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Everton are paying the price of poor planning

Manager search drags on.

Everton v Arsenal - Premier League Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images

Everton had to fire Ronald Koeman. Had to. No complaints on that count at all, it had to be done. However, David Unsworth is clearly in way over his head trying to match wits against top flight managers. The man is great at developing talent, but he’s just not tactically sophisticated enough to survive at this level.

There are two ways to go about a manager change. Either a) you bring in the full time replacement immediately, having the plan sorted before you let your current manager go, or b) you fire your manager when you finally feel it’s time, and then you start your search from scratch then.

Everton seem to have taken the latter approach, and they have encountered one of the key dangers of doing so. When you hire a manager immediately after getting rid of the previous problem, the new manager knows exactly what he’s walking in to. When you do things the way Everton has, the situation is a fluid one.

The worse Unsworth’s results, the worse the situation at Everton is, and the worse a job Everton is as a club. After getting their doors blown off by Southampton, Everton is currently a very bad job for anyone to take.

I told you at the outset of this search to forget about names like Tuchel or Ancelotti, and the truth of that has been hammered home in recent weeks, but now, the real question is whether any proven manager would want to touch this thing as it currently stands. I am always a proponent of not firing a manager unless you know who his replacement is, and this instance has reinforced that belief in me.

Everton are nearly to December and it’s clear their current manager is going to lead them into serious threat of relegation if he keeps his job.

The Blues have no strong prospects for replacing him, and they sink further towards danger each week. Despite a banner year for Everton from a business perspective, things on the pitch are as dire as they’ve been in a long time, and right now I have no idea who is going to lead the club out of it.

Today’s latest news about Everton going back to Sam Allardyce only reinforces the belief about how inept the Blues’ Board is in making a decision. Farhad Moshiri says we are close, but the rumor mill doesn’t seem to back up his claim. Hang in there Toffees, we aren’t out of the woods yet.