Hibbert: Everton in decline since Moyes exit

Former Everton defender Tony Hibbert believes his ex-employers have been witnessing a period of negative change since David Moyes’ departure in 2013.

Following 25 years at Goodison Park, the Everton cult hero was released at the end of his contract without so much as a phone call from anybody at the club.

Hibbert only found out about his release from the club’s official website and has since taken up the opinion things have gone downhill on Merseyside since ex-manager Moyes moved to Manchester United in 2013.

“I was in Formby with my dad and brother when my wife Samantha rang to say she’d been getting text messages from friends that I wasn’t being retained,” Hibbert told the Daily Mail.

“It was on the website, I couldn’t believe it so I rang a friend at the club to check.

“They said, ‘Tony, I honestly don’t know why nobody has spoken to you,’ so I contacted Leon [Osman] and he was in the same boat.

“I won’t tell a lie, I was really hurt, someone at the club should have realised it wasn’t right – no player deserves that whether they’ve been at the club for five minutes or 25 years.

“Every contract I had at Everton, I never questioned it or demanded more money, but since David Moyes left I have noticed the club hasn’t got the same feeling.

“‘The People’s Club’, it’s no longer that, it is a ruthless, horrible business and a lot of good people have gone, it is a dog-eat-dog culture inside the club now – people are looking out for themselves.”