Everton priorities change as Frank Lampard makes sharp U-turn
Everton are now operating a fines system after Frank Lampard previously said he wouldn’t introduce them for his players at Finch Farm.
The list of fines includes being late for training and team meetings as standard while senior players at Goodison Park will have their own list of offences to keep an eye out for.
The manager was not keen on bringing in such a system last season with ensuring the club’s survival the absolute priority but that has now changed to allow for this U-turn.
“I think I said at the time it didn’t feel a priority last year to go ‘you are fined if you are late’, the priority was ‘can we get three points this weekend?’,” he said, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
“Now we have got a little bit more time this season, the group is set up, the players have come in, I think a lot of the players, my feeling is they like there being some sort of policing of the standards and I think it can help if done right.
“We feel like the players are fully involved in it so they are happy with the levels, we are not killing them with the levels, but it is good to have something in place to make sure we stay on point.”
Discipline
After the pure chaos of the 2021-22 campaign, Lampard had to put this in place just to try and calm everyone down with the job far from done in securing their Premier League status for years to come.
Anthony Gordon has already been forced to miss a game through suspension thanks to five yellow cards and that is the kind of thing that has to be stopped for the Toffees to be successful.
They can’t afford players getting themselves into situations like this too often, if at all, so if a fines system is needed to keep every single individual in line and within the rules then so be it.
It will have to be a very significant amount of cash for each fine to work, though, because Premier League players nowadays earn more in a day than many do in a year.
£50 for turning up late won’t worry the richest of Everton players but a cool £2,500 might just be enough to ensure they stay within the rules set at Finch Farm.