Richard Dunne believes there is an ‘overload’ of players not up to ‘the standard of Everton’
Richard Dunne believes there is an ‘overload’ of player not at the ‘standard of Everton’ after their awful Premier League season this year.
The Toffees escaped relegation with one game to spare after a horror season that saw Rafa Benitez sacked in January before Frank Lampard was brought in to replace him.
But Dunne, speaking to Bet 365, believes that the former Chelsea midfielder probably didn’t realise the size of the job he took on and now must spend this summer getting rid of the deadwood at the club and help turn them into a side that can compete in the top half and push for a European place.
“It’s been difficult to watch them because in the last couple of seasons they’ve started off really well and looked like they were going to compete for a Europa League place at least and it’s just fallen apart,” he said.
“Certainly this season they got themselves into a really bad situation so it’s difficult to watch them, especially with the amount of money they’ve spent over the last few years, the recruitment has not been right for them.
“That’s not down to Lampard who’s only had a couple of months there. The job was probably bigger than he expected going in there.
“It looks like there’s a lot of clearing out to be done there. He needs to be given the opportunity. It wasn’t his fault this season or Benitez’s either, I think there’s just an overload of players that aren’t up to the standard of Everton.
“They got themselves out of it in the end and the manager deserves credit for that but there needs to be an improvement or the inevitable will happen and the manager will change again.
“For Everton to go forward they have to have that consistency in the manager’s position and hopefully they give Lampard a few quid to spend in the summer and he can assemble a good team.
“I think the expectations have to be that they are not challenging for the Europa League, they just need to get top 10 and build over a period of time rather than having expectations be too high and failing miserably like they did this season.”
Huge job
The Everton manager’s job is a huge one, and everyone knows it now, but Lampard’s task this summer is immeasurable.
The financial situation of the club is relatively unknown at this point and if the club want to bolster this summer they’ll likely need to sell at least one star.
But on top of that there is plenty of people at the club who probably shouldn’t be there and could generate good sums of money to reinvest in the side.
Fans will be absolutely buzzing to get rid of some of the people who have been at the club and been leeching money while offering nothing on the pitch, something that must change now within the club.
It will be a crazy summer for the club and there are plenty of things that will happen between now and then but the path to the future starts here, and Lampard must get it right.
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