Latest crisis is Everton’s last chance to get it right – by Matt Townsend

As we all know Everton are still getting used to the shock departure of Carlo Ancelotti to Real Madrid last week and the need to now find their sixth new manager in the past five years.

It’s hard to know where to start with this latest managerial crisis as Everton have to begin all over again as they look for the latest first-team manager to try and turn around this seemingly eternally floundering football club. It’s actually a little embarrassing and the Toffees really are beginning to resemble a soap opera and not a funny one either.

I’m not sure exactly what had happened behind the scenes at Goodison last week as the Italian decided to jump ship and leave.

In reality if Real Madrid come calling very few coaches would say no and as soon as it was apparent Los Blancos wanted him back, Ancelotti was it seems sold on the move.

Maybe too Ancelotti wasn’t given the assurances about transfer spending he wanted, or perhaps he’d realised just how much work there was to do to turn the Blues around after that dreadful run of home form last season and didn’t fancy it, maybe it’s just the prospect of the Spanish sun and lifestyle.

Well anyway he’s gone now and the club have to move on. Now comes an absolutely massive decision for the board and it’s one they simply have to get right. There are a host of names being mentioned of course from the absurd (like Steven Gerrard) to the maybes (such as Eddie Howe) to the probable’s including current bookies favourite Nuno Espirito Santo.

My own preferred choice would be German coach Ralf Rangnick who I think ticks all the boxes for what the Toffees need. He’s an expereinced manager, a sound tactician who preaches a modern, positive, pressing style and in fact has influenced a succession of fellow German coaches including Jurgen Klopp and Julian Naglesmann. He could work with a Director of Football like Marcel Brands and also believes in building a clear identity for his teams, something Everton desperately need after so much upheaval and constant change. But I doubt he will be walking through the door at Finch Farm when this saga is finally resolved.

Whoever does though will have to be a success – and stay for more than a year and a half – if there is any chance of this once great club regaining anything like its former glories.

After so many false starts and failures, so much wasted money and mediocre players signed and so much heady talk about ambition and success, which are still unfulfilled, this feels like the last chance saloon. If Everton don’t get the right man in now it will surely be impossible to build a competitive, winning team by the time the club move to the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in summer 2024.

And that’s a key issue because we don’t really want to be in Spurs position in three years’ time. In many respects Tottenham are a template for where the Toffees might be heading.

They have been a historically successful club (albeit more in cups than league titles), were once considered to be one of the old ‘big five’ alongside Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool but have struggled for years to punch their weight in the Premier League era.

Spurs have just like Everton recently, been through a host of managers over the years in the attempt to find success, some high-profile, others virtual unknowns in a vain attempt to find the formula for sustained success. It looked like they had finally got the right man with Mauricio Pochettino as they got into the Champions League and reached the final in 2019, but in the end, it seemed to stall and go sour and they got rid of him bringing in a big-name coach in Jose Mourinho, just as Everton did with Ancelotti.

Again like the Blues, they have an ambitious board and had embarked on a massive project to build a new home to help them compete in modern football. They’ve got that ground but the cost has been enormous and has hit their finances hard.

So, with the Mourinho experiment having seemingly inevitably failed they are just like the Toffees looking for another manager this summer and in a very uncertain position. It seemed as though Antonio Conte was going there but talks broke down apparently because Tottenham couldn’t offer him enough reassurances about how much he would have to spend on new players.

All this is a little bit of a crystal ball for the Blues as to what may happen to Everton if they can’t find some stability and get this next appointment right.

Yes, Spurs aren’t in crisis but they’ve got a hugely costly stadium to pay for and hardly any money with that and the post-Covid environment. There are persistent rumours that their best player Harry Kane wants to leave and so it’s tough to attract the best coaches, develop a team good enough to compete on the pitch, get the European football they need to pay for it and make sure they fill the new ground.

So I don’t envy the Blues board having to make this decision it’s a very difficult one to be sure. Do they try again to get a big name like Antonio Conte or Maurizio Sarri, a foreign coach without English football experience such as Rangnick? A manager experienced in the Premier League but still untested at this level such as Eddie Howe or one who’s got a successful track record but has a lot of adverse baggage such as Rafa Benitez? Or finally do they go for a coach who is promising and would likely bring stability, but who still divides opinion like Santo?

It’s a bewildering set of options and of course there are no guarantees that whoever the club eventually decide upon will be successful. As fans all we can do is wait and see.