Everton are “boring” — this time coming from a former player

Ashley Williams has gone after Everton on talkSPORT, calling it “boring” being a Toffees fan right now and putting a ceiling of 13th on what the club can realistically hope for this season.

Three years at Goodison between 2016 and 2019 means Williams isn’t an outsider lobbing this grenade in from nowhere — he’s had the shirt on, sat in that dressing room, known what the club’s expectations actually feel like from the inside.

That’s what separates this from the usual studio pot-shot… like the one from that Jason Cundy.

Whether he’s right is another question. Everton have made five permanent signings this summer, talks are open for Liam Delap, and Moyes has already delivered a top-half finish since coming back in.

“Boring” isn’t the word I’d reach for watching that unfold. Frustrating, yes. Exasperating at times, certainly.

But Williams played the game at a level some pundits never got close to, so his read carries more weight than the usual talkSPORT nonsense, even where we think he’s got it wrong.

Everton have become an easy, soft even, target for people like this — a club still rebuilding trust, still waiting to be taken seriously again after years spent scrapping against relegation and in the midst of a financial meltdown.

That reputation doesn’t shift because of anything said in a studio, though. It shifts on the pitch, starting against Palace, and every one of these comments should be printed and posted on the dressing room wall and used as motivation to prove these people wrong.

Starting tomorrow against Palace.

UTFT.