Tony Cottee: 'It's very sad to watch Everton in this state'

After moving to Merseyside from East London, it quickly became apparent to Tony Cottee about the role of the fans at Everton. It is why he looked at the protests at Goodison Park this week with a heavy heart.

Frustrated supporters, worried at the descent of the club this season believe it will drop even further should untried coach Vitor Pereira take charge of the team. Cottee would agree with them, arguing that Frank Lampard should be in place, possibly with Duncan Ferguson as assistant.

The urgency of the situation is not lost on Cottee. The club are close to being entangled in a relegation battle and it needs people who understand the club, which Lampard has from his career playing against Everton.

“It’s very sad. It’s hard for me to see it and hard for the fans to take it in,” said Cottee. “But it tells you everything about the club that these fans are protesting against the potential manager, not the current manager. They know their football. They are passionate but understand what makes Everton football club tick.

“Bringing in a manager with no experience of the Premier League is absolute madness. It is the only word I can think of because you need someone with at least a little bit of experience. There is no time for him to go through the process of learning it.

“He may or may not be a good manager, I don’t know. But he has four months to keep the club in the Premier League because that is the cold hard reality. Surely the club should be looking at someone like Frank Lampard.

“He’ll get immediate respect from the players because of what he achieved as a player. He has also managed one of the biggest clubs in the country in Chelsea and was a bit unfortunate to be sacked. I don’t see past him and don’t see the hold up or why they are looking at other options.

“You have to go for the best man available and you can’t say that about Pereira because he doesn’t have any experience of the Premier League.”

Cottee spent six years at Everton and the club’s relationship with fans is paramount. He could not understand the appointment of Rafa Benitez, or the muddle of the last week since the Spaniard’s dismissal.

He cites Watford as a club who move decisively when things go wrong, while Everton have seem conflicted at the very top as they look to make a decision.

“I must admit I’m scratching my head with it. I don’t quite understand where the club is going and what the plan is for the future. Some of the managers they’ve hired and sacked has been bewildering for the last five years,” he said.

“The appointment of Rafa Benitez, I didn’t get it in the first place and I don’t think any Evertonian did really. One of your fiercest rivals was only ever going to end in tears really but when you sack someone you have to have a plan in place. You look at what is going on at the club at the moment and there doesn’t seem to be a plan in place.

“Fair play to Watford. It seems like they sack managers every other day but they always seem to have a plan in place to replace them. With Everton it seems to be the opposite.”

The Premier League mid-season break gives them time to make their appointment before the FA Cup tie against Brentford next week but Cottee is under no illusion to the trouble they are in. And finally winning a trophy seems remote at this stage.

“It’s a massive, massive football club. One of our greatest historically, one of the founder members. Quite rightly the Evertonians are frustrated as they haven’t won anything for 27 years now,” Cottee said.

“That is a long time. One of the longest periods in their history without winning anything. You look at them now and they are heading more towards a relegation battle than anything else. It’s very hard for the fans to take in what has gone on in the last five years.”