Frank Lampard shares why Everton players were refusing to leave Goodison, makes Richarlison admission
Frank Lampard has revealed that some Everton players didn’t want to leave the club during his time as manager due to their big contracts.
Lampard spent a year at Goodison Park as manager and helped save the club from relegation, but failed to kick on in the following season and was sacked and replaced by Sean Dyche at the end of a barren January transfer window.
And while appearing on the “Stick to Football” podcast (24 January), Lampard shared that the Toffees had a plan heading into the summer that was curtailed by senior players refusing to leave due to their long contracts at the club.
“Obviously when Richarlison left the club, we all knew it was coming because it had to happen,” he said. “So he left the club and it gave us a bit of wiggle room to bring players in.
“My view was at the back end of the season that we’d stayed up but the squad needed a lot of work. And it wasn’t just the idea of bringing players in, it was the idea of getting players to move on.
“Some of those players were probably at an age in their career where they’d signed long contracts and weren’t going to go anywhere. The practical nature of any football club is sometimes you’re then a little bit hamstrung by that.
“As I say, at that point intentions were great at trying to bring players in. But the reality is we were never really going to do it.
“I wasn’t privvy to them [talks with Premier League], I would only get feedback from it. I think they were amicable to a point but there clear lines about what you could do at that stage.”
Shocking
It was a situation that a lot of Everton fans looked at during that time and suggested that it was a possibility, but the hope was that the club would be able to deal with it.
Now though it seems that it was impossible for them to deal with it, because if a player is under contract they can’t be forced out without it causing greater issues.
But the big question simply has to be who allowed the club to give those players those big, long contracts when they did knowing they were at a certain stage of their career.
And if they knew it was going to be an issue to move them on, why did they then hire Lampard to be the manager if he felt that those players couldn’t play the same way he wanted to.
It all sounds like excuses in reality, but it’s just simply more evidence that the club is an absolute shambles and has been run into the ground by the former board.
In other Everton news, loan transfer collapses after medical booked due to late £250k demand.
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