As Carlo Ancelotti turned his back on Everton and followed his heart to Madrid, plenty of column inches have been dedicated to the future of James Rodriguez, the former Real Madrid and Bayern Munich play-maker who described their relationship as ‘like father and son’.
But spare a thought for another Everton player who made the move to Goodison Park at Ancelotti’s request last summer.
It was the affable Italian who convinced Allan to put pen to paper on a £21 million deal in September 2020.
Yet if the tough-tackling Brazil international was sad to see Ancelotti go so soon , the subsequent arrival of another former Napoli coach would at least be some consolation.
“(Maurizio) Sarri is incredible. He is a very intelligent person,” Allan said back in 2015, at the start of his debut season with the Partenopei.
“He knows how to deal with 100 per cent of the players. The team follows him and does what the coach asks. He knows how to motivate the team and with him we will achieve important things.”
Sarri and Ancelotti might have both taken up residence in the Napoli dugout, but that is where the similarities end between two 60-something Italian tacticians.
Chain-smoking, potty-mouthed and never afraid to stir up controversy, Sarri would certainly shake up a team that slumped to a mediocre, mid-table finish during Ancelotti’s one-and-only full season on the blue half of Merseyside.
Calciomercato reports that, after holding talks with Arsenal and Tottenham, the 62-year-old former Chelsea manager is in contention to replace the genial, somewhat grandfatherly figure of Ancelotti at Goodison.
“Sarri is maniacal and, thanks to that, he gave us a spectacular style,” Allan would later say of a man who, in the words of Mauricio Pochettino, had Napoli playing ‘the most beautiful football’ in the whole of Europe.
“We had fun because on the pitch because we always had the ball possession.
“Ancelotti is different from Sarri.”
You can say that again.
While Ancelotti’s Everton quickly became plodding and predictable, Sarri’s ‘spectacular’ Napoli side should give supporters an extra reason to look forward to a long-awaited return to the Goodison Park terraces.
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