Bullet
Player Valuation: £10m
There was a reason why at the start of Everton’s initial managerial search, those days in between Ronald Koeman’s sacking and prior to Sam Allardyce appointment, Diego Simeone was discussed as a possible candidate by the powers that be.
The link was greeted with predictable guffawing in the predictable places — ‘why would El Cholo consider Everton?’ — yet feelers were put out in the hope of somehow pulling off a surprise appointment.
Simeone has remained out of reach, of course, and yet his body of work remains the reference point.
There are those in the new-look Goodison Park hierarchy who believe Everton should be the Atletico Madrid of the Premier League, a label presumably demanding a team that play with attitude, a club that are united behind the cause, are savvy in the transfer market and manage to regularly upset the natural order.
In other words, a philosophy far removed from what the club had become by the end of Allardyce’s brief reign and an insight into why he was not retained despite lifting Everton from 13th to eighth place.
It is a bold vision, easy to dream up but more difficult to deliver, and one which serves to underline the scale of the task facing Marco Silva now that he has been confirmed as the club’s fourth permanent manager since May 2016.
Players who have worked with Silva speak highly of him. They chronicle his obsessive attention to detail, with and without the ball, a penchant for pace out wide (which should offer Ademola Lookman an opportunity if his head and heart is not already in RB Leipzig following his loan spell in Germany) and an ambitious outlook that says the best teams are not unbeatable.
“I know what our fans expect — they expect results but not only results,” said Silva, who has signed a three-year contract. “I want our fans to be proud when they see our team on the pitch. I want them to feel that we are committed, that we are working hard and enjoying our football because that is important as well.
“We want to build a great connection between the squad and the fans, and I’m sure that with our attitude and demands of commitment then our style of play will see that.
“Everton is a really ambitious club and that is what I want. What we are seeing now are good changes at the club. The club is changing its approach. But one thing we cannot change and nobody wants to change is the huge history and ambition of the club.”
Everton’s interest in Silva dates back to November and he remains subject of an official tapping-up complaint by Watford that is now likely to require Premier League arbitration to resolve.
He fits the “modern coach” criteria Marcel Brands, Everton’s new director of football, outlined last week and which feels a more substantial brief than the desire for a “Hollywood manager” that led to the recruitment of Koeman as Roberto Martínez’s replacement.
The 40-year-old arrives with plenty to prove, having won just 16 of his 48 games in England during brief spells with Hull City and Watford. His assistant manager João Pedro, Hugo Olivera, the goalkeeping coach, Antonis Lemonakis, the technical scout, and Pedro Conceicao, the fitness coach, will join him, while Duncan Ferguson is set to remain on the staff.
And so if Everton’s new power structure, in which Farhad Moshiri, the major shareholder, wields all of the influence, is serious about the club becoming the “Atletico of England” then they are on trial, too.
Money has to be made available for overhauling a squad lacking in quality and, crucially, personality at a time when Everton are already seeking to borrow £220 million to go with a £280 milion Liverpool City Council loan to fund a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Weeding out the weak and moving on the deadwood from Everton’s squad will not raise untold riches. Efforts to sell Wayne Rooney are motivated by a desire to save money on his wages, while jettisoning the likes of Ashley Williams, Kevin Mirallas, Sandro Ramírez and Muhamed Besic will not raise much towards reinforcements.
Moshiri has already injected £150 million into the club through the company, BlueSky Capital, and now the informed talk is of a potential rights issue to raise further funds.
But most of all there must be a willingness to invest time — as well as money — in Silva and look beyond the inevitable glitches in form as the Portuguese looks to embed his way of thinking and playing.
The same is true of a supporter base that embraced Martínez and quickly grew tired, embraced Koeman and quickly grew tired and simply grew tired of Allardyce.
However, the lead must come from the very top. Otherwise, the only true similarity with Atletico will end up being the “hire ‘em, fire ‘em” mentality which existed before Simone marched through the door seven years ago.
