Farhad Moshiri misses Everton games due to post-COVID fears as toxic atmosphere builds
Everton owner Farhad Moshiri avoids travelling to watch his club’s matches because of “post-Covid health fears”, according to Daily Mail journalist Ian Birrell.
The toxic atmosphere surrounding the club in recent weeks has been targetted at Moshiri in particular, with board members told to avoid going to the home match against Southampton last week due to safety concerns.
The discontent off the pitch has trickled onto the pitch, with Frank Lampard’s side lingering in the dreaded relegation zone and level on points with the Saints at the foot of the table.
Writing for the Daily Mail on Saturday (21 January, page 117), journalist Birrell detailed the reasons behind the owner’s absence from matches this season, as the pressure continues to soar on his position.
He wrote: “An ally told me Moshiri avoids games due to post-Covid health fears. Regardless his weak leadership has been catastrophic, spending close to £700million to end up with an insipid team and crippling financial restrictions under the Lague’s bizarre spending rules.
“Lampard’s five predecessors, plus two directors of football, were chewed up and spat out amid factional fighting, cronyism and some crazed decision-making.”
No excuse
Whether this is the real reason for Moshiri’s absence from Everton’s games in the past 12 months, who knows, but this can’t paper over the cracks that have been prevalent during his tenure.
The amalgamation of players that Moshiri has led has been quite something. So much so that within the starting XI that faced Southampton last week, there were players who had been brought under five different managers.
Now, if this wasn’t embarrassing enough, he topped it off with a hilariously obnoxious interview on talkSPORT where he blamed the fans for his decision-making and said he always followed the will of the supporters.
How he thinks he can get away with saying the fanbase were the instigators of the appointment of ex-Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is quite amusing, and if he thought this would turn attention away from him, he was greatly mistaken.
Everton football club is in a mess and if they’re not careful, their ship could yet sink even lower, with the prospect of Championship football growing by the week.