Out of all the managers sacked by Farhad Moshiri, Marco Silva probably has the most support that he could have been a success under different circumstances. But almost three-and-a-half years from his exit, Everton are still counting the cost of his reign.
While we’ll have to wait to see him in the dugout again given that he’s serving the second of a two-game touchline ban for his barracking of referee Chris Kavanagh in Fulham’s FA Cup exit at Manchester United, on Saturday, Silva returns to Goodison Park for the first time since he was axed following a 5-2 defeat across Stanley Park which left his side in the bottom three. Although the Portuguese coach’s high-profile replacement Carlo Ancelotti was able to steer the Blues to an eventual 12th placed-finish in what became a coronavirus-induced behind closed doors finish to that season, fast forward to now and only goal difference separates Everton and a place in the drop zone as they battle to avoid what would be their first relegation in 72 years.
Given that no team in football has ever squandered so much to become so bad – owner Moshiri admitted in his apology to fans last summer: “we have not always spent significant amounts of money wisely” – we have to wonder how things got so desperate for the Blues after a splurge of over £700million in the transfer market with less than £400million recouped since the Monaco-based billionaire took control of the club in 2016.
The folly of Everton’s record-breaking outlay in the 2017 summer window when they brought in a trio of number 10s and Spanish misfit Sandro Ramirez is well-documented and along with the disappointments of the following January in the shape of Cenk Tosun and Theo Walcott under Sam Allardyce, ultimately cost Goodison’s first director of football Steve Walsh his job. However, the residue left by the recruitments made by their replacements Silva and Marcel Brands have left a nasty stain which has taken much longer to shift and still hasn’t been rubbed out.
Richarlison, who became a Gwladys Street idol and shared a common tongue with Silva who he played under at their previous club Watford and considered something of a father figure was undoubtedly the biggest hit of this era but given the considerably outlay to prise him from Vicarage Road and pressure to offload him in the final hours of the 2021/22 financial year, even he wasn’t sold at quite the level of profit you might have expected to get for a player who was going into the World Cup finals as Brazil’s first-choice centre-forward. Lucas Digne proved to be a decent replacement for modern day great Leighton Baines and was also sold for more than he cost, albeit after an acrimonious fall-out with manager Rafael Benitez, only for the former Liverpool boss himself to be sacked just days later but other acquisitions proved less fruitful.
The injury-jinxed Jean-Philippe Gbamin – now on loan at Trabzonspor – was a massive flop; Andre Gomes, while initially popular on loan, continues to be a financial millstone difficult to offload; Moise Kean struggled badly both on and off the pitch in England; Fabian Delph was also bedevilled by fitness problems that culminated in him retiring aged 32 last summer while the diminutive Bernard arrived on a Bosman-style free transfer but commanded considerable wages and never really imposed himself in a manner befitting his talent. As for those still in Everton’s first team squad, Alex Iwobi’s work-rate ensures he remains a regular under Sean Dyche but has failed to live up to the hype of his hefty price tag (£28million potentially rising to £34million) while issues with injuries have contributed to Yerry Mina not featuring in 100 of the 182 Premier League matches the Blues have played since he signed and while he’s been available under the current boss, he hasn’t picked him.
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In terms of talent though, bringing in high-profile names from the likes of Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City wasn’t the crux of the problem for Silva at Goodison Park, it was shaping them into the right type of blend. Silva was appointed on May 31, 2018 but Moshiri had been sweet on him from the previous autumn when Everton made an untimely attempt to take him from Watford as Ronald Koeman’s replacement barely two months into his tenure.
The Hornets dismissed him in January 2018, citing an “unwarranted approach by a Premier League rival” that caused “significant deterioration in both focus and results to the point where the long-term future of Watford FC has been jeopardised” with Everton agreeing to pay £4million in compensation in response to the claim the following month. Although his first game in charge proved to be farcically one-sided as ATV Idrning were demolished 22-0 in the Alps, the rough and tumble of the English game proved far tougher than sweeping aside a ragtag collection of Austrian amateurs.
Despite ushering in a far more expansive style than what Blues had been served up under Allardyce’s attritional approach, Silva matched his predecessor’s eighth place finish but that only came after some blossoming in spring after a winter of discontent included a 6-2 thrashing at home to Tottenham Hotspur and an FA Cup humbling at Championship strugglers Millwall. Everton went into April in the bottom half but five wins out of their last eight games, including high-profile home scalps against Chelsea (2-0); Arsenal (1-0) and Manchester United (4-0) saw them end the campaign on a high.
Although life under Silva was aesthetically-pleasing when all was rosy in the garden, the team lacked backbone and as well as losing eight of their last 11 Premier League matches under him they infamously never came from behind once to win in the competition during his 18 months in charge. Still just 42 when dismissed by Everton, the man from Lisbon has subsequently rebuilt his reputation at Fulham, steering them to top spot in the Championship last term with 90 points and scoring 106 goals along the way.
That has been followed up by an impressive Premier League return this season in which the Cottagers – unlike their previous big-spending foray into the top flight in 2020/21 – have never been in relegation danger and head to Goodison Park some dozen points better off than their hosts. It’s only now under Dyche though that Everton have started to display the kind of fighting spirit their patchwork quilt of a squad has been largely bereft of since Silva’s days and to a large extent going back to David Moyes’ exit almost a decade ago.
Another factor the Blues can benefit from is by having a strong character at the helm like during the Scot’s long reign. Asked back in January by Everton Fan Advisory Board chair Jazz Bal whether he still believed in the director of football model, Moshiri said that he thought the post was important and claimed: “No manager has time to do scouting in the fashion that David Moyes or Alex Ferguson used to do. The current managers are close to continental coaches, they are trainers.”
When speaking to the ECHO the following month though, Malky Mackay, who gave Dyche his big break when he named him as his assistant at Watford, praised his former colleague’s work at Burnley where “he ran the whole football side of that club,” adding: “He’s more than a head coach, he knows how to carry himself as an ambassador and a front to the club. He’s a leader and someone who will want to stand up, wear the Everton badge with pride and someone who the fans can really get behind.”
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