In normal circumstances, a manager whose side were trailing 1-0 to the bottom club might look along his substitutes, spy the £25 million summer signing who has just scored his first goals of the season and believe he represented the most likely source of a comeback.
However, these are different times at Everton and so in the 66th minute of Saturday’s defeat by Norwich City, Marco Silva brought on Seamus Coleman for Djibril Sidibé, right back for right back, and left Moise Kean kicking his heels on the sidelines.
Only 24 hours earlier, Silva had publicly described the forward, who had scored twice for Italy Under-21 last week — albeit against Armenia — as the “present and the future”.
Here, he was a nowhere man again.
Of course, it could simply be that, after replacing Morgan Schneiderlin with Alex Iwobi and deciding Dominic Calvert-Lewin would be replacing Theo Walcott, bringing on another offensive-minded player would have left Everton lopsided and susceptible. Or, more susceptible and more lopsided.
Yet those substitutions once again brought into focus the inner workings of the Merseyside club. How much Silva wanted to sign Kean in the summer and how much the deal with Juventus was the work of the director of football, Marcel Brands, who was unveiled on the same day in June 2018 as the man he must work alongside for the greater good and so inherited the appointment rather than making it.
Silva had an unrealistic fancy for Nicolas Pépé, whose £72 million price tag meant he was out of reach for a club which, at one point, was solely seeking to balance the books. He has hardly impressed since swapping Lille for Arsenal but, if by chance, Pépé had ended up at Goodison Park it is difficult to imagine Silva ignoring the claims of his own man.
And so while Silva squirms in an unforgiving spotlight, Everton’s continued struggle brings the input of Brands, who arrived from PSV Eindhoven, under scrutiny. Especially as he is central to what happens next at a club unravelling at the seams once more.
It is only a couple of weeks since Brands, 57, and Silva, 42, joined the first-team squad at a team-bonding meal. A few home truths were spoken by everyone present and a first away win of the season in the league at Southampton followed.
Brands was appointed as Everton’s director of football at the same time as Silva became managerBrands was appointed as Everton’s director of football at the same time as Silva became manager
TONY MCARDLE/EVERTON FC VIA GETTY IMAGES
Then all it took was the international break for everything to fall apart again.
Brands’s career as a director of football suggests he does not usually make knee-jerk reactions. The Dutchman once spent four hours in a car with Louis van Gaal to talk him out of quitting AZ Alkmaar after a downturn in results [he had consulted senior players beforehand] and was rewarded as the club won the Eredivisie title the following year.
He is certainly not oblivious to the fragility at the heart of Everton’s squad, which would hamper any manager’s quest to make meaningful progress with the same resources.
Perhaps he privately shoulders some of the blame for that. If the challenge for Silva was to deliver European football this season, then effectively pinning hopes on a 19-year-old in Kean, who started only six matches for Juventus last season, to supply the goals was maybe not the most logical thinking.
Brands, of course, may argue the teenager has not been utilised properly.
The failure to sign a centre back to replace Kurt Zouma, who Chelsea insisted from early June would be staying after returning from a loan spell, was short-sighted. It made the decision to release Phil Jagielka, who could have been useful back-up, perplexing and makes playing out from the back more difficult.
Then there is Iwobi, who told The Times that his £30 million deadline-day move from Arsenal was negotiated while he was on a boat off the coast of Dubai. No medical for a multimillion-pound asset, just an exchange of records with a rival.
That last-minute trolley dash can happen when an owner like Farhad Moshiri is in charge, someone who wants to delve into deep pockets to support his manager even if the agreement with the rest of the board had been to keep the purse strings tight.
Kean, right, scored twice for Italy Under-21 against ArmeniaKean, right, scored twice for Italy Under-21 against Armenia
MAURIZIO LAGANA/GETTY IMAGES
Then there is the story that has emerged of David Harrison, head of football operations, running through the streets of Barcelona on the final day of the 2018 summer transfer window searching for a lawyer in order to complete deals for Yerry Mina and André Gomes.
The sale of Idrissa Gueye, the club’s best player in the second half of last season, has been compounded by the injury of Jean-Philippe Gbamin, who has been restricted to only 135 minutes. The £25 million arrival from Mainz was another signing put forward by Brands.
The subsequent absence of Gomes with a broken ankle on top of that has been cruel.
Overall, the impact of Brands thus far sits uneasily with his reputation.
There is an apparent disconnect between the first team and the under-23s. They are on the same site at Finch Farm but “the academy may as well be in Hong Kong” was one verdict.
The atmosphere at the training ground is said to resemble a morgue and that was before the defeat by Norwich. Silva and his squad returned for training today after two days off.
There have been plenty of conversations among Everton’s hierarchy on the way forward over the past 48 hours and Brands’s position, and his promotion to the board within six months of his arrival, means he will have been central to them.
Stick or twist? With a run of fixtures that reads Leicester City-Liverpool-Chelsea-Manchester United-Leicester-Arsenal-Burnley about to kick in, there is an argument against exposing a new man too soon.
It is Brands’s job to formulate a plan to take the club forward. And right now that will mean working on, and updating, the list of potential managerial candidates he presumably started compiling last season when Everton won three league games between December 2 and February 9 and the board harboured reservations about Silva.
Since then, few managers have become available who would interest Everton. Mauricio Pochettino and Massimiliano Allegri appear out of reach for a club languishing in 16th position in the Premier League.
Ralf Rangnick? He guided RB Leipzig to a top-four finish in the Bundesliga last season, develops young players and is regarded by Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, as a big influence on his career and the high-octane football that has underpinned his success.
Against that obvious appeal is the fact that Rangnick, 61, was interviewed and overlooked for the Everton job in favour of Roberto Martínez when David Moyes left in 2013.
In addition, he has been a hugely successful director of football in his own right, knows how to build clubs — Manchester United recently tapped into his acumen rather than simply acquiring it — and so may be regarded as too strong a personality. A threat.
Brands’s task, and his overall brief, could yet be a thankless one should the owner take matters into his own hands and decide himself the path down which Everton progress. That comes with the territory.
Silva has needed to step up for a while now. He is not the only one.
wonder what home truths were said over the dinner table.wonder if any screwed up napkins were thrown about.bet snides bottled out of going that’s for sure