Business With Blain: The Do's and Don'ts for Everton's new Board

When the time comes, Everton's new Board must act decisively.

At the start of 2023, Everton’s tenure in the Premier League – or as it started being referred to by some in the media, “in the top flight of English football” – was precarious. A dire performance and defeat at home to Brighton and Hove Albion meant manager Frank Lampard’s career was hanging by a thread. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as it turned out, Everton’s next game was also at home, to bottom club Southampton, who had lost their previous six league games.  

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With Everton having only gained two points from their previous six matches, this was a classic relegation six-pointer.

Off the field, Everton’s leadership had been faring little better, with the Board of Directors under pressure. Fan activism for a change of leadership, led by social media campaigns, was in full swing. The supporters backed the team throughout, but they had been pursuing the Board with a vengeance. It’s hardly a scientific assessment, but “Sack the Board” was likely sung as often, if not more so, than “Sixty Grand...” in 2022-23.

It was another season of toil and turmoil at Goodison Park.

Historically, the Everton Board – some might say the whole club – has acted in a predictable way when times get difficult.

Since the departure of Alan Myers as Head of Communications in 2014 they have lacked an effective and trusted spokesperson and have reverted to keeping their heads down and saying nothing.

All that changed when, with astonishingly bad timing only a matter of hours before the game with Southampton, and with fans waiting to hear the team news for what was about to become Lampard’s last home game as manager, they issued a public statement that would ultimately result in them offering their resignations five months later.