Tarnished Silva: Marco is not quite the treasure Everton believe he is

So it seems Everton’s managerial hunt, which has so far dragged out over two weeks and over an exhaustive list of candidates, has led them to Marco Silva.

If the papers are to be believed, in this case, The Independent, the Blues have already had an approach for the Watford head coach turned down by the club.

Silva, though, is keen to talk to Everton should he get the chance, a fact that is likely to see Farhad Moshiri push harder to get his desired replacement for Ronald Koeman.

Reaction to the news has been somewhat mixed. Evertonians can certainly see the positives, with Watford’s open and expansive football earning rave reviews from all corners this season.

Silva is undeniably a talented coach with a track record of success wherever he’s been to date and that includes his short spell at Hull.

In Portugal, he took Estoril from the second tier to Liga Nos and then, even more impressively. the Europa League twice, before later guiding Sporting CP to the Portuguese Cup.

He’s also the seventh best manager in the league’s history when it comes to points per game (of managers who’ve managed 50 or more games).

In Greece, he took Olympiakos to the Greek title in 2015/16, a season that saw them pick up 85 points in total, their second highest amount since the turn of the millennium.

Last season his stock continued to rise as his nearly pulled off the impossible and led a superb fight back with Hull City.

All of this, coupled with his strong start to life at Vicarage Road, make the Portuguese boss not only the current trendy manager in England but one that plenty of Blues would be happy to see in the dugout.

Yet, it’s not all positive and Everton should be wary of getting excited just yet, due diligence should be done before they put all of their eggs in the Silva basket.

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First and foremost because appointing Silva, which would apparently cost big money, has very similar parallels to the arrival of his predecessor.

Silva, like Koeman, is the manager who is currently in vogue in the league, much as the Dutchman was before his arrival at Goodison Park.

As it turned out, Koeman was not the manager that many thought he was, especially Moshiri, and there is a fear that Silva, whose stock is very much in the ascendancy these days, could turn out the same.

There is also the worrying problem of a false narrative being currently being written about Silva.

For all the positives from Hull last season, they still ended up relegated. Of his 18 games in charge, Silva lost half of them and conceded 36 goals in total.

It’s a similar story at Watford. In his 11 games in charge so far he’s managed as many wins as defeats (four) and his side have conceded more goals than they’ve scored (21 to 17).

His side sit 9^th in the table having lost their last three, that’s behind both Burnley and Brighton and Hove Albion, level with Huddersfield Town and just a point ahead of Newcastle United.

Everton, who by everyone’s reckoning have been awful this season, are only four points behind them.

That’s an Everton side who beat Watford 3-2 in their last game, despite having been 2-0 down inside the second half at one point.

A 1-0 home defeat to Stoke, who sit 14^th in the table, should not be overlooked either. Neither should a defeat to Chelsea, a game most will agree the Hornets should have won but was thrown away because of bad defending.

Everton are a side that have struggled in defence this season, conceding 22 goals in their 11 Premier League games to date. Can they afford to bring in a manager whose teams clearly can’t defend?

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There’s also another factor to consider. At both Hull and Watford, it was not exactly a difficult task to earn praise.

His arrival at both clubs came at a time when performances were at an absolute low. Hull had been dire for the best part of a year while Watford bored everyone to death under Walter Mazzarri for an entire season.

Any change was a positive one and that’s exactly what has happened at both the KCOM and Vicarage Road, it was almost a given he’d be praised given what came before him.

Of course, there is no denying that Silva is a talented manager, he has a strong history in Europe that proves as much.

He has also impressed (relatively) during his time in England so far. There is a case that with Everton’s talented squad, which would be arguably the best he’s ever worked with, he could impress even further.

His brand of football would certainly be more than welcome after the dull fare offered up by Koeman’s teams this season.

But to suggest Silva is a man who brings more positives than negatives would be short-sighted in the extreme.

Behind the handsome looks and attacking football, there is plenty of evidence to suggest the Portuguese boss has some worrying flaws to his management.

Farhad Moshiri would be wise to do his research extensively before proceeding further. Afterall, he got his fingers burned by appointing the last in-vogue coach at Everton and a repeat of that failure could end up costing him more than just compensation.