Tony Cottee believes Everton made ‘right appointment’ in Frank Lampard, shares ‘worry’
Tony Cottee has backed Frank Lampard as the right man for the Everton job despite their relegation troubles, while speaking to MyBettingSites.
Lampard took over at Goodison Park back in January but has steered the club into the relegation zone with just six games remaining of their season.
But Cottee, who now works as a pundit for Sky Sports, believes hiring someone like Sam Allardyce as a ‘firefighter’ would have been a ‘terrible decision’ but does admit there is one major worry with Lampard in charge.
“They had Sam Allyrdice before, but the fans didn’t like him, they didn’t like his style of football,” he said.
“They were always moaning about him. I suppose you could have gotten what you would call a ‘firefighter,’ someone who’s a specialist at getting the club to stay in the Premier League.
“Sam would have been the obvious choice. But it would have been a terrible decision, especially following the appointment of Rafa Benitez, which, I said at the time, was absolute madness.
“Frank is an ex-teammate of mine, I think he was the right appointment out of all that was available. There was a list of a few people, a couple of people I didn’t particularly know.
“At least Frank knew how to manage in the Premier League, the Championship, etc. So, he had that experience. What he didn’t have was the experience of being involved in a team that was fighting relegation. And that’s probably the one worry about it.
“He, as a player– fantastic player, played for Chelsea, but now he’s gonna be in a relegation fight. Not too much experience there, but I really hope he keeps the club in the Premier League.
“As a proud Englishman, I like to see the likes of Steven Gerard and Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, and John Terry are going to management. But only time will tell whether Frank was the right appointment or not.”
Costly
Nobody wanted Allardyce and they absolutely would have lost the plot had he even been considered, especially when you consider how they reacted to Vitor Pereira.
But hiring Lampard was undoubtedly a gamble and right now it seems as though it’s one that is not going to pay off.
Everton were in trouble under Benitez but they had a proven coach in charge and they had just let him bring in players during the transfer window to have more of a squad of his own.
The fans had never been on his side though and after such poor results, a change was needed. Whether Lampard was the answer or not though remains to be seen, even if they stay in the division.
First they need to buck up their ideas and get results to even be able to do that, or we’ll know for sure that he wasn’t and the Toffees will be in a whole new world of trouble.
In other Everton news, Tony Cottee ‘really sad’ at Everton situation, tells squad to ‘earn the right’ to be Premier League players
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