Former DoF Brands reveals his efforts to make Arteta Everton boss

Everton had just sacked Portuguese coach Marco Silva in late 2019 after a poor run of results had culminated in a humiliating 5-2 defeat at Anfield.

Silva's time has always been for me a case of what might have been. He was inexperienced when he controversially moved from Watford to take the Blues job in summer 2018.

And while results had been erratic early on, once he had found a balanced and settled side the team started to perform much more consistently.

A succession of excellent wins, particularly at home against Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, had seen the Toffees eventually finish eighth. What would we give for a season like that now!?

Then in the summer came a critical transfer window which would ultimately decide his fate.

Everton lost two key players Kurt Zouma who returned to Chelsea after his loan finished and wasn't replaced, and Idrissa Gueye who moved to PSG.

Zouma had formed a solid central defensive partnership with Micheal Keane (yes the same error-prone Keane who now cannot get a game) and his pace had proved critical in helping to provide cover ans insurance alongside his team-mate.

Meanwhile, Gueye was building a strong central midfield with Andre Gomes and his loss was just as important, if not more so.

Gueye's replacement was Jean-Phlippe Gbamin. Unfortunately though the new signing played a couple of games at the start of the next campaign and was then injured never to be seen again.

Silva also wanted to sign Abdoulaye Doucoure whom he had worked with at Watford but the deal couldn't be completed that summer.

So, Everton entered the 2019-20 season with a significantly weaker team and results quickly deteriorated leading to Silva's dismissal in December after that dreadful derby defeat to Liverpool.

The Blues were once again looking for a new manager - something that would become an ever more farcical situation in the coming years - midway through the campaign.

Three names emerged and were linked to the job: David Moyes the former Blues boss, Carlo Ancelotti after he had unexpectedly been fired by Napoli and Mikel Arteta whom Moyes had brought to Goodison.

Ancelotti eventually proved to be Farhad Moshiri's favoured choice and he walked through the doors on a sunny day in mid December to take control of the club with his first match being against Arsenal.

The visitors also had a new manager as Arteta had agreed to leave his role as Pep Guardiola's assistant and re-join the club he had moved to after leaving Everton as a player.

At the time most of us Evertonians were pleased to see a coach of Ancelotti's calibre and profile at the club. And for a while it seemed to be working.

But the combination of the Covid lockdowns which hugely distorted the season and the weakness of the squad overall meant that the campaign ended unsuccessfully. Then Ancelotti jumped ship to return to Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, Arteta has gradually re-built Arsenal and now has a team that is consistently challenging for the Premier League title.

Once again in the end the Toffees made the wrong decision and it precipitated the decline which followed as first Rafa Benitez's always doomed tenure came next before another high-profile manager Frank Lampard took over only to fail too.

Now Sean Dyche is the latest man trying to turn around the sinking ship that is Everton FC after so much failure.

There is no way to know if Arteta would have done a good job, let alone the job he has done at the Emirates, had he been installed as the Blues boss in December 2019, but we will never know.