Rio Ferdinand backs Frank Lampard to come good at Everton after being ‘achilles heeled’ by FFP restrictions
Rio Ferdinand has backed Frank Lampard to come good at Everton despite being harmed by FFP restrictions during the transfer window.
The Toffees have brought in five players during the summer window with James Tarkowski (free), Ruben Vinagre, Conor Coady (loans), Dwight McNeil (£20m) and Amadou Onana (£33m) signed while Richarlison (£60m) so far has been the only first-team departure.
But with Dominic Calvert-Lewin injured and Anthony Gordon seemingly on the verge of joining Chelsea, Ferdinand told his Vibe with Five podcast [August 22] that any manager would struggle in the situation that Lampard has found himself in.
“I think they’ll get through it, both of them,” he said. “I think it’s a bad window for Frank so far because the financial fair play situation for him has kind of achilles heeled him a little bit.
“He’s lost Richarlison, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, both of them meaning you have two number nines out of the team. Anthony Gordon is being courted by Chelsea it seems. So three of his best attacking players could be out of his team. So it’s difficult.
“I don’t care. If you take two stroke three players out of any team who are their most important in terms of goal getting, I think most managers would struggle.”
Stinker
Everton’s opening to the season so far has been nothing short of poor, with two defeats and a draw against a newly promoted side.
But it’s interesting that fans have no ill will towards Frank Lampard so far, because they are well aware that the club have so far let him down when it comes to building a squad capable of competing.
Financially the club are in a big hole and everyone knows it, but by selling the best player and not replacing him adequately in a season after they just barely avoided relegation, the aspirations are clearly just to simply avoid relegation again and not push on.
Lampard isn’t faultless in the poor performances since he took over in January, but it’s hard to get improvement from a squad of poor players when the squad is arguably weaker this season than it was last year.
The board are letting him down and if they don’t sort it out in the final ten days of the window, then relegation is a very real threat for Everton in the 2022/23 season.