DOMINIC KING: Everton fans have been pushed to breaking point and off the pitch

Everton took the unprecedented step of releasing a statement ahead of their game with Southampton, explaining that the board of directors had been told to stay away for their safety.

In the end, there were 10 words from a club spokesperson that inadvertently proved prescient: “This is a deeply sad day for Everton and Evertonians.”

How right they were. This game against Southampton was always going to be emotionally charged as the fans had declared their intention to demonstrate against the way the club is run, but the whole event took on a new level of intensity at midday with that announcement. .

Chairman Bill Kenwright, CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale, CFO Grant Ingles and club legend Graeme Sharp were revealed to be absent due to the nature of the intelligence that had been gathered.

Subsequently, there were allegations that Barrett-Baxendale had been headlocked by an irate fan at the end of Goodison Park’s most recent game, a 4–1 defeat to Brighton, as he was leaving the directors box. It was said that his car had also been surrounded.

Barrett-Baxendale and Kenwright have received threats and abuse via emails that, according to club sources, have gone beyond the limits of decency.

No official complaints have yet been made to Merseyside Police, but the force and the club have been in talks and will continue to be.

Protest organizers, however, insisted that no such threats had been made and took to social media to vehemently deny that they would engage in behavior that endangered anyone’s safety.

“All involved in our campaign and indeed all reasonable Evertonians totally and completely condemn any threat to any Everton employee and/or club officers and directors,” the first post on NSNOW read.

He later stated: “All the fans and groups we have engaged with regarding the sit-in have made it clear that it would be peaceful.” We are not aware of any threats. It is now clear that the relationship between the motherboard and the fans has been broken beyond repair. His position is untenable.

The protest was peaceful. He couldn’t help but catch the festering anger of the few thousand who remained in the stadium after the final whistle, demanding that the board be dismissed, but there was no sign of malevolent behavior.

You could even say that they were restricted. These fans, some of the most informed and passionate in the business, had been subjected to another 95 minutes of relentless scum, another defeat that pushes them towards relegation.

Everything in this situation is fraught with sadness. How, for example, can a giant like Sharp, second only to Dixie Dean in goals scored for the club, a two-time league champion and one of life’s gentlemen, face levels of opprobrium that demand he be thrown around like a ball? rubber?

Why is this club, once not too long ago a breeding ground for hungry young players, now home to a host of people who are intimidated by Goodison’s intensity rather than inspired by it? This squadron was feted when their buses arrived at 1:30 pm, but the landscape changed dramatically.

At the final whistle, with manager Frank Lampard looking devastated, the same players who were carried down Goodison Road amid columns of acrid blue smoke were subjected to chants of being “unfit to wear the shirt”. Gwladys Street had called it right.

One can only assume what absentee owner Farhad Moshiri made of it all. He has promised to support Lampard, but such statements are not worth the paper they are printed on. Now there will be an information vacuum. Yes. It really was a deeply sad day.