Relegation-threatened Everton is in danger of becoming quite comfortable at or near the bottom of the Premier League table across the last two seasons in the top flight of English football, with the Toffees once again facing the prospect of dropping down to the Championship/Second Division for the first time in nearly 70-years.
As Frank Lampard penned a heartfelt farewell message to Toffees supporters despite a turbulent period on the blue half of Merseyside, owner Farhad Moshiri is once again tasked with trying to get the next appointment on the touchline correct; a task that he has spectacularly failed in since his arrival at Goodison Park.
Links with former Leeds United taskmaster Marcelo Bielsa have dominated the headlines for the club of late, especially after the Argentine suggested that the senior squad was not up to scratch and would need serious culling if he were to take the job, though he was not against managing the club in the Championship should they fail to avoid the drop.
But there is growing interest from the club in Real Madrid assistant manager Davide Ancelotti, son of managerial legend Carlo Ancelotti, in what would be the Toffees’ version of a Mikel Arteta-style appointment. The 33-year-old Parma-born coach had a very limited career on the pitch before turning to coaching in 2016 and is said to be seriously considering the prospect of taking up the vacancy.
Moshiri’s previous insistence on bringing in big names rather than the correct fit has certainly played a key role in plunging the club into mediocrity far below the stature it holds across the English football landscape, with SL Football offering data to suggest that the one-time Moshiri went for fit over gravitas in the vein of now current Fulham boss Marco Silva, Everton had the right man for the job; a level that no manager before or after him has been capable of emulating.
Certainly, there are other risks involved with a possible Ancelotti “junior” appointment despite being on his father’s staff when Carlo managed the club from 2019-21, namely, the fact that he is just 33-years-old.
However, Davide has spent years as an assistant manager at some of the biggest clubs in the world when he was under his father’s command at Bayern Munich, SSC Napoli, and now Real Madrid, with seven years of exposure at the top level in management and all the expectations that come with being at club’s that push for major honors.
If Arsenal’s story of a slow, structured, long-term burn of progression under Arteta is anything to go by, and the unheralded success of Silva over prominent figures that failed where he succeeded, perhaps Moshiri and the club need to think out of the box once again and take a risk.
