George Overhill

Sat 20 May 2023 11:40, UK

Graeme Sharp may never go to Goodison Park again after protests against the Everton board in a situation termed “unforgivable” by Dominic King in the Daily Mail.

Amid ongoing fan fury at the running of the club key members of the hierarchy haven’t attended home games since controversial claims that there was a “credible threat” to their safety for the defeat to Southampton on 14 January [Sky Sports].

The Toffees’ legendary goalscorer has been on the club’s board since 5 January 2022 in an “unpaid non-executive role”, in a move which was dismissed at the time by BBC Sport’s Phil McNulty as Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright avoiding the discomfort of appointing an “outsider”, but King claims that in practice “at a club where there is often chaos, he would put forward a view designed to challenge and question.”

In his story for the Mail late on Friday night, ahead of the vital relegation clash against Wolves on Saturday (20 May), he writes that a “Sharp Out” banner prior to the Southampton game was the “deepest cut of all” and “within the club, there was revulsion that he had been targeted,” while his Anne-Marie is “inconsolable” about the situation.

According to King: “Critics wondered what influence Sharp actually had behind the scenes, given that decisions were ultimately taken by Farhad Moshiri or Bill Kenwright, but at a club where there is often chaos, he would put forward a view designed to challenge and question.

“There have been times when there has been a rush to reward players with new contracts quickly but he would always advise that there was no need to commit big sums to individuals who still had things to prove. He had played at the top and knew what was required to get there.

“Everton’s best interests have always been at his heart.”

Broken relationship

The problem is that Sharp no doubt does have the club’s best interests at his heart, and for what it matters the rest of the board may well do just as much.

But none of them can argue that positive feeling towards Everton has been enough to produce the requisite results in practice, as the Toffees teeter on the brink of relegation for a second year running to a backdrop of upheaval off the pitch.

Supporters would surely prefer not to see the reputation of a club legend falter as it has either, but anyone on the board is going to be guilty by association at best right now, and as a recognisable face it is hard for Sharp to go unnoticed.

And the fact is that the Evertonians also want what’s best for the club, which clearly isn’t relegation or a referral for an alleged FFP breach – disputed by the club – and while supporters obviously have nowhere near the behind-the-scenes knowledge of what goes on at Goodison, it is also not their responsibility to run the club.

So it stands to reason that everybody involved is going to be pretty unhappy at the Sharp situation, but if it is “unforgivable” it begs the question of by whom?

It is very much a dispute with two sides, but the current Everton hierarchy has overseen a slide from being in the hunt for European football to successive relegation battles and fans are reacting because they are miserable.

If there were genuine threats to the safety of board members that is beyond the pale, although that situation itself is disputed and hasn’t been corroborated.

It may be that Sharp is unfortunate to be lumped in with other unpopular figures after the damage was already done, but if there is “revulsion” at a two-word banner simply saying “Sharp Out” it seems an overreaction in the circumstances.

If, with takeover talks ongoing, somewhere down the line there was room for a current board member to join a new regime in more successful times it isn’t hard to imagine the fanbase being far more well-disposed to that being Sharp than any of the others.

But an unhappy situation at Everton currently really has no winners, with the pressure on Sean Dyche and the players against Wolves at Molineux and at home to Bournemouth on the final day to ensure it doesn’t get more unhappy.