'I feel bad' - Tim Howard makes Everton admission and Frank Lampard claim

Tim Howard says he’s excited to see Everton under Frank Lampard next season as he hopes the Blues boss is given time to get his ideas across. Lampard became Everton’s seventh manager in less than six years under Farhad Moshiri at the end of January and steered the Blues to Premier League safety with a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace in their final home game securing their top flight status.

With predecessor Rafael Benitez having won just one of his last 13 Premier League matches in charge and a 1-0 defeat under caretaker boss Duncan Ferguson, Everton were in a mess when Lampard arrived but former USA goalkeeper Howard – who spent a decade at Goodison Park between 2006-16 – believes the 44-year-old can start improving the team’s fortunes with the benefit of a summer of hard work behind him.

He told the club’s website: “I feel bad for the boys. Rightly so, he’s going to be a task-master.

“When I look at Frank Lampard, he’s always been the right man for the job for me. To have this on his CV, the ability to save a team from relegation, even though you don’t want it there, it’s going to pay dividends down the road.

“I just look at Frank and he’s a young manager, he’s still learning his craft. He had really good success at Derby, just missed out on promotion, had a very young Chelsea team playing well, we know what happened there and then he takes on a really difficult project when he came to Everton.

“I’m looking forward, probably for the first time, certainly in the Premier League, in Frank Lampard’s managerial career to say ‘right, this is my team, these are my boys and I’m going to run this show exactly the way I want it’ and then push forward.

“People say managers don’t get time in the Premier League and I