Is Newcastle United’s past the future of Everton

I always had a nagging feeling that there was a turning point in the summer of 2019 when things could have gone either way for Everton, towards where Spurs are possibly heading, or more ominously to Newcastle’s recent past.

The 2018-19 season had finished well with Everton seemingly having found a team and a balance that was working well, albeit with improvements certainly still needed.

Marco Silva’s first campaign had been difficult early on as he struggled to find his feet and get his ideas across to the squad he had largely inherited from Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce.

But, whether though intention, luck or desperation he seemed to have finally got it right in the final third of the season.

The Blues’ had a solid defence with Michael Keane and Kurt Zouma having established a good partnership at centre-back while Lucas Digne was arguably the best full-back in the league.

In midfield Idrissa Gueye and Andre Gomes were a highly effective and complimentary pair and in attack Richarlison, who Silva brought from his previous club Watford, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin were showing their potential. Gylfi Sigurdsson and Bernard were even playing well.

Everton finished eighth and seemed finally to be on an upward curve after several hugely frustrating seasons. Then came the summer transfer window and of course it all went wrong.

First of all Gueye left for PSG, which had been on the cards all season. Then on-loan Zouma eventually returned to Chelsea and having banked all on persuading him to stay he wasn’t replaced. Nor did the club sign a new right-back as an alternative to the ageing Seamus Coleman, something they still haven’t done!

And, then to top it off Gueye’s replacement Jean-Philippe Gbamin, who was key to Silva’s 4-2-3-1 system, got injured a few weeks into the new season and basically has hardly been seen since.

The team never rediscovered that form in the latter third of the previous season and before Christmas 2019 Silva was gone.

Probably it was just another illusion and Silva wasn’t up to it, but maybe if those mistakes and misfortunes hadn’t happened could the future have been different?

Carlo Ancelotti then came in but in truth he didn’t really change the downward momentum. Ultimately Everton finished twelfth at the end of his one and only full season last term before he decided he wasn’t as committed to the Everton project as he’d been telling us, and left.

The past two campaigns have actually eerily mirrored each other and seen the Toffees’ begin well under a brand new manager and then once injuries derail that momentum things very quickly unravel and the season is effectively over just a few months in.

Now, I’m not sure if or how the club can be turned around. Years of profligate spending have left the squad bloated with too many average players and yet one that’s incredibly still short of the quality and depth of individual in several key positions, like right-back.

Rafa Benitez has inherited this mess and now has almost no money either as it’s all been spent by his predecessors and the club are ever mindful of breaking the FFP rules.

Furthermore, there are still significant doubts about whether he is the right man or if the game has passed him by. And, as we all know he’s got little goodwill from supporters to draw upon in tough times.