Marco Silva on Everton

Marco Silva insists his relationship with everyone at Everton remains excellent, and he will always wish the best to the club.

Everton sacked Silva in December 2019, after a resounding 5-2 defeat by Liverpool saw Everton drop into the relegation zone of the Premier League with just 14 points from 15 games.

In an interview with the Guardian, Silva said he fully respected the decision to sack him and opened up on what went wrong at Everton.

Silva: “We changed a lot of things at the club and the first season was obviously very good. One of the things we did was to putting up messages/statements that showed every player what it meant to be an Everton player. The main one I remember was one that we put at the top in the dressing room: ‘Once Everton has touched you, nothing will be the same.’ Those kind of feelings are crucial for the team and we also wanted those sort of statements in the tunnel leading to the pitch to give an impact to the players and to reinforce the identity of the club.

“The second season was more difficult. We sold Idrissa Gueye to PSG and he had been fundamental for us. The replacement was Jean-Philippe Gbamin but unfortunately he got injured and we never had him available. We also missed Kurt Zouma as he had returned to Chelsea. We started well but there were injuries and the results suffered because of that. That’s football and the club decided to make a change. I fully respected the decision and my relationship with everyone at Everton remains excellent. I will always wish the best to the club, as well as to [Carlo] Ancelotti”.