By Anthony Onifade

5th Jan, 2023 | 1:10pm

Ian Wright calls out Everton board on Match of the Day amid new Frank Lampard speculation

Ian Wright has laid the blame on the Everton board for the club’s failures and urges them to copy the example of Tuesday’s opponents Brighton & Hove Albion for sustained success.

The Toffees suffered a heavy and damaging 4-1 defeat at the hands of Brighton on Tuesday evening, a result which leaves them just a point above the relegation places with just 15 points from 18 games.

The result puts further pressure on manager Frank Lampard as his side had failed to win any of their last six Premier Leagues, and registering just one win in 10 games. However, the former Chelsea boss hasn’t been the only subject of criticism recently with owner Farhad Moshiri taking the brunt of the blame for the club’s failures on the pitch.

Speaking on BBC Match of the Day, Wright said: “I think it’s the board.

“You can’t have as many managers as they’ve had and sacked as many managers as [Alan Shearer] was saying it the other day, and continually blame the managers.

“It’s like we were saying about Brighton, the way they’ve sorted out their academy, their recruitment, the owners, and the managers.

“That’s why you can take out someone like Graham Potter, bring in (Roberto) De Zerbi and everything is still fine because of the structure and infrastructure of the whole club is in place and that’s what Everton haven’t had for many many years.”

Accurate assessment

Wright is spot on with the above assessment. Everton hasn’t felt like a proper football entity for many years.

The continuous cycle of managers struggling to impose themselves on the club and its players isn’t plainly down to them, but down to the lack of planning and structure around them from the hierarchy right down to the players.

To put it bluntly, owner Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright have simply failed the club and the fanbase because they have not taken the time to properly plan out the present and future of the club like Brighton have done so expertly.

The recruitment and selling of players have been poor. The constant chopping and changing of managers with no careful thought process or pre-planning has also been a huge factor which means the Toffees board will have to take the brunt of the blame.

Things are looking incredibly bleak for Lampard right now, simply because the owners are leaving him out to dry rather than providing him with the resources and room to build a sustainable team for the future. Maybe the board needs the wake-up call of relegation to force them to stand up and take responsibility.