Annual Next Everton Manager Thread - Rafa Benitez Hired

[Storts+]

46 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

 talking out of his arse. He wasn't paid what he was to finish 12th and 10th with some of the most unwatchable football in the league. He knows it and everyone knows it. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together isn't buying it. It's still disappointing from him but this is what managers do in these scenarios, attempt to rewrite history on their terms to save face and protect their reputation. I also expected a bit better from him, these aren't far off Mourinho level comments, but at the same time he's hardly going to admit to the press that he realised the scale of the job at Everton after this year and took the easy way out when a plum job at Real Madrid cropped up.

Some are speculating that something happened behind the scenes. Not a single player has posted on social media wishing him well. Don't really know if that's normal or not.

Don’t think that’s normal. Even our players were wishing Mourinho well and a lot of them despised him.

 

 

[RandoEFC+]

29 minutes ago, Storts said:

Don’t think that’s normal. Even our players were wishing Mourinho well and a lot of them despised him.

 

 

I'm thinking the club have ordered some sort of media blackout. Just had a quick nosy at the most active ones on Twitter. Not a word on anything, even the ones on international duty. Nothing from the club account since yesterday apart from the official statement either. Doesn't seem like what a club would usually do in these circumstances and if true, seems a bit heavy handed for me.

[Smiley Culture]

Ancelotti’s right. Everton appointed Allardyce as a stopgap, to get the season out of the way and to then restart, they could have quite conceivably gone down under Silva. Everton’s aim is also European Football but typically that doesn’t come in a season. Everton needed to hit reset, they did do and are still in the process of cutting the deadwood and bringing in quality over quantity and climbing the league table. 

[The Palace Fan]

 

[RandoEFC+]

Bill Kenwright will be on his death bed still trying to bring Moyes back to Everton .

[Dr. Gonzo]

Tbh, I do wonder what would have happened if Moyes had never left Everton. United came in and took him away, but he seemed like the right man for the job of steadily building them up back into something close to what Everton used to be. Perhaps Everton wouldn't have had to spend so much of the last decade in rebuilding mode had he never left.

Not like I blame him for taking the step up to Manchester United, tbf. I think the Manchester United/Liverpool jobs are hard to turn down if you like working in England and aren't at Manchester City/Everton.

[RandoEFC+]

Only a rumour but a couple of sources said yesterday that Marco Silva's name was briefly mentioned when the board were drawing up their shortlist, which may be bullshit, but the fact that you wouldn't 100% rule it out at Everton should be cause for merriment for a lot of you. Fuck it, even I find it a bit funny.

[RandoEFC+]

I do tend to believe this source, and it's cause for cautious optimism at this stage.

[Honey Honey]

What a bellend Ancelotti is. Good riddance.

[Spike]

His honesty is better than kissing the arse of the club he just ditched.

[Honey Honey]

If honesty is truth it isn't honest. It's the reframing of Everton football club, likely either out if ignorance or to mask his own failing for his new ignorant employer.

Everton did not go into the 2019/20 season with the goal of survival. Silva's side dropped into the bottom 3. He was sacked. Before Ancelotti took over Everton had pulled away. Within 2 games of Ancelotti arriving Everton were 10th. The board might have written the season off because of the start, but that happens to Real Madrid every other year as well. With 10 games to go Everton were just 5 points off Europe. Ancelotti's 12th place was their worst finish in 17 years. He did not inherit a side of relegation fodder. At no point in that time have Everton gone into a season with the goal of survival. That's not who are they.

[RandoEFC+]

1 hour ago, The Premier Steve's said:

If honesty is truth it isn't honest. It's the reframing of Everton football club, likely either out if ignorance or to mask his own failing for his new ignorant employer.

Everton did not go into the 2019/20 season with the goal of survival. Silva's side dropped into the bottom 3. He was sacked. Before Ancelotti took over Everton had pulled away. Within 2 games of Ancelotti arriving Everton were 10th. The board might have written the season off because of the start, but that happens to Real Madrid every other year as well. With 10 games to go Everton were just 5 points off Europe. Ancelotti's 12th place was their worst finish in 17 years. He did not inherit a side of relegation fodder. At no point in that time have Everton gone into a season with the goal of survival. That's not who are they.

The latter in my opinion. All managers do it but when you've still got a good enough reputation to already have the job at Real Madrid I don't see why you'd be worried about your time at Everton making you look bad. It's not like the Spanish media are going to spend much time digging into whether Everton should have been expecting to finish 7th or 10th and judging him off that compared to his other past achievements, so I don't see exactly what it is he's trying to "head off" by rewriting history. It certainly isn't a lack of understanding of what was expected. He spent all season saying his aim was to bring trophies to Everton and to get into Europe this season. You can watch almost any post-match interview to see him say that.

Noises coming out from reliable sources are that the players were blind sided by this as well, some gutted and disappointed. I can't blame them. I know it's juvenile to read into it, but this is the world we live in now, all of our players apart from four have unfollowed Ancelotti on Twitter and Instagram. Seems coordinated to do so that quickly. 

Also rumours that some of our "big name" players will now consider their future. Fine, you don't want to be here then you can go. That includes anyone from Delph and Besic to Richarlison and Digne. I think it pretty much goes without saying that we won't see James Rodriguez in an Everton shirt again. Again, fine, right now we need to retain our pride and be absolutely firm on the fact that no player or manager is bigger than the club and anyone who doesn't want to be here won't be missed. Bottom line is every single one of them have contributed to the 12th and 10th placed finishes in the last two seasons and if you think you deserve better after serving that up then good luck to you.

Start with a core of players who we can identify with as a fanbase again and then add quality players in the right age range with something to prove without thinking they're better than the club, that fit a certain style of play. After the last few years, the fans will tolerate treading water for another season or two if there are signs of the foundations of a sustainable forward march on the horizon.

[Honey Honey]

21 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

The latter in my opinion. All managers do it but when you've still got a good enough reputation to already have the job at Real Madrid I don't see why you'd be worried about your time at Everton making you look bad. It's not like the Spanish media are going to spend much time digging into whether Everton should have been expecting to finish 7th or 10th and judging him off that compared to his other past achievements, so I don't see exactly what it is he's trying to "head off" by rewriting history. It certainly isn't a lack of understanding of what was expected. He spent all season saying his aim was to bring trophies to Everton and to get into Europe this season. You can watch almost any post-match interview to see him say that.

Noises coming out from reliable sources are that the players were blind sided by this as well, some gutted and disappointed. I can't blame them. I know it's juvenile to read into it, but this is the world we live in now, all of our players apart from four have unfollowed Ancelotti on Twitter and Instagram. Seems coordinated to do so that quickly. 

Also rumours that some of our "big name" players will now consider their future. Fine, you don't want to be here then you can go. That includes anyone from Delph and Besic to Richarlison and Digne. I think it pretty much goes without saying that we won't see James Rodriguez in an Everton shirt again. Again, fine, right now we need to retain our pride and be absolutely firm on the fact that no player or manager is bigger than the club and anyone who doesn't want to be here won't be missed. Bottom line is every single one of them have contributed to the 12th and 10th placed finishes in the last two seasons and if you think you deserve better after serving that up then good luck to you.

Start with a core of players who we can identify with as a fanbase again and then add quality players in the right age range with something to prove without thinking they're better than the club, that fit a certain style of play. After the last few years, the fans will tolerate treading water for another season or two if there are signs of the foundations of a sustainable forward march on the horizon.

Would he have left for what is a 8-16 month job max if he had of qualified for Europe?

Real Madrid is unstable where managers are concerned. You can win the Champions League and then a couple of months later you're calling a cab to the airport. They might also be banned from the Champions League next year.

[RandoEFC+]

2 hours ago, The Premier Steve's said:

Would he have left for what is a 8-16 month job max if he had of qualified for Europe?

Real Madrid is unstable where managers are concerned. You can win the Champions League and then a couple of months later you're calling a cab to the airport. They might also be banned from the Champions League next year.

I'm not sure, I think he probably would have gone anyway. The thinking doesn't seem to go much past "it's Real Madrid". I think the recent break in at his home on Merseyside might have factored in as well.

[RandoEFC+]

 

[Danny]

Would I be right in thinking he had a fairly defensive Lille team?

[RandoEFC+]

More noise about Galtier today. I don't know much about him but his record makes him more exciting than the other likely candidates Santo, Potter and Benitez. It's Everton though so yknow, still expecting Allardyce on a 10 year contract and anything that isn't that can be deemed a bonus.

[Whiskey]

Galtier is an exciting appointment in a pool of uninspired dross.

[RandoEFC+]

@The Palace Fan posted the Benitez link in the wrong thread . Personally I could get past the Liverpool links and it seems that, while I'm not in a majority of Everton fans who agree, I'm also not alone in that. A bigger concern for me is whether he's the man to build a positive philosophy at the club alongside a director of football in the long term. I don't think he is really.

Martinez has been linked overnight as well. I actually don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that he could be non-disastrous in a second spell at the club but I wouldn't risk it purely based on just how hysterically stupid we'd look, even by our standards, if we got him back and it went exactly how it did last time. Still, he comes ahead of Benitez and Moyes on my wishlist.

[Honey Honey]

I'd be surprised if Rafa isn't in touch with Staveley and waiting on coming back here towards the end of July. If it was on the cards would he go to Everton given his Liverpool connection. Not sure. If it wasn't on the cards then I can see him taking it out of addiction 

[Inverted]

Rudi Garcia being mentioned in French news.

Would be surprising considering the fallout he left at Lyon.

[ScoRoss]

I was not prepared for the EPL to go wild for appointing former Roma managers. 

[RandoEFC+]

I've vaguely heard of Rudi Garcia but nothing more. Sounds like we're sounding out a fair number of candidates so I'm reluctant to believe that any of these 'approaches' are at any sort of advanced stage at the moment.

[Dr. Gonzo]

5 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

@The Palace Fan posted the Benitez link in the wrong thread . Personally I could get past the Liverpool links and it seems that, while I'm not in a majority of Everton fans who agree, I'm also not alone in that. A bigger concern for me is whether he's the man to build a positive philosophy at the club alongside a director of football in the long term. I don't think he is really.

Martinez has been linked overnight as well. I actually don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that he could be non-disastrous in a second spell at the club but I wouldn't risk it purely based on just how hysterically stupid we'd look, even by our standards, if we got him back and it went exactly how it did last time. Still, he comes ahead of Benitez and Moyes on my wishlist.

I would absolutely hate it if you ended up with Rafa.

I haven’t watched a lot of French football, but I remember liking Rudi Garcia’s football at Roma. Obviously it ended with a bad run of form and him getting sacked - I don’t think he was a bad manager… but admittedly I only casually watch Italian football and I can’t remember how many matches of his Roma I watched or not… but I’d guess it was 10 or less. 

I don’t think I’m in agreement about Roberto Martinez’s potential return not being a complete disaster. I think it would end up in tears, tbh. And I’m not sure how much he’s grown as a manager, in all honesty - he’s sort of fallen upwards into the Belgium job. Getting to work with a world class group of players, but overall managing less games over a season… because there’s less international football than club football.

I thought he was always sort of flawed in the sense he stubbornly relied on his system, when sometimes more pragmatism and dropping ideals in some instances would result in Everton getting a lot more points over the course of a season. Rodgers was the same way but seems to have learned a bit more about pragmatism at Celtic and Leicester.

And I’m not sure Martinez has learned that as manager of Belgium - where that squad of his is going to be better than almost everyone except France, Germany and Portugal’s in any given match and when international football is a lot different to club football.

That’s just my opinion though. If I were a blueshite, I wouldn’t want any of Moyes, Martinez or Rafa though. I’d be most keen on that guy from Lille or Rudi Garcia.

[RandoEFC+]

Galtier's pre-existing move to Nice now appears to be a done deal. Before it was reported as a deal in principle but nothing signed officially.