The Mailbox features a staunch defence of Frank Lampard from an Evertonian.There’s been an awful lot of guff about Frank Lampard on these pages recently, from writers and mailboxes alike. Some of it borne out of rivalry; some, presumably, out of jealousy and spite. (Why on earth would a fan of another club care whether he deserves the EFC job or not, if such a thing could even be assessed.
So, I thought I’d try to articulate why I and many other Evertonians are inclined to defend him.Firstly, the mess at the club is not his fault. Our squad was compiled by no less than 8 different managers, together with 2 different DoFs and 2 board members who each have/had their own opinions. Some of those people were absolutely useless at their jobs. Many of the managers have opposing styles and some even seem to have been appointed as a direct reaction to the previous (different) playing style not working out. One mailboxer said that Lampard has had access to resources many clubs can’t dream of. Has he thought? We are hamstrung by FFP rules now and he joined with only a few days of the transfer window remaining when we’d already conducted most of our business at the behest of the previous manager and DoF (a fine example of the complete lack of planning at the top level – I mean, selling Luca Digne to please Benitez and then firing Benitez almost immediately afterwards really takes le gateau).We had a world class number 10 in Rodriguez whom Benitez banished to the gulf because of a grudge held since they were in Madrid together many years ago and our other number 10 has been dropped from the squad because he’s [redacted for legal reasons]. Our best defender (Mina) has legs made of cheese and our main striker has been injured for much of the season and now seems more bothered about chasing modelling gigs than loose balls in the box.
Secondly, there are reasons to like and have faith in what he says. Martinez was unrelentingly positive to the point of gaslighting, Allardyce tried to claim Unsworth’s results as his own, Koeman seemed to think he was above it all and Benitez was thoroughly dour (and was never going to be one of us) but Frank genuinely seems pleased to be here and is actually telling it like it is. Yes, he has complained about refs but we’ve had some shocking decisions go against us during his tenure and he’s not made a habit of it like many others do. When we’ve played well, he’s complimented the team; when we’ve shown a complete lack of bollocks, he’s not been afraid to call them out too. F365 has picked up on him pointing to the state of results before we came but he’s right – they were absolutely shite.Thirdly, there are signs that we are moving in the right direction. We are playing passes around again (ok, except against the red shite), pressing again and showing some fight again. Iwobi looks like a different player, Gordon is improving by the week (needs to learn to stay on his feet, mind), Mykolenko seems to have settled nicely now and we’ve even seen flashes (if only flashes so far) of what Dele Alli can do. The challenge is achieving consistency now and preventing Keane and Holgate from being distracted by passing bumblebees. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.
Finally, well, sooner or later we’ve got to back someone right? I’ve had friends who follow other clubs tell me that we should sack him and bring Allardyce back for the last few games. To me, that’s madness and the exact sort of knee-jerk decision making is what got us into this mess in the first place. Maybe Lampard will prove to be a very good manager, maybe he won’t and we’ll get relegated. Either way, though, I believe he deserves a proper chance (and from you lot too).
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