Everton were willing a large sum to prise Marco Silva away from Watford. But with that move now dead in the water, which manager could they turn to?
Marco Silva seemed to be Everton’s only choice to replace the now departed Ronald Koeman as first-team manager, and sure that made sense. But with Watford refusing to budge they now have to consider alternatives.
So who should they be looking at? Well, assuming they are unable to convince Thomas Tuchel (an almost 100% certainty) then the only person they should consider is David Unsworth.
Unsworth was in charge of he u23 side and has taken caretaker control of the senior men’s team since Koeman’s departure. He’s not a fashionable name, but is something of an Everton legend and is also respected by the fans.
His time in charge began with three straight defeats, which isn’t good. Although none of those games were at Goodison Park and two were against palpably superior sides in Chelsea and Lyon (and they gave the Blues a good game).
In Unsworth’s first home game he came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Marco Silva’s Watford. His team carried that form forward into their next away game against Crystal Palace where they drew 2-2. The point is, after some initial woe, he’s getting the hang of things and is clearly capable of inspiring his players to do more.
Moreover he’s disavowing the disinterested players on big money (e.g. Kevin Mirallas) and bringing youngsters through. Jonjoe Kenny is become a fixture at right-back, Ademola Lookman and Tom Davies are featuring regularly. Dominic Calvert-Lewin has played and should play more. Beni Baningime was given his debut too.
Everton have a brilliant youth set-up and had three starters in the 2017 u-20 FIFA World Cup Final, including Calvert-Lewin who scored the winning goal. It’s about time that these youngsters were given a clear path into the first-team. After all, no one wants to repeat the missteps that were made with Brendan Galloway’s development.
The fact is, Everton spent so much money in the summer that any new “full-time” manager won’t really have much leeway to improve the squad in January; so why appoint someone? Why not let Unsworth do what he does best; coach players, work with youth and drive Everton forward using the talent available to him?
Then in the summer, sure, pursue your big name if you want to; court a famous coach, maybe even take another run at Marco Silva and hope Watford are more compliant. Although by then David Unsworth may well have proven that you don’t need to do that at all. Trust the man.
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