Everton turn to Big Dunc again after Martinez talks stall
DUNCAN FERGUSON is on standby to resume his role as Everton caretaker boss after a move to recruit Roberto Martinez stalled. Everton are back in the familiar territory of looking for a new manager following Sunday’s sacking of Rafa Benitez, who became the fifth man to be dismissed by majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri after a shocking run of results. Martinez, the Belgium head coach, was under consideration on Sunday night to return to Goodison Park, six years after he was axed by Moshiri. The Catalan is eager to have another opportunity to work in the Premier League and would love to go back to Merseyside. His intention would be to have Thierry Henry as his assistant — but Everton have not been able to reach an agreement for Martinez, whose contract with the Belgian FA has a £2million release clause. Everton are adamant that a thorough process is under way and they are examining the credentials of a number of other targets. Names linked to the post so far include Wayne Rooney, whose affinity with the club would make any move difficult to turn down, and former Bayern Munich boss Niko Kovac. But with no sign of an imminent appointment, Ferguson is preparing to ready the team for Saturday’s clash against Steven Gerrard’s resurgent Aston Villa — a role the Scot previously held with distinction in December 2019. Ferguson was in charge for three league games after Marco Silva was sacked and sparked a revival in fortunes, with a 3-1 win over Chelsea, 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford and a 0-0 draw against Arsenal at Goodison Park. It is expected that Ferguson will lead training at the club’s Finch Farm base today and he has made it clear he would be happy to take on the role permanently. It is not clear, at this stage, whether Moshiri would be prepared to go that far. Everton’s main business yesterday was clearing up the loose ends of Benitez’s departure and his backroom staff all followed the Spaniard out. They included assistant manager Paco de Miguel, first-team coach Antonio Gomez and Jamie Harley, the head of sports science. Cristian Fernandez, the fitness and conditioning coach, also exited. Goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly, whose appointment predated Benitez, remains at the club.
RoBERTo Martinez couldn’t land a trophy for Belgium with Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard in the team at their peak, so heaven knows what he would make of Everton’s motley crew.
The club sold arguably their best player, Lucas Digne, to Aston Villa after he fell out with a manager they sacked days later. It is a mess. And, like all sacking clubs, Everton appear to have run out of suitable candidates and may return to the start. Back to Martinez, the first to be sacked by owner Farhad Moshiri in 2016. By then, fans were in uproar and demanding his removal. Sound familiar?
The club have been here before, too, decades ago. Howard Kendall was a brilliant, successful, Everton manager but returned to Goodison Park twice with diminishing rewards. This is how the trigger-happy work. Quique Sanchez Flores has now been manager of Watford on two occasions under the Pozzo family.
Jose Mourinho went back to Chelsea, and it soured, again. There is no guarantee Martinez would be any better equipped to deal with Everton’s continued lunacy than he was first time around. He clearly has qualities as a coach, but so did Rafa Benitez, so too Carlo Ancelotti. Both are Champions League winners, Everton sucked the life out of them.
So give it to Wayne Rooney. Give it to a young coach who gets Everton and Evertonians, who would see reviving the love of his football life as the most important job in the world.
Give it to him with the pledge he will take Everton into their new stadium in 2024. That buys time. That buys breathing space. Everton chew up and spit out managers of all persuasions, even those who come ready-made, like Sam Allardyce. So Rooney’s youth shouldn’t be an obstacle. If anything, it counts in his favour. Rooney would have to be allowed to grow into his first Premier League job. Everton could go for a man like Graham Potter, at Brighton, and within six games he would be under pressure, if results do not improve.
THERE will be an emotional last season at Goodison Park in 202324 — think what the farewell to Upton Park did for West Ham under Slaven Bilic — meaning Rooney would get the remainder of this campaign, then two full seasons to reshape Everton for their new home. It can be argued he is inexperienced and Everton’s position is precarious.
Yet consider where Rooney is now and the job he has done at Derby, docked 21 points yet no longer bottom of the Championship and eight points from safety. Rooney has delivered with his back to the wall. And he’s Rooney. The next generation of players grew up watching him, probably pretended to be him as kids. He still has the same wow factor that aids the recruitment plans of Steven Gerrard. And it is no surprise that those who responded best to Frank Lampard at Chelsea were the youth, Mason Mount and Reece James, the ones who might have had his picture on the wall.
And Everton have always had a strong age-group policy. What young Evertonian wouldn’t want to do his best for a club legend?
Could they go down this season with Rooney in charge? Yes, but that is true of any manager, certainly of Martinez. There are weaknesses that are not going to be fixed in a matter of months. The new manager needs time.
There are two huge building jobs at Everton, and only one is taking place at Bramley-Moore Dock. The other needs to be undertaken by Benitez’s successor. A clean slate, a clean break. Start from the ground up. It should be Rooney.