Gary Neville has delivered an honest assessment of Everton’s current plight and sympathised that Blues fans have “been sold short so often”.
Everton fell to a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday in Duncan Ferguson’s first game of his second stint in temporary charge, after Rafa Benitez’s brief spell in charge came to an end.
The result means the Blues have won just one of their last 14 league games and currently sit 16th, four points above the relegation zone.
In a detailed assessment of Everton, Neville confessed that he initially believed the Spanish coach would be a success in the short-term at Goodison - but has also raised concerns about structural issues at the club.
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“This is how wrong I get it sometimes with my predictions, I had them as my ones to watch this season or the overachievers, I think it was, on Monday Night Football,” he confessed on the Gary Neville Podcast .
“Because I just thought Rafa Benitez was the wrong choice for Everton - I said that publicly, I didn’t think it would work in the long-term - but I thought that he would be a good Everton coach. A good Everton manager.
“He would get them tough to beat, they would play direct. They’d be resilient. Almost in a Moyes fashion and in a historical Everton fashion.
“I thought it might go wrong one day. I didn’t think it would go as badly wrong as it has.”
Neville continued: “This is not something new but the idea that they sold Digne a couple of days before sacking the manager. Again, it was just a really odd decision.
“If you’re going to sack the manager of a football club, you keep the players there until you’ve sacked him. At least to let your new manager come in and basically make his own decision.
“That was an obscure decision which tells you that the club - it’s obvious that the club's not functioning well behind the scenes - but that is just a real huge demonstration of it.
“That they’re not connected together, the dots aren’t joined up. That would be a problem generally because that just means that there isn’t the thread from the top that’s needed to create a good football structure and a good football project.
“I don’t know where they go from here now.”
The ex-Manchester United defender highlighted his own family ties at the club, with his brother Phil having captained the Toffees under David Moyes.
“It’s a great football club, Everton’s a great football club. I used to love playing there. My brother played there and couldn’t speak highly enough of it, in terms of the spirit of the people. Passionate.
“They gave him a tough time when he first went there but he accepted that. He didn’t want to be accepted easily straight away - he’s Mancunian, his name’s Neville - we weren't liked by people in that part of town!
“But he could win them over through hard-work and commitment, that sort of spirit of fighting and doing the very best for the team. And I think Everton fans have been sold short so often.”
The Sky Sports pundit stated that he was “desperate” for Everton to be a strong force once again, more so than Newcastle following their recent takeover.
When asked by Martin Tyler if being in the same city as Liverpool made it “impossible” for Everton to succeed, Neville cited Manchester City as an obvious example to disprove the theory.
“Why would you not be able to do that with Everton, with a new stadium and a brilliant fanbase?” Neville asked, in the hypothetical scenario that City’s owners had chosen to invest in the Blues.
“If Everton were winning and were 2nd or 3rd in the league, there’d be 50, 60, 70,000 people going to watch them every single week.
“So for me, there is no reason why it can’t be. It just doesn’t feel like they’ve got the same sort of organisation behind the scenes as obviously City have.
“It almost feels like Everton fans are almost meant to suffer! It’s that feeling when you go there - a part of it they play to as well.
“City fans were like that though [before winning the Premier League]. You’ve got to change that mentality and I hope it happens.”
