Everton are moving for a new manager to replace Rafael Benitez – and former Lyon boss Rudi Garcia is believed to be a contender.
Everton decided to sack Rafael Benitez on Sunday, wielding the axe after a 2-1 defeat away at lowly Norwich City.
The hunt for Benitez’s successor is now on, with Farhad Moshiri really needing to get this one right.
Moshiri has been through Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Carlo Ancelotti and now Benitez since taking over in 2016.
Sky Sports now claim Everton have a number of targets in mind, with French boss Garcia believed to be one of the options.
Roberto Martinez is thought to be Everton’s top choice, but Garcia is on the list just in case a deal can’t be done for the Spaniard.
Garcia, 57, is out of work having left Lyon at the end of last season and Everton are believed to be interested.
Boasting a win rate of almost 54% at Lyon, Garcia didn’t do a terrible job by any stretch of the imagination.
Garcia is best remembered for a superb five-year spell in charge of Lille, winning the Ligue 1 title back in 2011.
Since then, Garcia has been in charge of Roma and Marseille, winning around half of his games with the two clubs.
Given that Benitez only managed to win just shy of 32% of his games at Everton, Toffees fans would take a manager who wins around half of his games.
Garcia was even a target for Everton over the summer, with L’Equipe claiming contact was made before the Toffees went for Benitez instead.
It seems that Garcia has his fans inside Goodison Park, and he has been hailed in the past for similarities to Pep Guardiola.
Seydou Keita, who played under Guardiola at Barcelona and Garcia at Roma, claimed that the two are similar managers in terms of their style and approach.
That will be exciting to Everton fans who never connected with Benitez, with Garcia an outside shout for the job as things stand.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
