Lampard sack: Everton legend is ‘strong contender’ for manager’s job as Moshiri gives ‘green light’

Lewis Oldham
Lampard to leave Everton

Frank Lampard is reportedly ‘set to be sacked’ as Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has given the ‘green light’ for the club to search for his successor.

Lampard has been Everton’s manager for just under a year. He replaced Rafael Benitez last season and he just about did enough to keep the club in the Premier League.

But the Chelsea legend has been coming under growing pressure in recent months with him winning just 12 of his 44 games in charge across all competitions.

The Toffees are without a win in ten games across all competitions. This dates back to their 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace on October 22.

Everton fell to another defeat on Saturday afternoon against fellow strugglers West Ham. A brace from Jarrod Bowen earned David Moyes’ side all three points.

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Lampard stated after this loss that he is “prepared to dig in” to keep his job.

“Those things are not my choice, it is my job to work, focus and keep my head down,” Lampard said post-match on Saturday.

“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.”

But if Football Insider are to be believed, Everton’s hierarchy have already made their minds up about Lampard.

They are reporting that the defeat to West Ham ‘will seal Lampard’s fate after a boardroom meeting on Friday discussed the potential scenarios.’

They add that Moshiri ‘had been minded to dismiss Lampard over the next fortnight’ with the club not in action again until February 4.

The club owner ‘will green light the start of the process of appointing yet another new manager’ and a new manager is ‘expected to be in the dugout’ for their home game against Arsenal in two weeks.

Club legend Duncan Ferguson is said to be a ‘strong contender’ for the post. Everton’s former assistant manager left the club last summer as he intended to become a head coach elsewhere.

The 51-year-old had a couple of spells as caretaker manager at Everton but he has been out of work since departing the Premier League club.

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