Sky Sports pundit can’t hold laughter at Garth Crooks shout on Everton boss Frank Lampard
We’re delighted to welcome former Everton striker Kevin Campbell as our exclusive columnist. Each week the former Toffees captain will be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Goodison Park…
Garth Crook’s claim that Frank Lampard will be fighting for his Everton job at the end of the season if he doesn’t get into the top six makes no sense, says Kevin Campbell.
In his BBC Team of the Week pick of Conor Coady on 2 October Crooks made the bizarre claim that “anything less” than top six for the Toffees boss would see him in danger of the sack in the summer.
But Sky Sports pundit Campbell found the assertion amusing while completely disagreeing with it, suggesting a top eight push would be fantastic but avoiding another relegation battle is the objective right now.
A laughing Campbell exclusively told Goodison News:“Crooksy… I love Crooksy but let me just tell you something, if he’s not fighting in the top six and he’s just saved them from relegation last season? That doesn’t make sense to me.
“There’s a lot more teams who are further advanced than Everton at the moment in their recruitment, in the way their squads are.
“For me, with Frank Lampard, this season is about getting a team that can compete, that’s what Everton need.
“Yeah if they can challenge for top eight, great, but as long as they’re just making sure there’s no repeats of what happened last season, that’s the key. And then it’s something to build on.
“Garth Crooks is piling the pressure on isn’t he? Listen, it’s his opinion, which is fine, but I don’t share that opinion whatsoever.
“To challenge for a top eight would be great, but after last season just to make sure the team are competitive, I think that’s really important.”
Say what you like about Crooks, he’s not afraid to go out on a limb with some bold suggestions in his weekly column, and this one is certainly up there.
While Lampard might not be ready to be considered for the England job just yet, it would be madness for the Everton hierarchy to think of getting rid of him if he continues the work he is doing currently.
Going straight from avoiding relegation in the penultimate game of the campaign last year to upsetting the entrenched big six would be an incredible rise and seems totally unrealistic, but the hierarchy at Goodison Park surely won’t be putting the same pressure on the former Chelsea boss as the BBC man is.