Benitez era is over as Everton confirm his departure

In an expected announcement Everton have confirmed the sacking of Rafa Benitez as the club succumbed to the inevitable this afternoon.

There won’t be many Everton fans sorry to see the former Liverpool, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Newcastle United boss depart Goodison Park.

It had been thought that we’d hear the news tomorrow, but in the end the club moved to silence the speculation today.

A dreadful run had culminated in yesterday’s pitiful performance at Norwich City and a tenth defeat already this season. That was the final straw.

In truth, Benitez always seemed a bad fit for the Blues but I still wanted it to work out because the most important thing is for the Toffees to succeed on the pitch, whoever is in the dugout.

But, bringing in a man who had such a history of antagonism with Evertonians and a career that had been going backwards for several years culminating in his sojourn in China, was always a massive risk and if it was going to succeed everything had to go right.

He inherited a disfunctional squad with a large number of over-priced players who had failed to perform for a long period of time. And, he had nothing to spend on improving that squad so he had to bring in free agents and in the end he spent just £1.7 million on Demarai Gray.

Benitez’s reign actually began reasonably well with four wins in the side’s first five matches to open the Premier League campaign. Perhaps, this huge gamble by the club might just pay off?

Then the Everton injury curse struck and just like for Carlo Ancelotti last season, it sabotaged the solid start his team had made.

However, unlike Ancelotti Benitez wasn’t able to effectively respond to this challenge. He persisted with player selections and tactics that simply weren’t working and things kept getting worse with the side enduring what is now the worst run of form in the league.

As results declined his tense relationship with Blues supporters began to deteriorate, although tellingly it wasn’t the manager who was the main focus of the gathering protests towards the end of last year.

In a rebuke to the typical media view that Evertonians would never give Benitez a chance, in fact it was the board who were the principle targets of fans frustration and disafection.

In the end though, things just couldn’t go on with the Toffees losing game after game and in the manner they were doing.

Benitez’s presence in the dugout was becoming an increasingly toxic factor and it seemed to me that after the Brentford game last November the worm had turned and it was very hard to see him recovering.

Well, now he’s gone and the apparently endless groundhog day of the Everton managerial merry-go-round begins once again.