Paul Merson makes ‘Massive’ Everton relegation prediction live on Sky Sports
Paul Merson has tipped Everton to be relegated from the Premier League this season after a poor summer transfer window live on Sky Sports.
The Toffees avoided the drop on the final day of the season last time out, and have since added Arnaut Danjuma, Ashley Young and Youssef Chermiti to their squad.
But after losing Conor Coady, Yerry Mina, Andros Townsend, Ruben Vinagre and Tom Davies, Merson doesn’t think they have done enough to strengthen and feels the opening game against Fulham is already “massive” for their survival chances.
“They’ve not brought enough players in,” he said (12 August, 12:39).
“If you look at last season, defenders were getting them out of trouble. It weren’t like the forwards were scoring bundles of goals. Home form wasn’t great.
“I think they’re taking a big chance. If you keep on hanging around the bottom, eventually you drop.
“Today against Fulham is a massive match already. You can’t think, ‘there’s another 37 to go’. I don’t want Everton to go down, but I think they will.”
Ouch
They say the truth hurts, and it’s really hard to argue with Merson about the points he has made about our squad and our chances of survival.
The squad is weaker and until new players are brought in, there is no doubt that there is a real concern we could face the drop.
But one thing he hasn’t accounted for is the fact Sean Dyche has had a full pre-season with this squad and the fact that several teams in the league around us are much weaker too.
Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United have struggled in the market after being promoted, while Wolves have lost a host of their star players in the window too.
The hope is that Dyche can get the maximum level from this squad to get us points early on, and if the board can deliver on some more signings before the window closes then we should be good.
In other Everton news, star man “likely” heading to Saudi as Alan Myers drops transfer update.