Premier League branded ‘pathetic’ after Everton face Leeds United without Neal Maupay
The Premier League have been blasted by former Everton player Michael Ball for the situation that kept new signing Neal Maupay out of the draw with Leeds United.
The fact that it was a bank holiday weekend meant that despite the Frenchman being registered on Friday afternoon he was deemed ineligible for the trip to Elland Road on Tuesday night (30 August), after having already missed the game at Brentford on Saturday.
Frank Lampard fielded an attack consisting of three wingers in Anthony Gordon, Demarai Gray and Dwight McNeil, with Gordon scoring the Toffees’ only goal for the second match running in the 1-1 draw.
Times journalist Henry Winter had written on his personal Twitter account Tuesday: “Bit harsh on EFC by premierleague that Neal Maupay cannot play tonight. Registered on Friday afternoon, so ineligible for Saturday. Because of Bank Holiday on Monday, ineligible for today.
“Seems strange that big football days (Saturday and Sunday) not deemed working days by PL.”
Ball then responded on Wednesday morning, directing a message from his own account at the league to say: “100% – Pathetic by premierleague”.
Nonsensical
Of all the industries where weekends might be considered working days football has to be close to the top of the list.
Everybody knows that Saturday and Sunday are when most games happen, so it seems obtuse to say that least that thousands of people can be travelling around the country to work at matches as players, coaches, officials, and any number of other important elements of conducting a professional football match and yet those days don’t count towards the processing of new signing.
Everton fans have been crying out for a new striker, with Salomon Rondon ineffective, and the club have been after plenty of them, so it is infuriating that the club has signed one and yet they’ve still seen the next two games pass by with him forced to sit out.
There will no doubt be technical rules that have to be followed in terms of working time directives within the league office, but it hardly seems beyond the self-styled best league in the world to still get some paperwork processed so the millions of pounds sloshing backwards and forwards can actually lead to a player playing football.
Gordon has picked up the slack as best he can by netting in both the matches Maupay has now missed, but he isn’t a striker and shouldn’t be the main source of goals for Lampard.
Everton perhaps have to take some of the blame since it was thought they would get the ex-Seagulls man’s medical done in time for him to face Brentford [Alan Myers], but missing that deadline and then having it compounded by a quirk of the calendar to also rule him out for Leeds makes little sense at all.