The Guardian (USA)

Marco Silva says future not in his hands as Everton seek unity and stability

- Andy Hunter

Marco Silva has conceded his future as Everton manager is “not in my hands”, while the club’s director of football, Marcel Brands, insisted unity and stability were needed at Goodison Park.

The Everton manager finally received a degree of boardroom backing on Friday when Brands gave an inhouse interview claiming the hierarchy supported Silva’s efforts to improve a sorry campaign. Silva later maintained he had not been given an ultimatum by the majority shareholde­r, Farhad Moshiri

but, with a visit to second-placed Leicester on Sunday followed by a midweek trip to Liverpool, his position is precarious in the extreme.

Everton fans joined in with Norwich chants of, “You’re getting sacked in the morning” following last Saturday’s dismal home defeat and Silva said of the crowd’s reaction: “I will not lie to you, it was tough.” But he was unable to say whether he expected to be in charge for Everton’s next home game against Chelsea.

“I don’t lose time thinking about that,” he said. “What I can tell you about the situation: I will do my job every single day. One member of our board and our sporting director answered more or less this question. If you ask many managers where they will be in two weeks then sometimes in football it is not easy to speak out. I cannot answer directly about a situation that is not in my hands. It is not the type of question you can ask me. I am not the right person to answer to you.”

Brands cited injuries and VAR errors as evidence of Silva’s misfortune and the manager is likely to be without four central midfielder­s at Leicester through injury.

Brands admitted results had to improve. “If you look at the ranking now and the results, I think we all expect better,” he said. “I think we have been a little bit unlucky with the VAR decisions and some injuries but still we have a very good squad and we have to improve our results. That is also what Marco is working very hard on to get

 ??  ?? Marco Silva maintained he had not been given an ultimatum by Everton’s majority shareholde­r, Farhad Moshiri. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters
Marco Silva maintained he had not been given an ultimatum by Everton’s majority shareholde­r, Farhad Moshiri. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters

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