Everton still apparently paying ex-manager’s wages
As if this current season couldn’t get any more frustrating it now appears as though Everton are still paying former manager Ronald Koeman 90% of his wages, even though he has another job as boss of the Netherlands.
This latest revelation in the Liverpool Echo, just adds further to the sense that things at Everton are going seriously wrong. Something similar appears to have happened before when the Blues sacked Roberto Martinez.
Everton are taking legal advice about this situation in an attempt to ensure they don’t get stung for yet more money.
I’ve written before that I sometimes get the feeling the club is being run in a haphazard and hurried way, lacking any real sense of coherent strategy.
Despite all the bluster about challenging for top honours, Everton seem to lurch from one mishap and crisis to another and seem as far away as ever from fulfilling those optimistic hopes.
And this comes on top of all the talk about the club preparing to jettison current manager Sam Allardyce, the man who eventually succeeded Koeman, after just half a season.
Evertonians will remember that Allardyce was certainly not the board’s choice to take the job last year. But the cack-handed way Everton tried to lure then-Watford manager Marco Silva to Goodison and the lack of any apparent alternatives, left the club with no choice.
It always felt like a panicked response and an ill-fitting one. In truth Allardyce was never going to win over the majority of Blues supporters, whatever he achieved.
But again the club seemed to have erred badly giving him a generous eighteen month contract that will cost yet more money in compensation if Everton do decide to terminate it early. You never know Everton might end up paying two former managers salaries!
To be honest I do feel a bit sorry for Allardyce. He has stepped in again to a club in crisis flirting with the drop and he has delivered what he was asked to do, namely ensure Everton survived in the Premier League.
Now despite the Blues reaching the fabled 40-point mark with games to spare, it looks like his days are numbered.
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It’s not only Allardyce, because if the rumours are to be believed Everton will be bringing in Marcel Brands to replace the much-vaunted former Leicester City chief scout Steve Walsh.
Walsh’s tenure has not seen him able to replicate anything like the stunning success he enjoyed at the King Power stadium with that remarkable title win in 2016.
Everton supporters hoped he could help to mastermind something similar at Goodison Park.
Perhaps he just got lucky at Leicester, at any rate most of his signings since he arrived on Merseyside have not delivered what was expected of them.
All these real and possible comings and goings at the club can leave you feeling slightly disorientated and confused. And the financial cost of this much change must be huge.
I feel that one of the problems is that the hierarchy seem to hanker always for big-names instead of properly identifying the right people and putting in place a long-term plan to help them deliver success.
First the dream-team was Koeman and Walsh, now it might be Paulo Fonseca and Marcel Brands. If that doesn’t work who’s next?
Next: Can Everton beat Man City?
There is always a rush it seems to bring in the latest hot property (remember Silva – who mentions him now?) when what the club need is a period of real stability to give someone the chance to build something substantial.