Five candidates to replace the sacked Rafa Benitez at Everton

After the embarrassing and shameful 2-1 defeat to Norwich at Carrow Road on Saturday, the Everton hierarchy have acted quickly to dismiss Rafa Benitez. A club official announcement was made to confirm the news on Sunday afternoon.

This not surprising news since the defeat to an Everton team who had lost their last six games without scoring has been spreading like wildfire from early Saturday evening.

An emergency board meeting took place on Saturday evening where unanimously it was decided Benitez’s position was untenable.

After 6 months and a spell that only witnessed 5 wins in 19 league games, plus a League Cup exit away at QPR, Benitez has paid the price.

Most Evertonians didn’t want him here in the first place and when the downturn in form started at the end of October the fanbase was quick to let the owner Farhad Moshiri and the board know exactly what they think.

This is the shortest reign of an Everton manager in the history of the club at 195 days.

Benitez also has the worst win percentage, 31.82%, by far of any Everton manager since David Moyes took charge in 2003 as you can see below:

Now Moshiri and the board must eat humble pie and make another massive decision to appoint Benitez’s successor.

It is likely as it was after Marco Silva left the club in November 2019, that Duncan Ferguson will be asked to take temporary charge of the first team squad for at least the Aston Villa game with possibly Leighton Baines stepping up from his under-18 role to assist.

After the Villa game there is a two week break scheduled at present until the FA Cup 4th Round game versus Brentford on the 5th February so this will give Moshiri more time to seek out the man he needs to turn Everton’s season around and start to plan for next season.

On the following slides we will look at the five of the favourites to succeed Benitez and what they could bring to the Everton manager role.