Phil McNulty takes aim at Farhad Moshiri, Kevin Thelwell and Everton board after loss v Aston Villa
BBC Sport journalist Phil McNulty has taken aim at Farhad Moshiri, Kevin Thelwell and the Everton board for not signing a striker in January, after their loss v Aston Villa.
The Toffees were beaten 2-0 despite being the better team for large parts of the game, slipping back into the relegation zone with 14 games remaining of the season.
After the result was confirmed, McNulty made sure to point the finger at those running the club for not signing a striker during the winter transfer window and called it “negligence” that could be the difference between relegation and survival.
“Sean Dyche has won two of four games as Everton manager with goals scored by a central defender & a full-back,” he wrote on his personal Twitter account (25 February).
“Not signing a striker in summer/January amounts to negligence from the owner, board & director of football Kevin Thelwell. It might be the decision that sends them down.”
Spot on
Finally there is someone in the mainstream media calling out the Everton board for exactly what they are – negligent and incompetent.
It was clear to everyone last summer that this team needed a striker after selling Richarlison, yet we instead opted to rely on Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Anthony Gordon and the signings of the unproductive duo Neal Maupay and Dwight McNeil to keep us afloat.
As expected though, Calvert-Lewin can’t stay fit and the board then sold an under-performing Gordon in January, but replaced him only by recalling Ellis Simms from his loan at Championship side Sunderland.
We’ve scored a league-low 17 goals this season, and the team’s top scorer Demarai Gray couldn’t be further away from fitting Sean Dyche’s system if he purposely tried to be.
The decision not to sign a forward of any kind, simply to boost numbers at the very least, is simply poor and without a sure-fire goalscorer it wouldn’t be surprising at this point if it cost us our Premier League place.