Everton are in turmoil once again. After barely avoiding relegation last season, the Toffees are back in the relegation zone and dangerously close to the bottom of the Premier League table.
They’ve sacked Frank Lampard after a horrible first half of the campaign, which sees them rooted to the 19th spot and staring at relegation once again.
Ever since Carlo Ancelotti surprisingly left the club to join Real Madrid a few seasons ago, things have gone from bad to worse for the Merseyside side.
The Toffees are now in search of another manager who will be tasked to at least get them out of the relegation zone soon. Everton are probably a shining example of bad management from the top to bottom.
Their owner, Farhad Moshiri, has come under fire for being unable to solve their issues despite spending hundreds of millions in transfer fees over the years.
Superagent in the spotlight
One such -agent to have taken advantage of their misery is Kia Joorabachian. He was responsible for negotiating the transfer of Carlos Tevez to Manchester United and then his infamous jump to rivals Manchester City.
Joorabachian shares close ties to Moshiri and acts as a guide to the Everton owner.
This has caused some Everton fans to become absolutely infuriated with him, with some fans even protesting against his association with the club last year.
Joorbachian reportedly played a major role in influencing Moshiri to hire Lampard as manager last year. He will now look to do the same when hiring the Englishman’s replacement and fans have had enough.
But that is not where the buck stops either. As per the Daily Mail, the superagent has also been blamed for making most of its questionable transfer decisions in recent years.
He has orchestrated moves for some players that flopped at Goodison Park in recent years. Joorabachian is also responsible for giving lucrative, high-wage contracts to players which have led to them having a bloated wage bill.
Interestingly, Joorbachian appears to be really annoyed by all these accusations towards him. He has hit out at his critics, denying claims blaming him for making the poor signings.
He told Talksport: “All the signings of the summer – James Tarkowski, Conor Coady, Neal Maupay, Dwight McNeil, the list goes on, all the loans and signings they [Everton] did – were done purely by them and the board.
“We speak to all the owners, I speak to quite a few club owners [in the Premier League], but the point is, what is our job? Our job is to present what we have as a client list and say, ‘This is what we have.”
Not just that, but Kia has also claimed that Everton’s board actually ignored his recommendations for them to sign players like Bruno Guimaraes and Eder Militao in the past.
He added: “In the past, we have offered them, Bruno Guimaraes, at £16million when he was leaving Athletico Paranaense. They didn’t like him and they went for Jean-Philippe Gbamin instead and Guimaraes went to Lyon.
“Diego Carlos when he was leaving Nantes, we offered him [to Everton] at £ 11 million before he went to Sevilla, and now he’s at Aston Villa.
“We offered them Eder Militao when he was leaving [first club Sao Paulo in Brazil, before he joined Porto – now he’s staring at Real Madrid].”
Beef with Carragher
Not just the Everton fans, but ex-Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher also seems to be angry at how Everton are allowing outside figures like Joorabachian to make key decisions. Speaking about his dismay over the situation, he told Sky Sports: “You start with the owner, Farhad Moshiri, he doesn’t know what he’s doing but he’s got a lot of money.
“He’s put a lot of money in. He’s got a very unhealthy relationship with Kia Joorabchian, and that partnership has caused a lot of problems at Everton. Players coming in, and managers getting changed left, right and centre. Why does every Everton manager fail? Why?”
His colleague Gary Neville warned Carragher that he might receive calls from the super-agent after taking aim at his involvement with the club, to which the Liverpool legend replied ‘”I’ll be waiting for it’.
Joorabachian shares a beef with Jamie and hit out at him when the Sky Sports pundit questioned Kia’s involvement in bringing his clients Willian and David Luiz to Arsenal a few years ago.
He had once blasted him on Sky Sports, saying: “I’m very surprised because Jamie is one of the people that monopolises Sky Sports commentary. Sky Sports producers pay a lot of money to him – hundreds of thousands, so I can’t understand why he doesn’t check his facts before he speak.”
Joorabachian isn’t one to make too many public comments, but all the criticism aimed towards him seems to have forced him to explode and disassociate his connections with Everton amid their turmoil.
