Everton must have Frank Lampard replacement lined up – beIN Sports pundit
Frank Lampard’s replacement as Everton manager must already be “lined up” by the club’s board, according to Jason McAteer.
The Toffees are facing a pair of crucial Premier League games against relegation rivals Southampton and West Ham on 14 and 21 January respectively, which could go a long way to determining the current manager’s fate.
Following the battling defeat at Old Trafford in the FA Cup McAteer believes that Farhad Moshiri already has a new boss ready to go if Lampard can’t get the job done in those matches, or possibly even earlier.
Speaking live on beIN Sports after the Manchester United game on Friday night (6 January), the former Liverpool player said: “There’s a lot more wrong with Everton than just Frank Lampard. He’s got two games coming up against Southampton and West Ham… obviously to stay in the Premier League they are going to have beat the teams around them.
“Do the owners feel that they can bring someone in and they’ll get an instant bounce, which is what we do see from time to time? In fact, we see it quite a bit.
“They must have someone lined up as a contingency plan, because if they pick Frank to take the two games and it doesn’t go well they must have someone in mind.”
Waiting in the wings
The only reason that Moshiri shouldn’t have a potential Lampard successor ready would be if he is 100% committed to the former Chelsea boss no matter what happens in the foreseeable future.
Otherwise it would be a dereliction of duty to not even have a plan B, but given the messy episode a year ago to replace Rafael Benitez it is open to question whether the Toffees owner will have got himself organised.
Backing Lampard would be a welcome change considering the culture of hiring and firing at Goodison Park in recent years, but failure in the upcoming matches to put some distance between Everton and their rivals in the battle against the drop would severely test that.
The 44-year-old saw an improved performance derailed by miserable luck in Manchester, just as the strong point at the Etihad on 31 December had hinted at an improvement.
That disappeared with the miserable 4-1 defeat at home to Brighton on 3 January, and a repeat of that regression might convince Moshiri to pull the trigger on a sacking once again.
Wayne Rooney has been linked to the job he apparently wanted a year ago but would surely represent an even greater risk than sticking with the current man, so unless there is a proven alternative out there the situation continues to look bleak.