Ian Wright destroys Everton board in expletive-filled ‘cowardice’ rant as he hails fanbase after relegation escape
Ian Wright has blasted the Everton board for their “cowardice” towards the fans and their running of the club, after relegation was escaped on the last day of the season.
Supporters, who have been protesting against Farhad Moshiri, Bill Kenwright, and company on a regular basis, chanted for the hierarchy to go after Abdoulaye Doucouré’s strike beat Bournemouth on Sunday (28 May) and kept the Toffees up.
And in the wake of the near miss Wright has thrown his full backing behind the supporters for their apparent treatment at the hands of the club, and added his voice to calls for those in charge to go.
Speaking on the Wrighty’s House podcast (29 May, 15m 25s): “That ownership and that board has to change, especially what they’ve done, throwing the fans under the bus earlier on in the season.
“It will not go away because the relationship with the fans, which are by far the most important thing to that club… those owners need them onside with them. That is why, them singing ‘Sack the board’, I said, ‘Yeah, music to my ears’, with the way that club’s been run recently… absolutely devastating for the fans.”
He went on: “As a former player playing at Everton, the kind of affinity I have with them is really deep simply because they’ve always been very, very nice. Very, very good fans…
“This is why I go back [to] the owners. The one thing that you’ve got that you could probably bank on are the fans, and for them to do what they’ve done, really alienate them[selves] from the one thing they need more than anything in this club…
“They’ve not been there since January, since all that [expletive] they tried to turn onto the Everton fans and they’re the ones who are not [expletive] coming. Everton fans have no choice, they have to go, watch their team take them to heights and let them down on a regular basis, and then the owners are not even going… that is what you call [expletive] cowardice.”
Passionate
It couldn’t have come more passionately even from an Everton fan’s mouth, and it says something that Wright went in as strongly as he did.
The club either didn’t learn any lessons from the narrow escape under Frank Lampard a year ago, or they failed to put into practice anything they did pick up, and in practice either option ends up in the same place.
Investment from MSP Sports Capital is thought to be incoming any day now, and assuming it does it should spark changes in the boardroom.
Who goes and who stays will likely determine whether the broken relationship between the fanbase and the club can show some signs of recovery, or whether the decision-making at Goodison Park will become more successful.
Claims of threats to the board’s safety, and that Denise Barrett-Baxendale was put in a headlock upon exiting the ground, led to the self-imposed exile from home games, and went down especially badly when it emerged that police had no record of reports [Daily Mail, 16 January], sparking fears negative attention was being directed onto the fans by a struggling club.
Everton escaped in the penultimate game last season, then pushed it one step closer to the drop this year, so it is now a crucial summer if they are going to avoid taking the same risk again.
Plenty of fans have made their feelings clear, and Wright’s view couldn’t be any more obvious, so what change actually follows is now in right in the spotlight.