Neville Southall has launched a scathing attack on Everton, claiming that supporters do not trust the club’s board to make the right choice on Roberto Martinez’s successor.
A decision on Martinez’s future was set to be taken at a meeting of the Blues’ hierarchy, scheduled to take place earlier today in London, as unrest increases towards the beleaguered Catalan, with fans are set to protest for the dismissal of the former Wigan manager during tomorrow’s visit of Bournemouth.
And Southall, who made a club record 578 league appearances for Everton in a 17-season spell, believes that a lack of faith in the Goodison Park corridors of power is at the heart of the planned demonstrations despite the recent arrival of Farhad Moshiri.
“The only reason they’re having a demonstration, I’m convinced of it, is – yes, they don’t like Roberto – but they don’t trust the board and they don’t trust the people to make the right decisions above him,” he told Radio City Talk.
“You wouldn’t be having a demonstration otherwise because they’d know, this fella (Moshiri) is going to get rid of him, but they don’t know, do they? Because they don’t know what his thinking is.
“Everybody’s going, ‘we have to make this protest because we don’t trust you to make the right decision.’ – that’s basically why they’re demonstrating.
“Anybody who meets Roberto, likes Roberto. Take the nice fella out, take the football – not good enough. It’s blatantly obvious, it ain’t good enough.
“What are the reasons behind that? A lack of leadership from the board, a lack of leadership from the Chairman (Bill Kenwright), no philosophy, no belief we can win anything.
“So people are going ‘we want him out – how do we get him out? Do we trust the board? No’ – and that’s where it comes from.”
Southall, a highly regarded member of Howard Kendall’s title winning sides in 1985 and 1987, also argued that the current regime lacks the sort of ‘blue sky’ thinking that distinguishes the very top sides in the country from the rest.
The former Wales international urged new majority shareholder Moshiri to deliver the change necessary for Everton to return to their upper echelons of the British game.
He added: “I’d like to see a proper philosophy and a proper message come out of the club. It comes from the top- I have no idea what their plans are, no idea what their ambition is and no idea what their aspirations are.
“Really, when you walk into Manchester United, there aim is to win the league and they don’t mind saying it’s to win the league. What is ours?
“You know, David Moyes told us that top 10 was great, which is a pile of rubbish. We need to be winning the league and we need to be proud enough to say that we’re going to win the league.
“When you come back you come to win the league. Not to come fourth.
“What the hell do you want to come fourth for?”