Everton star ‘marginalised’ by Lampard after ‘dressing room clash’ with doomed Toffees boss

Joe Williams
Everton boss Frank Lampard gestures to his players

Everton boss Frank Lampard has made Abdoulaye Doucoure train on his own after a dressing room bust-up, according to reports.

Sky Sports claimed this morning that the Toffees are expected to sack Lampard today after they lost 2-0 to relegation rivals West Ham on Saturday.

Their defeat to the Hammers was their ninth loss in 12 Premier League matches with the five points earned from those matches putting them second bottom of the table.

On his Everton future, Lampard said after the match: “Those things are not my choice, it is my job to work, focus and keep my head down.

“I know there’s things going on at the club but it’s never been a consequence for me whether a chairman or board member is at the game.

“I was at Chelsea for 18 months and the owner didn’t come to one competitive game. It’s not about that to me. It’s not for me to guess what he thought about the game.

“It would hard for me to sit here and talk about the right direction because of the result. We stayed up by the skin of our teeth last year and were five points shy of safety with not many games to go.

“I’ve said that we might stay where we are, and was questioned whether that is competitive enough talk. But, for me, if you are in a club where the club has moved downwards with serious investment, the conditions now are that we don’t have that investment and we are trying to rebuild.

“That doesn’t mean straight away you start climbing stairs. It means you have to dig in as a club and I’m prepared to dig in.”

Strangely, Everton owner Farhad Moshiri said that it wouldn’t be him who decided Lampard’s future when asked after the match against West Ham.

“I can’t comment. It’s not my decision,” Moshiri told Sky Sports.

In response to Moshiri’s comments, Everton legend Alan Stubbs wrote on Twitter: “‘It’s not my decision’ Who’s is it then, enlighten us Agents, his mate, kit man’s, chef, media??????”

And former Toffees striker Kevin Campbell replied to his former team-mate: “I can’t believe all this foolishness! We all know the buck stops with the owner Stubbsy!”

And now The Times claims that Lampard has also fallen out with Everton midfielder Doucoure after they had an argument in the Toffees dressing room after their recent defeat to Southampton.

The report in The Times said:

‘As Lampard waits to hear on his position, it is understood that Abdoulaye Doucouré has been marginalised from the first team set-up and told to train on his own. He — and other players — were involved in a dressing room clash with Lampard following the loss to Southampton and the midfielder was subsequently excluded for the trip to the capital at the weekend.’

READ MORE: Frank Lampard sacked by Everton? We’re supposed to believe Pep Guardiola could do no better