Greg O’Keeffe has been speaking on the All Together Now podcast about Anthony Gordon’s relegation comments from last week.
Everton managed to pick up what could be the most important win in the club’s season so far last weekend at home to Manchester United as they moved four points clear of the bottom three having played the same number of games as 18th-placed Burnley.
Are Everton too big to go down?
Yes!
No!
It was an academy product that stole the show, with Gordon netting the winning goal of the game, albeit via a Harry Maguire deflection – and given he was the matchwinner, he did a lot of the post-match interviews.
The winger spoke to the press after the game about Everton and the fact they could be relegated, saying (via Daily Mail): “It was never my thought [we could go down], but as we got a few bad results it became the reality.
“I am not going to accept that [we could be relegated], because of the size of the club, and just me as an individual. It is not going to happen.”
O’Keeffe has jumped to the defence of Gordon, who appeared to imply that Everton were too big to go down.
“I saw Anthony Gordon was full of confidence after the game on Saturday, and who can blame him. I don’t think he meant, actually, from what I’ve heard, that Everton are too good to go down.
“I think he was trying to just build on the confidence of the game, the feeling the players had.”
TIF Thoughts on Gordon’s comments…
Gordon was clearly just speaking from the heart about the club he grew up supporting and plays for, so his answers are always likely to mean more and be more passionate, so the fact he mentioned the ‘size of the club’ will likely be from past memories of the Toffees playing in Europe, as well as the fact they are also set to move to a new 52,888-capacity stadium.
Everton fans would likely much rather see all of their players speak about the club in the way that Gordon does, instead of the usual media-trained answers that get thrown out in the majority of interviews, although Gordon will surely know that nobody is too big to go down – just look at Aston Villa and Newcastle United in recent years.
In other news: ‘My understanding’ – Greg O’Keeffe reveals huge Bramley-Moore Dock update at Everton