Everton: Jordan Pickford shares new points deduction claim live on talkSPORT
Jordan Pickford has shared how he reacted to the points deduction and appeal process at Everton as he admitted it crept into the thoughts of the players.
The England international insisted that at first, they had no choice but to get on with things, but the more time passed in the wait for the appeal, the more they started thinking about it.
He went on to explain that he just assumed the worst as if they would get no points back so he kept training hard and playing well to fight to earn the points on the pitch.
Speaking live on talkSPORT [6 March, 12:05], Pickford shared: “It was just one of them where at the start we just cracked on. Then the appeal was supposed to be by the middle of February and it just kind of crept in a bit as a team.
“For me as an individual, it was kind of fear the worst as if you’re going to get no points back, crack on and train well, do your best on game days and the outcome will be the outcome.
“Now it’s about us just pushing forward and cracking on. We’re on 25 points, we can keep looking forward and not looking behind us. You’ve got to take positives from it and stand up and be counted as a team.”
How did the points deduction affect the Everton players?
Pickford’s reaction to the initial ten-point deduction sums up his character. It is what it is, it’s beyond the control of the players, so just crack on and do what you can on the pitch so that, ultimately, the points deduction doesn’t matter.
The news that it had begun to weigh on the minds of the players will be a concern, not only about the effect this has had on the dressing room at Goodison Park but also towards the Premier League and the time they took to deliver a verdict.
Jeff Stelling was vocal in his anger at the Premier League for the amount of time taken for Everton to hear the result of their appeal, as he questioned why the league couldn’t just let the club know their decision which had been made weeks before the announcement.
There has been widespread criticism of the way the Premier League have handled this case along with the separate charges against Manchester City and Nottingham Forest, with clubs near the bottom all affected.
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