CONFIRMED: Frank Lampard has been sacked at Everton

To some extent Frank Lampard has been a dead man walking at Everton for some time now. Bereft of ideas, he’s watched his side plumb new low after another as they’ve continued to drop points against fellow bottom-feeding sides in the Premier League.

The writing was pretty much on the wall for him when the Toffees were soundly beaten twice against AFC Bournemouth even before the World Cup break, but in what would be yet another sign of the ineptitude at the Board level, the club refused to replace Lampard during the nine weeks off.

Instead, the fans had to watch him and his players stumble repeatedly to Wolves, Brighton, Southampton, and then now West Ham before finally choosing to pull the plug on the failed Lampard experiment.

Many hours after multiple media sources reported that the sacking was done, Everton finally released a statement -

Everton Football Club can confirm that Frank Lampard has left his post as Senior Men’s First Team Manager today.

Joe Edwards, Paul Clement, Ashley Cole and Chris Jones have also left the Club.

Alan Kelly will remain as goalkeeping coach.

Everyone at Everton would like to thank Frank and his coaching staff for their service during what has been a challenging 12 months.

Frank and his team’s commitment and dedication have been exemplary throughout their time at the Club, but recent results and the current league position meant this difficult decision had to be taken. We wish Frank and all his backroom team well for their future in the game.

The Club has started the process to secure a new manager and will provide updates on the appointment in due course.

Paul Tait and Leighton Baines will take training until a new manager is appointed.

Lampard leaves Everton as the second worst manager ever statistically, surpassed only by the legendarily hapless Mike Walker. The Toffees start to 2022-23 is their worst ever to any league campaign in the club’s long and storied history going back to 1878.

The 44-year-old was in charge for a total of 44 games across all competitions, lasting just under a year in charge - he won 12, drew 8 and lost 24 of those games, scoring 43 and conceding 71 times, for an average of a point per game.

The new manager will have a few days to settle in with the Blues off the coming weekend as FA Cup fixtures take centre-stage - the Blues have already been knocked out away at Manchester United a couple of weeks ago.

Everton return to action with a home game against league leaders Arsenal followed by Monday night Merseyside Derby fixture away at Liverpool. The next four games though could settle whether the Toffees will survive the season or go down - home against Leeds, Aston Villa and Brentford, with an away game at Nottingham Forest before that last clash.