New York Times journalist, Rory Smith, has stated on BBC Radio 5 Live Sport that both Everton and Tottenham have to be ‘springboards’ for players who want to elevate their careers.
The BBC pundit thinks if both Everton and Spurs can do that then eventually they will find the right formula and players to push forward.
But until then, they will have players, more so for Everton, who are either taking a ‘step down’ from where they were, i.e. James Rodriguez or they are at the ‘ultimate level’ of their careers.
But instead, they should mostly have players who are heading towards playing for those top, top teams, and they either do it with Everton or Spurs, and if not, they then move on.
At first, Smith shared why Carlo Ancelotti hasn’t had as much stick as Tottenham/Jose Mourinho have had this season, despite the club potentially heading towards a finish outside of the top seven, with Chris Sutton also sharing his views.
“That would be true but I missed the bit where Everton were in the Champions League final two years ago,” said Smith.
“The issue for me is that you look at the profile of their squad and there are a lot of players there for who Everton is a step down from where they were. Or it’s the ultimate level where their players are going to reach.
“You need to get players who are on their way to the top four clubs. I think Everton and Tottenham to an extent haven’t quite worked out that their role in football, at the moment, is a springboard. And that’s maybe true of maybe just six or seven clubs in Europe. Everton and Spurs, both have the problem, that they cannot bring themselves to not be destinations.”
Sutton added: “Everton finished 12th last season. And eighth the season before. This is what I started off by saying that Everton are Everton. I don’t think the recruitment has been that bad.
“Micah (Richards) mentioned James Rodrigues, he’s a good asset. Ben Godfrey has gone in and Doucoure. I don’t think that’s bad recruitment. I think he needs time to build and grow the team.”
Spurs have tasted Champions League football quite recently, the final itself, and despite playing a lot of fancy football, they find themselves without a trophy during that period and heading towards a finish outside of Europe if things go seriously wrong.
Of course, they will still push towards those top-four places, as will Everton, but a bad performance is always around the corner. And with such little time left, that could now prove to be really costly.
The positive Everton can take is that they are on the up from last season, and both as a team, individual players improving and the transfer market, there have been improvements.
The same cannot be said for Spurs, who have continued to regress and will worry about losing their star man when the season is up.
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