Frank Lampard admits ‘recruitment’ to play big role in deciding Everton fate next season
Everton manager Frank Lampard has admitted that the current transfer window will play a huge role in deciding the club’s fate in the upcoming season.
The Toffees are coming on the back of a dismal campaign where they narrowly managed to escape relegation on matchday 37.
Everton are already on the backfoot in this transfer window after the departure of their star striker Richarlison to league rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite signing James Tarkowski for free this summer, Lampard admits that more is to be done in order to have a better campaign this time around.
“Recruitment – and who goes out – is a huge part of any football club,” he told the club’s official website. “Particularly when you are a manager who comes in mid-season.
“The [January] transfer window shut one day after I joined, so you work with the players you have straight away.
“But when you look forward, you think about how you can strengthen in different areas. How would this look? It is vital to get that right.
“It will be a big challenge for me and the club… to make sure we go in the right direction because it is clear we don’t want to be fighting relegation and recruitment will be a big part of that.”
It is crunch time at Goodison Park as Everton have to tell the Premier League world that they are a serious club once again.
So much money has been spent under the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez in the previous seasons, but the team has gone nowhere and it has continuously underperformed.
So how do things change under Lampard? Well, firstly, they need to replace Richarlison instantly because he was one of the few consistent performers for the club.
The Brazil international is arguably one of the primary reasons why the Toffees are still in the Premier League.
Apart from the signings, it is also important that Everton go back to their original model that was so successful during the years of David Moyes and Roberto Martinez where the focus was entirely on getting success based on academy graduates.
Having someone like Lampard at the club, who has a proven record of developing youngsters into superstars as he did during his time at Derby and Chelsea, it is perhaps the right time for Merseyside club to go back to their roots.