Gary Neville has been left baffled by Everton’s ‘strange’ decision to sell Lucas Digne to Aston Villa, as he told Sky Sports.
The former right-back thinks that transfer call just sums up that Everton aren’t ‘functioning well behind the scenes’.
The Toffees seemingly sold Digne because he had a falling out with the now-sacked, Rafa Benitez.
Players and managers falling out with one another is normal because it happens up and down the footballing landscape.
But it’s how all of this was dealt with that has resulted in the Merseyside club being criticised.
Not only were Everton happy to sell Digne, rather than see if he can sort out his differences with Benitez.
But they ended up sacking Benitez as soon as Digne’s move to Villa Park was confirmed.
Neville shared his thoughts on the troubles brewing at Everton and the call to let Digne leave.
“The idea that they sold Digne a couple of days before sacking the manager,” said Neville. “Just odd. Really odd decisions.
“If you are going to sack a manager of a football club. You keep the players there until you sacked him. At least, you let the new manager come in and basically make his own decision.
“And (selling him to a club) you are playing against. Plus, a team that are in the same sort of sphere, in terms of competitiveness and where you want to be.
“That would sort of be between 5th-9th. They are going to be in there those teams. I just thought it was a strange decision. That was an obscure decision that tells you that the club is not functioning well behind the scenes.”
To rub salt into Everton’s wounds, Digne turned up in Aston Villa colours over the weekend and provided the assist for the winning goal.
If the France international has stayed on for another week, then Digne might have returned to the XI under Duncan Ferguson, and instead, playing against Villa rather than for them.
All in all, this points to the top of the club and the man with the firepower in Farhad Moshiri who has taken the club backwards.
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