Former Everton manager Frank Lampard has lambasted the mentality at Goodison Park during his time, stating that the club’s staff were already resigned to relegation before a single game was played.
Lampard described a sense of hopelessness among personnel and blamed it for Everton’s prolonged troubles, despite his best efforts to shift people’s perceptions of their prospects of survival.
With the club facing yet another relegation struggle this season, it’s difficult to argue that mindset has changed, with a critical view around the club.
“The amount of Everton fans who work behind the scenes, the kit men, the people there – everybody there is Everton,” Lampard said live on Sky Sports Monday Night Football on 2 October. It’s almost as if there’s a good and a negative side to that.
“What’s great is that they live it, love it, and are desperate for the club because they feel it.” But there was also that pessimism where they were like, ‘Oh, we’ve been here before, this is going to be a terrible season,’ you know? As a fan, I do it.
“I was astonished by the degree of that, not by the fans, but by the degree of being
“There was a sense of desperation running through the club.” That was the thing I thought I needed to change the most. I had several meetings with players and staff where I told them, “We have to lose this.”
Negativity is fostered by the thinking.
If people in the backroom staff, no matter how minor their role or insignificant their opinion, approach the season with the perspective that the club could fail, that thinking will surely spread throughout the club.
It’s critical that everyone is on the same page and pulling in the same direction, and while acknowledging they’ll struggle may provide a feeling of realism, it won’t assist the problem.
Clubs have been shown in the past to fight with relegation until they drop, and the mindset of everyone around the club plays a key role in that. Sunderland would be the most well-known example of people behind the scenes who did not believe they would survive.
If Eveton are to maintain their Premier League survival bid, they must think it is doable. Sean Dyche and his players will undoubtedly believe it, so the rest of the club must follow suit.
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