Everton set to lose out on another candidate
Reports today claim that Everton are about to lose out on another of their managerial targets as Lucien Favre looks set to take the Crystal Palace job.
According to a story in the Daily Mail ex-Borussia Dortmund coach Favre is about to snub Everton and instead go to Selhurst Park to succeed Roy Hodgson.
Well we heard something very similar regarding Nuno Espirito Santo who was also supposedly about to take the Palace job before the Toffees interest firmed up.
But then that went cold as the Blues appeared to back away from the Portuguese boss after being close to offering him the job.
Now after a predictable backlash against the prospect of Rafa Benitez getting the Everton job, Favre’s name reappeared on the candidates list.
He’s had a good spell in Germany and his Dortmund team finished third in the Bundesliga last season. They were a high-scoring and entertaining side full of exceptional young attacking talent like Jadon Sancho and Erling Braut Haarland, but also had a solid enough defense.
However, if these reports are true then perhaps the club have lost out on him as well as Lille’s Christophe Galtier, another name mentioned for the job who appears to be staying in France with Nice. Well the weather’s better down there so I suppose you can’t blame him!
So as the wait goes on and the Blues board continue to debate the merits of each individual candidate, that pool of prospects appears to be diminishing.
This is why it’s now getting urgent that the Toffees make a decision because while none of the names that have been linked with will come with a universal stamp of approval, more of them will decide to move to clubs that have made a clear choice and that will leave Everton with even fewer options the more they wait.
It’s possible Farhad Moshiri et al are waiting for the Euros to conclude before they make a move for one of the coaches who have done well with their national teams.
The most likely of these individuals under consideration is Roberto Martinez who spent three seasons at Goodison Park. His tenure as manager was characterised by an increasingly over-optimistic mentality and a team that played some very attacking but utimately ineffective football.
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The Spaniard has been Belgium manager for the past five years since he took that job after being fired by Moshiri at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.
And since Carlo Ancelotti left, Martinez alongside another ex-Blues manager David Moyes, has been rumoured to be on the shortlist to succeed the Italian and return to Everton.
So will a good Euros campaign with Belgium see him back at Goodison Park? And can Everton afford to wait that long anyway with pre-season a few weeks away and other clubs already strengthening and adding new signings?
On and on we go and all these complicated stories and contradictory rumours mean the process still feels no nearer ending. And some reports claim that despite all the heat the idea has generated, Moshiri is still committed to offering the job to Benitez.
In truth, this is all getting increasingly boring now and I want the club to get it sorted out so I can start writing about something else!