Phil McNulty dismisses Sharp appointment to Everton board
BBC Sport’s Phil McNulty has responded with derision to the announcement of Graeme Sharp’s appointment to the Everton board yesterday (Wednesday).
Writing on his personal Twitter account, the BBC’s Chief Football Writer suggested that Bill Kenwright and Farhad Moshiri had avoided appointing an “outsider” who would stand up to them on their “poor decision-making”.
The Liverpool-based journalist was unimpressed by the use of the word “challenge” in the announcement of Sharpe’s appointment when he sees an appointment from inside “the old Evertonian bubble” as doing the opposite.
McNulty wrote: “Challenge” is the key word in the announcement of Graeme Sharp’s appointment to the Everton board. What will be more telling is if Moshiri/Kenwright actually look outside the old Evertonian bubble & appoint an “outsider” to challenge them on their record of poor decision-making.”
Responding to suggestions he would face censure from the Everton owners he wrote: “[I]f I was there I’d say exactly the same”.
Heading in the wrong direction
Once the picture of stability during the David Moyes era, Everton have lurched from manager to manager in the intervening years and, while they have been backed in the transfer market, huge sums of money have been wasted on players who have not lived up to expectation.
After a strong start to the season under Rafael Benitez, things have turned sour at Goodison Park with the team sitting 15th in the league.
Further recruitment in the January transfer window has already seen the arrivals of full-backs Vitaliy Mykolenko from Dynamo Kiev and Nathan Patterson from Rangers.
But the continued lack of long-term planning and an apparently dysfunctional board room has contributed to what McNulty has previously referred to as a “mutinous mood” among fans over the club’s “dismal track record” [BBC Sport].
The appointment of Sharp, who made nearly 450 appearances for the club and is their second-highest scorer with 160 goals, appears designed to appease fans with a popular figure.
But McNulty is clearly not moved by one of his local clubs and, considering Sharp was already involved with the club in an ambassadorial role since 2000 it seems unlikely, although not impossible, that he will bring any revolutionary change.
If McNulty’s misgivings are correct Everton fans likely will not be expecting a grand departure from that recent track record.
In other Everton news, the club have bid rejected for a third January signing.