Everton’s managerial search is a mess.
From number one choice Roberto Martinez to weekend fancy Vitor Pereira, via Frank Lampard and new favourite Wayne Rooney – the list of candidates to succeed Rafa Benitez compounds fears that this is a club stumbling around without much of an identity.
Certainly the emergence of Pereira as the front runner following an impressive interview with co-owners Farhad Moshiri and Alisher Usmanov was a curious one. His CV includes successive titles with Porto back in 2013 but recently has been far less impressive, with a swift exit from Fenerbahce last year the reason why he’s never been in the conversation for top jobs in England when vacancies have arisen.
The word on Merseyside is that lukewarm public reaction to Pereira has prompted Everton’s senior executives to widen their search. More sober heads at Goodison Park can see the danger the club is in and another bad appointment could well open the trapdoor to the Championship.
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Yet is anyone convinced they will get it right?
The list of managers in the Moshiri era reads Roberto Martinez (sacked), Ronald Koeman (fired), Sam Allardyce (departed after six months), Marco Silva (fired), Carlo Ancelotti (resigned) and Rafa Benitez (sacked after four six months). Try discovering an identity from that lot aside from just drawing up a list of high-profile names and hoping they can turn Everton’s mismatch of players recruited in previous eras into something resembling a cohesive unit.
The alternatives to Pereira include Rooney – doing a terrific job galvinising Derby but still a managerial greenhorn – and Lampard, who walked away from the Norwich vacancy after talks last year. It is not a list that suggests the club have exhausted all options or come up with a clear idea of the direction the club should be moving in.
It does not have to be this way. Having failed to go toe to toe with top four contenders on their own terms, why aren’t Everton at least considering a different strategy?
The Toffees’ have spoken of a comprehensive review of football operations but their managerial search suggests business-as-usual. It is a shame when there are alternative models that they could pioneer – just ask Brentford or Brighton, both holding their own against teams with greater resources by virtue of innovative, joined-up strategies.
Wolves, too, appointed outside their comfort zone when they assigned Bruno Lage to lead the post-Nuno era. The option is there for Everton if they want to pursue it.
The names may now be household ones, but there is value out there. Carlos Corberan’s work at Huddersfield, creating a dynamic team on a budget that is overperforming considerably, deserves consideration for a big job.
Nice head coach Christophe Galtier, who has similarly built a team that play front foot football on the south coast of France, also deserves recognition.
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Hotel lounges, Powerpoints and yachts - the secrets of a football manager's job interview20 January, 2022It is not like football isn’t brimming with smart people capable of delivering an alternative vision these days. Last month I spoke to Demba Ba, who has developed a vision for how a football club can be run and is looking for Director of Football opportunities. The problem, he explained, was getting someone to think differently.
I spoke last year to Jeremy Steele of Analytics FC about the work they do for top clubs, placing managers into vacancies. And he said clubs often fall into the trap of looking for instant uplift when longer term success comes from understanding what you’re getting.
“When we do our coach ID work we do look at performance above expectation and there are coaches that impact points expected quite concretely but we also look at playing style, how head coaches match up against top of the table teams, teams lower down the league and how they disrupt certain styles of play,” he said.
“Asset management – can they incorporate your star players – and how they integrate academy players. Those are things that are much more likely to be able to be directly influenced by what the head coach does.
“When Stoke were under Tony Pulis the fans got fed up of it but he had a very clear identity and it kept them in the Premier League.
“Really a change makes sense if you want to change playing style or direction than if you’re looking to pick up a few more points because there isn’t evidence to back up that is going to be sustained. You have to take the emotion out of it and think about what is going to work for you, not what worked elsewhere.”
Everton take note: sometimes the answer isn’t staring you in the face.
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