Former Everton winger reveals why he left club in January

Prior to facing his former club this weekend, Aaron Lennon has discussed with Burnley’s website exactly why he left. To our great (or not so great) astoundment, the player has cited a lack of game time under the parade of idiots who have managed Everton this season as the reason for his desire to move elsewhere.

Okay, fine, I added the parade of idiots part. Aaron Lennon is far too classy to make such a comment. What he did say was this:

“I want to play, like everyone else, each week, and obviously it had to come to the time where you start to look it at and think ‘I’ve missed a lot of football in the last year-and-a-half maybe it’s time to move on’. And I made the right decision.”

He’s right, he did make the right decision. For a fully fit Everton side he probably isn’t at a level that he was going to play very much, but given the situation we had early this season he should have played more.

Lennon also said of Burnley’s current place in the table that there was no luck involved in them being seventh at this point in the season. However, the Claret’s last win in the Premier League came back in early December and it’s testament to how utterly poor all the teams outside the top six are that they are still in seventh.

Now, Aaron, my friend, I know you have to say this sort of thing in support of your current club but let’s be serious here. Burnley has the worst xG in the entire Premier League. Even worse than Everton. Swansea City creates better chances than Burnley. They don’t have a top flight attack, simple as that, and Lennon hasn’t exactly moved the needle too much on that with his arrival despite playing in all four games since his transfer.

Burnley’s xGA is nearly twice their xG for the season, resulting in an expected points of next to last for the year. Burnley is a bad team. There is absolutely no good reason why Everton should not win this matchup going away (though I’m sure Sam will think of something) this weekend.

“I enjoyed my time at Everton. They are a great group of lads and have some good quality players. People will be probably look at them on paper and think they should be higher or have done better.”

Lennon did read the writing on the wall once Theo Walcott was signed, and with Gylfi Sigurdsson being used on the opposite wing, his days at Everton were numbered. It’ll be good to see Aaron on the pitch again, I just hope it goes poorly for him in this particular game.