Jordan Pickford has taken to Instagram to goad Newcastle fans following Everton’s win over the Magpies on Monday night – but is this sentiment ill-timed?
Pickford, a graduate of the Wearside club, traded Sunderland for the Toffees last summer in a £30 million deal following their demotion from the Premier League, and was forced to endure a night of taunts from the travelling Geordies days after confirmation of his boyhood club’s relegation to League One.
However, following Everton’s laboured 1-0 win, courtesy of a Theo Walcott strike, he took to Instagram with the message ‘Great 3 points tonight. No better feeling than keeping them quiet #sendthemin #neverstopraving #Everton’.
Pickford’s decision to use a hashtag popular with his former club is commendable, but in reality – this is no time to be revelling in a Newcastle defeat. His boyhood club is at their lowest ebb, nine months on from his departure. For a player who spent his formative 15 years at the club, he only made 35 first-team appearances before jumping ship to the Toffees.
Sunderland are a club in a mess from top to bottom. Uncertainty grips the club, with Chris Coleman having already admitted to being unaware ‘what the plan is’ or where £70,000-a-week midfielder Jack Rodwell is.
As for Pickford’s current employers, they have underachieved massively this campaign. Despite a lavish outlay on transfers last summer, with the England international being one of them, they currently sit eight points behind Burnley in eighth. It’s been a disappointing campaign for the Toffees, with their uninspired victory over Newcastle just an example of why Sam Allardyce has come under fire from certain fans and is forced to endure the ignominy of a club-sanctioned survey grading his performance.
Pickford might feel that a person battle was won on Monday night in ‘keeping them quiet’, but make no mistake about it – as far as the north-east bragging rights is concerned, there is only one winner in this war.