Former Everton left back Michael Ball has given his verdict on what he believes has gone wrong at the club in recent seasons.
The Toffees are enduring a tough time of things under Marco Silva, having struggled badly for much of the last campaign as well under the Portuguese manager’s predecessors Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce.
With just one win in their last four outings, Ball has lifted the lid on the problems at Goodison Park.
“It’s not like the board haven’t backed Everton managers in recent years, we’ve just bought the wrong players and this season continues to prove that,” he wrote in his Liverpool Echo column. “We’ve got money now, but so has everyone else in the Premier League – Fulham have spent over £100million since the summer – so we’re not the only ones fighting for players.
“It was disappointing that we didn’t bring anyone else in during January to freshen things up but you can understand why because there wasn’t much to play for.
“Now that summer window becomes massive for us because not only does Marcel Brands want to trim the wage bill but he needs to rectify what we’re missing and it’s that killer instinct in front of goal.”
OPINION
There’s certainly not just one thing which has derailed Everton in recent years, it’s been a series of problems which have arisen for the Toffees. Some of the signings made by recent regimes, and the current one, simply haven’t been up to snuff, while there’s been some questionable coaching as well. As Ball says, they’ve bought the wrong players. People like Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez and Morgan Schneiderlin simply haven’t worked out like everyone expected them to. Those signings are almost excusable, too, because they all looked like decent deals on paper. There seems to be a lack of cohesion at Goodison Park now, and they’ve lurched from manager to manager without a clear plan in place – a far cry from the days of stability under David Moyes. There are numerous problems with Everton at present but chief among them, as Ball says, is the fact they haven’t bought well in recent times.