Neil Warnock has told Frank Lampard that he needs to go “back to basics” to ensure that Everton avoid relegation but what might that actually mean in reality?
For those of us old enough to remember, the phrase came to prominence when it was adopted by another ailing faction of ‘True Blues’ through a speech made by John Major delivered on October 8, 1993, following a period of infighting within the Conservative Party. The then Prime Minister proclaimed: “The old values – neighbourliness, decency, courtesy – they're still alive, they’re still the best of Britain. It is time to return to those old core values, time to get back to basics.”
The Tories of course never held much sway here on Merseyside and Major’s ‘Back to Basics’ campaign became the subject of ridicule following a series of political scandals.
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Back at Goodison Park, patrons were more concerned that week with Howard Kendall’s Everton making heavy weather of fourth-tier Lincoln City in a League Cup tie – some things never change! In the days of two-legged second-round ties, the Blues had triumphed 4-3 at Sincil Bank in their first game but found it tough going in the return match as the score on the night was 2-2 until 15 minutes to go before Everton eventually won 4-2 and this correspondent can vouch for that as he and his father made up a couple of the 8,375 crowd (some 778 fewer than the away match) in the ground that night.
Although Kendall’s second spell as Blues boss would end before the midway point of that particular campaign, that would of course turn out to be the season in which Everton endured their first final day ‘Great Escape’ from Premier League relegation, coming back from 2-0 down to defeat Wimbledon.
That particular Goodison vintage could not be accused of lacking backbone though, they’d just been left to drift having not recovered from a seven-game caretaker spell for Jimmy Gabriel that produced just a single point with Neville Southall believing they were poorly managed by Kendall’s replacement Mike Walker. The Blues’ most-decorated player was one of eight in the starting line-up against Wimbledon who would prove their mettle by defeating Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the FA Cup final just a year later along with captain Dave Watson, Gary Ablett, David Unsworth, Barry Horne, Anders Limpar, Graham Stuart and Paul Rideout.
While Warnock – like Conservative politicians – might not enjoy a stellar reputation around these parts, particularly after a stupid on-air ‘joke’ about Scousers supposedly not having windows during some punditry for BT Sport back in 2017, he does possess a wealth of experience when it comes to fighting for survival as a football manager with more wins than losses over a remarkable career of more than 1,500 matches in the dugout.
Warnock told talkSPORT : “You need to go back to basics. You know what I’m like, get your pads on and have a five-a-side – let’s see who pulls out of tackles now!”
Several of Everton’s squad have mentioned how Lampard’s relatively recent exploits as a Premier League superstar have inspired them. That’s something that his predecessor Rafa Benitez could never possess and the same would go for Marco Silva.
While both Carlo Ancelotti and Ronald Koeman were top international footballers in their day, the generation gap between themselves and the current side somehow seemed to be too big a time lag for today’s players to fully appreciate their on-the-field reputations. Yet for all the admiration for Lampard and his first team coach Ashley Cole, the results have not yet followed.
Maybe he really does need to get his boots back on at Finch Farm and join in among a few small-sided games to see which of his players he can really count upon now the chips are down. There have been mitigating circumstances when Everton have endured brushes with relegation in the past but if they go down this year with this expensively-assembled bunch, the players will only have themselves to blame.
Between them they possess much more than enough talent to be well clear of the drop zone and it’s high time as a group that they started to display some character rather than repeatedly waving the white flag. Both Lampard, who doesn't want his reputation tarnished by being the man to take the club down for the first time in 71 years, and the Blues’ long-suffering fans deserve so much better from them.
