Everton couldn’t land Paulo Fonseca over the summer, according to reports.
Everton are struggling under Marco Silva, and fans would be forgiven for wondering how things could have been so different last summer.
The Toffees have won just three of their last 12 Premier League games, and have crashed out of the FA Cup at the hands of Championship strugglers Millwall.
Their home form has been dismal too, as the weekend thumping by Wolves followed on from recent home defeats to Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur.
Silva is now under huge pressure to save his job, and it’s worth remembering that, according to The Mirror, Silva was Farhad Moshiri’s second choice both in October 2017 and last summer.
They claimed that Everton wanted Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca instead, only for the Portuguese boss to choose to stay in Ukraine instead.
So, as Silva struggles at Everton, just how is Fonseca faring? Well, after winning two league titles in a row, it’s no great surprise to see his Shakhtar side sitting top of the league table this season.
Fonseca has Shakhtar seven points clear of Dynamo Kiev, having lost just one league game this season, whilst boasting a +34 goal difference after conceding only nine goals in 18 games.
In Europe, Shakhtar narrowly missed out on qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League, but will fancy their chances of progression in the Europa League after being drawn against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Fonseca continues to impress, and whilst there is the caveat that the Ukrainian league is of lesser quality, and Shakhtar at the ‘big dog’ of Ukrainian football whereas Everton are merely attempting to finish seventh, his exploits remain impressive.
Fonseca may well have been a better appointment than Silva, and it would be little surprise to see the Toffees may another push for him in the future, which may come sooner than expected if Silva doesn’t turn results around soon.
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