Weight of history is not good for David

HISTORY is against Everton’s interim boss David Unsworth getting the job at Goodison Park full-time with owner Farhad Moshiri aware that 10 of the 11 first-time managers appointed by Premier League clubs in the past decade have been sacked, relegated or both.

Unsworth, who played for the club in two different spells, has his first game in charge at Goodison Park against Watford today having presided over three away defeats since Ronald Koeman was dismissed. He has also been described by pundit Joey Barton as too overweight to be a convincing Premier League manager. ‘Any personal insult, be it funny, not meant or really personal, does not interest me and I am not bothered at all. My hurt is with our fans,’ said Unsworth.

‘I am hurting because we are not winning games and that is really important to me. I’m hurting when I see thousands of fans travel over to Lyon and to Chelsea and Leicester and we don’t get the result for them. We need to keep our fans with us and a win against Watford would ease the anxiety certainly.

‘The players need that ray of confidence and to get that confidence rolling.’

Sam Allardyce, who is out of work and believed to fancy the challenge at Goodison, is a leading contender for the vacancy alongside Burnley’s Sean Dyche. Ironically, Moshiri’s ideal candidate Marco Silva will be in the away dug-out this afternoon.

Gambles on rookies with no previous senior management experience like Unsworth haven’t generally worked in the Premier League.

Only Ricky Sbragia at Sunderland hasn’t taken his team down or been sacked but he resigned at the end of the 2008/09 season saying the club needed ‘a bigger name’.

The last first-timer, Craig Shakespeare, kept Leicester up last season, but was fired last month.