Silva and Gold?

It appears as though Everton have made their minds up. Well, let’s be more specific than that, it appears that Farhad Moshiri has made his mind up.

Everton’s major shareholder wants Marco Silva as the club’s next manager. How he gets his man is going to be very interesting.

As we all know Silva is contracted to Watford for the next two seasons. We’re told that they’ve already turned down two approaches from Everton for Silva, one of which included £10m compensation.

Silva’s head has been turned again. He wants to go to Goodison and he’ll do everything he can to get there. Will that include walking away though? If it does - how can he ever look a player in the face and demand loyalty? His credibility would be shot. The best option would still be that Everton can negotiate him out of Vicarage Road.

My only question really is ‘why’? Have you seen his record? He’s a mercenary. He had three years at Estoril where he delivered promotion back to Portugal’s top tier. He was named the 2nd division’s Manager of the Year in 2011. Over the next three years he delivered Europa League football and a fourth place top tier finish. He walked away from his job on May 12 2014.

He turned up at Sporting nine days later, where he signed a four year. He won the Cup in his first season,  but four days after winning the trophy he was sacked for ‘not wearing the club’s official suit’ in a match against F.C Vizela. How strange!

Happily, just four days after getting the bullet he turned up in Greece, where he took charge of Olympiakos. He did well there - the team broke the record of 11 consecutive league wins from the opening day - he won a CL game at Arsenal and the title with six games to go. It was somewhat surprising then when he walked away in the June stating ‘personal reasons’. I wonder what on earth they could have been?

Next he turned up at Hull in January 2017. He was handed funds to buy three players and he borrowed five more - so quite an injection of talent in a bid to stave off relegation. Sadly for Hull that didn’t happen. After winning just six of his 18 games in charge Hull went down. In the same month (May 25) Silva resigned. Again.

Two days later he was appointed as manager at Watford, where so far he’s won five, drawn three and lost four. Impressive? Not for me. Impressive enough to be handed one of the best jobs in English football? Not for me. In total he’s won just 11 PL games. Does that qualify him to manage Everton? Not for me.

He’s got talent, there is no question about that. He’s a man in a hurry though. He’s not a man for a ‘project’ or the long term. You can be sure if Everton get their man that he’ll see the move simply as a stepping stone to the next big one - and when he does Everton shouldn’t be crying ‘foul’. A leopard never changes its spots.

Two men who fit the bill better are Sam Allardyce and Sean Dyche. I’m sure Big Sam would’ve taken it had Everton committed to him. I just don't think he fancied another ‘rescue’ job.

As for Dyche- what more has he got to do to get a big job? Look where his team are - seventh on 22 points, the same as Liverpool and Arsenal - and just one behind United. Right now Burnley are the ‘best of the rest’.

Dyche has ‘built’ something at Turf Moor. He’s got them out of the Championship twice. It’s hard enough to do that once. He’s stabilised the club. He’s working out of a brand new training facility which he persuaded them to build and he’s one of very few to operate on a summer spending budget that’s seen him make a profit on ins and outs. He’s proven.

I’m afraid Silva’s only proven actions right now appear to be his itchy feet. All that Silva touches does not turn to gold. If Everton get their man I hope they’ve got it right. If they don’t get him now, I’m sure they eventually will, but does that formula include handing David Unsworth the job temporarily? If it does Moshiri is taking even more of a gamble. Moshiri shouldn’t be worrying about his grandiose plans for the future. He should be concentrating on what’s happening at Everton NOW. The truth is they’re in big trouble. And Moshiri might be about to make things a whole lot worse.