WHAT A MESS!
++ Muddled thinking at the top ++ Spectacular waste on big-money signings ++ Lack of quality in key roles ++
THIS is no longer about one man’s sacking and another’s appointment. This is now about a crucial moment in Everton’s history and unravelling the sorry mess they have become.
Marco Silva has been made to take responsibility for Everton’s plunge into the relegation zone, and the shoddy way the club’s hierarchy conducted their business yesterday, following an excruciating Merseyside derby, was entirely in keeping with how 2019 has gone.
All managers are judged on results and 14 points from a possible 45 is a dreadful return. Silva knew what was coming but it is to his credit that not once during the past month did he put himself first or look to apportion blame elsewhere. He wanted to protect the club from negative headlines.
Instead, he had to sit and suffer. It was 2pm before Farhad Moshiri, the club’s major shareholder, arrived at Runcorn station, where a car was waiting to take him to the Finch Farm training base. Silva, as one source close to the first team told Sportsmail, ‘did not deserve a slow death’.
Yet he had lived with the spectre of the axe for most of this year. Moshiri planned to jettison the Portuguese in January, after Millwall had bounced Everton out of the FA Cup, but changed his mind after a 1-0 win at Huddersfield three days later.
A month later, following three Premier League defeats, Moshiri was ready to press the button again but a 3-0 victory at Cardiff then a 0-0 draw with Liverpool brought a stay of execution. Everton would go on to finish the campaign positively.
The problem with this club, however, is they never build purposefully any more. Moshiri’s arrival in February 2016 was supposed to unlock the potential but all we have seen in the last four years is a succession of poor decisions and a spectacular waste of cash.
Think about these figures: the 18-man squad on duty at Anfield cost close to £330million. There has been a colossal investment and, from that group, you can count on one hand those who have come close to the required levels.
It is why the blame for the current predicament cannot be solely pinned on Silva. ‘The responsibility of where we are is not just down to the coach, it is down to the players too,’ Richarlison noted after the 5-2 skewering at Anfield.
Others, higher up, are also at fault. Moshiri’s big ambition when he came in was to have a director of football. He has appointed two so far. The first, Steve Walsh, failed and was sacked. The second, Marcel Brands, is failing.
Walsh surfaced a couple of weeks ago, spotting an opportunity to protect his reputation at the expense of someone else, and explained how he had been blocked from doing deals for Andy Robertson, Jonny Evans, Harry Maguire and Erling Haaland.
Funny how he mentioned Haaland, who has been shining for Red Bull Salzburg in the
Champions League. He never said anything two years ago when the young Norwegian was brought over to see Everton play a Europa League game against Atalanta.
Nor, for that matter, did he say anything now about the lamentable records of players such as Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez, Cenk Tosun and Theo Walcott — signings who have bombed for Everton at great expense. Walsh is a beacon of all that has gone wrong in the Moshiri era.
Brands has not done much better so far. Alex Iwobi, Moise Kean and Jean-Philippe Gbamin have had no impact despite costing almost £100m between them.
How can this keep happening?
Everton lost Idrissa Gueye to Paris Saint-Germain but failed to replace the holding midfielder, who was so effective at the end of last season. The world and his wife knew a top centre forward and central defender were required in the summer but neither objective was met.
Then there was the story of Wilfried Zaha. Everton made one bid of £52m on July 28 for the Crystal Palace winger. It was rebuffed and, in some quarters at Goodison, they felt the matter was closed. Moshiri, however, was still eager for the deal to be done on the final day of the window.
An episode such as that only adds to the feeling that things are being made up as they go along. Silva noted last Friday that the first question about his future this season came after a victory over Wolves on September 1.
So now here they are, in the bottom three. They have been in this position before, of course, but the idea that a new manager will come in, click his fingers and make everything better is laughable. There is no trust in this squad, no faith about the club’s direction.
Everton can talk about the new stadium they want to build on the banks of the Mersey and can trumpet the fact they have bought the Royal Liver Building to house their sparkling new offices but the only thing the supporters care about is on the pitch.
What they see is a rabble, who don’t seem to understand what is required to thrive. They also see in Moshiri and Brands two men whose communication through the deepening malaise — culminating in yesterday’s farce — has left plenty to be desired.
Moshiri has sacked four managers now. Silva, whom he courted at Watford, was supposed to be their version of Mauricio Pochettino but the only parallel with the Argentine is that he is out of a job. Manager No 5 has to work. The consequences of another wrong choice are loaded with peril.