Maupay on Everton: Are Brighton fans getting angry over nothing?
Oh, Neal! In his first real interview since moving from Brighton to Everton for £15 million in the summer transfer window, Neal Maupay has made some comments that have rather upset quite a few Albion supporters.
But is the wave of anger being directed towards the French striker justified? Or is it a case of Brighton fans getting worked up over nothing by taking Maupay’s comments out of context?
That is definitely what certain Twitter accounts were aiming for when highlighting quotes from Maupay’s interview, deliberately designed to be provocative to Albion supporters.
Take ODDSbible for example, who picked out Maupay saying: “It’s definitely a step up. Everyone is praising Graham Potter for what he did. Last season we finished ninth, but the season before we finished 16th are were only safe late in the season.”
Neal Maupay firing shots at Brighton and Graham Potter 👀 pic.twitter.com/U4hrnCwPQB
— ODDSbible (@ODDSbible) September 17, 2022
Read the full Maupay interview on The Mirror website and you will see that ODDSbible have pieced together two separate answers to two very different questions, manipulating Maupay’s responses to sound a certain way.
They have made it seem as though Maupay was saying that Everton is a step up because Brighton finished ninth only last season.
The inference was that Maupay had said in every other Premier League campaign under Potter, the Albion had been crap. And that is why he is better off at Goodison Park.
What Maupay actually said was that Everton is a step up because of its size and history. And how many Brighton fans can argue with that?
The Toffees are third in the all-time points rankings of English top slight football. They have won nine league titles, five FA Cups and a European Cup Winner’s Cup.
You would have to be wearing a dangerously strong pair of Albion tinted-glasses to think that Everton are not a bigger club than Brighton – so Neal Maupay was hardly being disrespectful in his observations, which were as follows:
“Everton is one of the biggest clubs in England. The coach welcome (before the Merseyside Derby with Liverpool) was the best I’ve ever seen. It was just so great. It’s only when you actually see things like that you realise how much it means to the fans and the people of Everton.”
Bigger of course does not always equal better. You only have to look at the Premier League table from last season and the standings seven games into the current campaign to realise that.
As of Saturday evening, Brighton were nine points and 11 places above the Toffees. If you bet on football, then the Albion are 11/4 to finish in the top six. Everton in contrast are 80/1.
In 2021-22, Brighton accumulated 51 points compared to Everton’s 39. Maupay’s goals – especially his liking for a last minute equaliser – helped secure seven of those Albion points. There were seven places between the Seagulls and the Toffees in the table.
And what of the second part of the Maupay quote highlighted by ODDSbible? Well, that actually came from Maupay’s answer when asked whether he felt Potter could be a success at Chelsea.
Maupay replied with: “He (Potter) won’t change things overnight. He will need time and if he gets it then I think he will do well.”
“The question is, will he get time at Chelsea? When you’re at clubs like that, you’ve got to win straight away. Everyone praises Graham Potter for what he did at Brighton.”
“Last season we finished ninth – but the season before that we finished 16th and were only safe from relegation about three games before the end of the season.”
Maupay’s point was that it took time for Brighton to flourish under Potter. It might well take time for Chelsea to flourish under Potter.
A pretty obvious statement of fact. And one that Maupay was also making because it is pertinent to the situation at Everton. The Frenchman feels his new manager Frank Lampard needs patience to turn things around at Goodison.
“Football changes. Just because we were struggling yesterday doesn’t mean that tomorrow won’t be good. We’ve got everything at this club – the fans, the structure, the manager and the players.
“I’ve been in the process at Brighton where we had a new manager and new players. We had two tough seasons. The third one was the good one.”
ODDSbible and those other Twitter accounts with their selective butchering of the Maupay interview have done a bit of a number on the French striker.
Judging by the comments and replies slamming Maupay on Twitter over the past 24 hours, quite a lot of Brighton fans have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
Sadly, that does not really come as much of a surprise. Maupay was not exactly Monsieur Populaire during his three seasons at the Amex, even though he left as the Albion’s joint-second highest ever goal scorer in top flight football alongside Glenn Murray and behind Michael Robinson.
Maupay might be disliked because of his attitude which appeared questionable at times. He might be disliked because of his impressive ability to miss simple tap ins from six yards out. Both are justifiable reasons not to rate him as a player.
But to dislike Maupay because of comments taken completely out-of-context and deliberately manipulated by social media accounts actively looking for that exact reaction? It looks like a case of getting angry over nothing.
