considered quite a coup for the Blues. I was one of those who certainly heralded his joining the Toffees.

Now though we have to ask what role he has played in the current malaise affecting Everton.

After all Brands is in charge of player recruitment and although the majority of his signings, such as Lucas Digne, Andre Gomes and now Yerry Mina have worked out well, there are growing questions about a few of them.

In particular the signing of Moise Kean this summer. I am a big fan of the powerful Italian forward. I think he can be a very good player in the Premier League for Everton.

But it’s fair to say things haven’t gone well for him so far. Perhaps he is still too young and raw, but a part of the problem seems to be the actions of Silva.

He is either not playing him or putting him in the wrong position, or as he did on Tuesday night, hauling him off after just 45 minutes.

As I’ve mentioned before, based on his actions, Silva doesn’t seem to rate the ex-Juventus player much at all.

This then begs the question why did Everton sign him? Surely if there was any uncertainty given his inexperience, or misgivings from the manager, then the Blues should have gone for a more established forward player?

However leaving that aside, even replacing Silva, which I think is essential, is not necessarily enough. There seems to be a deeper problem with the hierarchy at the club.

More from Prince Rupert's Tower

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• Further chaos in Everton takeover as other lenders not keen on 777 Partners
• Everton need repeat of Arsenal win to kick-start their season on Sunday
• More madness at Everton as Moshiri now agrees to sell club to 777 Partners
• Everton takeover talk cools after UK govt doubts and further questions

Grand Old Team recently wrote a very good piece about how the lack of urgency and activity by the powers that be at Goodison Park is hurting the club’s ability to compete, on and off the pitch.

They highlight the VAR decision at Brighton as an example of how Everton seem to get the worst of so many controversial decisions without any push back or response from the board.

It may be very difficult for the board to make public statements about such infuriating decisions that so often go against the Blues.

However it does seem that the club is far too cautious and unwilling to push Everton’s interests robustly and this, and a lack of urgency over the managerial issue, is hurting the Toffees chances of competing.