Santo still bookies favourite for Everton job despite further names emerging

As the seemingly endless search for a new Everton manager continues there are more rumours of contact with this coach or that but Nuno Espirito Santo remains the favourite.

At least he is according to the Mail, which claims that Everton are focused on the ex-Wolves boss but are keeping their options open for alternatives.

Santo was the initial favourite after Carlo Ancelotti left and the stories circulating claimed that he was the first choice of the Toffees board, despite a bewildering number of other names linked with the job.

But then it looked as though the Portuguese was ready to commit to Crystal Palace, the first club he was talking to after leaving Molineux at the end of last season.

However, that move seemed to fall down after his demands were deemed excessive by the south London club and so he’s back in the running for Everton’s own vacancy. And as before, Santo is again the name at the top of the list, according to these rumours anyway.

Another contender who has emerged over the past day or so according to the Mail, is former Manchester City and West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini.

The Chilean coach has done reasonably well in Spain this past season and of course has plenty of experience in English football having won the Premier League title in 2014 with City.

So superficially at least his CV looks quite impressive, but I think it’s a little deceptive. Pellegrini had a fine City side put together largely by his predecessor Roberto Mancini when he won the title.

He then went on to West Ham and had to build something from a low base and he spent big but didn’t ultimately produce a successful side.

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Some of those buys were costly failures like Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko and Jack Wilshire. The Blues don’t need another high-spending manager who wastes millions on over-rated and under-performing players – we’ve had plenty of that recently!

Another link that is concerning is to Turkish coach Fatih Terim who has most recently been working as Galatasaray manager.

I don’t think there is anything concrete to this rumour and it seems just another speculative link made to get clicks online.

Like Pellegrini he’s in his alte sixties and while the Chilean has Premier League experience, Terim has none and so given that and his age (the Toffees need a younger coach) I really don’t see this as in any way likely to happen.

It’s obvious Everton are taking their time to try and get this appointment right, but while that’s fine and understandable, they can’t wait too long and as this uncertainty continues there will be more and more distracting and left-field links emerging.

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