Farhad Moshiri himself proclaimed “this is the most-critical time in our history” but with the clock ticking on both the transfer deadline and Everton’s next fixture against Arsenal, the hiring of his eighth manager since taking control of the club in 2016 remains central to their survival.
Speaking in a video interview with Chair of the Fan Advisory Board, Jazz Bal, Moshiri went on to say this moment is “almost an existential period”, but while results from the worst first half of a season in Everton’s Premier League history decreed that Frank Lampard had to go – you hope that decision wasn’t made too late in terms of avoiding a first relegation in 72 years – a vacuum has emerged while the club remain managerless.
Whether it’s dramatic u-turns from potential signings backing out on deals; rivals trying to sign Everton’s players; reports about the club being up for sale, prompting Moshiri to deny it or Kia Joorabchian having his turn on talkSPORT, admitting he’s the culprit for hawking Vitor Pereira to the club, there is a feeling that many are taking an opportunistic chance to kick the Blues while they’re down and exploit what looks like a rudderless ship.
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Although Lampard was understood to be the unanimous choice of Goodison Park’s power brokers last January, in sharp contrast to predecessor Rafael Benitez, who was very much Moshiri’s man, ahead of the confirmation of his sacking 48 hours later, when asked if time was up on the former Derby County and Chelsea boss’ tenure as he left London Stadium following the 2-0 loss to West Ham United, Everton’s owner insisted 'it’s not my decision'.
Such cryptic remarks from a club owner could be interpreted in several ways and now the axe has fallen, it might point towards director of football Kevin Thelwell taking a more prominent role in such matters compared to predecessors Steve Walsh and Marcel Brands, and are the Blues now prepared to do things by committee with the opinions of their under-fire board being heard? Having lost eight of their last nine matches, Everton, with a patchwork quilt of a squad assembled by an array of managers with wildly varying football philosophies, are not in a privileged position like Brighton & Hove Albion, who initiated a smooth transition under Roberto De Zerbi after Graham Potter left for Chelsea, where they can bring in a ‘project’ manager.
We’d all be hard-pressed to even identify what the style of this team even is and the candidates being touted are as disparate as the many previous incumbents of Goodison’s home dugout under Moshiri so far. West Bromwich Albion’s Carlos Corberan, 39, might be viewed as a progressive young coach but you fear that walking into this storm, the intense burdens of the job would chew him up and spit him out in the manner inflicted upon Marco Silva, who has subsequently bounced back in the less pressurised surroundings of Fulham.
At the other end of the spectrum there is 67-year-old former Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa, who would become by far the oldest man to ever take charge of the club. However, while the Argentinian’s advanced age might ensure he exudes a ‘grandfatherly’ demeanour, he’s anything put a sedentary coach and the extreme physical demands he places upon his players would be difficult to implement successfully midway through a season in which it is imperative that Everton somehow battle their way out from the drop zone, and the list of stringent specifications this painstaking micromanager would insist upon are likely to be both demanding and unyielding.
The Blues had enough trouble filling the post in 2021 when Carlo Ancelotti defected to Real Madrid on June 1 and they had a full summer ahead of them before Moshiri made former Liverpool manager Benitez arguably the most-controversial appointment in the history of the most-passion city in English football a month later. This is neither the time nor the place for taking undue risks and gambling with ‘the hipsters’ choice.’
The present situation is very much a bona fide threat to the status of the club who has spent more seasons (120) in the top flight of English football than any other. Back in November 2017, Moshiri – again – went against the advice of other prominent club officials and rang the alarm for ‘Fireman’ Sam Allardyce to extinguish the flames of a relegation battle but the team were in the top half of the table by the end of his first week in charge and were able to finish the season in what now seems like the dizzying heights of eighth place despite six months of some of the most attritional football in the Premier League.
One of the potential candidates who Moshiri overlooked then is now back on the agenda and while the moment might not have been right over five years ago as he was on his way to steering his club into Europe for the first time since 1966/67, you’d have thought that Sean Dyche would already be Everton manager by now if they really wanted him. He might not ever win over his doubters but in many ways, the 51-year-old seems the best-equipped individual in the frame to deal with the Blues’ desperate plight and by far the lowest-risk option.
For almost a decade, Dyche got Burnley to punch above their weight and despite being by far the smallest market in the Premier League, they even twice finished above Everton, in the aforementioned 2017/18 season when he led them to their highest position since 1974 and in 2019/20. The former was seen as such an impressive achievement that ‘The Princess Royal’ pub in the shadow of Turf Moor was renamed ‘The Royal Dyche’ with the former boss’ image mocked up as Henry VIII on the sign to this day.
Talking of kings, if the Blues do go down for the first time since George VI was on the throne – which unless there is a significant improvement under whoever gets the job remains a distinct possibility – then at least Dyche also has the experience of leading the Clarets to two promotion campaigns out of the Championship. Some might brand his approach at Burnley as ‘old school’ but is that needn’t be viewed as a negative and ‘School of Science’ purists can’t afford to be football snobs right now.
You play to your strengths and personally this correspondent likes his players to be committed. That’s how Howard Kendall’s heroes of the 1980s went about their business along with Joe Royle’s ‘Dogs of War’ and is much more in touch with ‘The Everton Way’ than the sterile play that has been served up both in ‘good’ times and bad of late.
Who is to say that in time and with greater resources, Dyche – like David Moyes, Everton’s most-consistent manager of the Premier League era – wouldn’t evolve his team to play in a more ‘cultured’ manner anyway given that as a young player himself he was a product of Nottingham Forest’s youth system under Brian Clough before growing five inches and becoming a rough and tumble centre-back at Chesterfield. Right now though, the Blues just need any manager who can produce winning football.
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