Marcel Brands’ revelation that he tried to bring in Mikel Arteta as Everton manager summed up the damaging chaos at the top of the club that has blighted Farhad Moshiri’s tenure.
Brands was the second of three directors of football appointed by Moshiri, serving from May 2018 until December 2021, quitting just eight months after he penned a new contract that would have ran until this summer. When confronted by an irate fan who asked: “Did you recruit them?,” following a 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool as visiting supporters mocked their hosts by singing the name of their former gaffer Rafael Benitez, whose short but not-so-sweet tenure as Blues boss ended the following month, the Dutchman left with the cryptic parting shot of: “Is it only the players?”
Now in a second stint with PSV Eindhoven where he was employed before his time on Merseyside, Brands has claimed he “moved heaven and earth” to bring former Everton player Arteta back to Goodison Park as Marco Silva’s successor in December 2019. The 62-year-old said of his courting of the Spaniard who ended up leaving his position as Manchester City assistant to go back to Arsenal instead: “I spent the entire evening at his house and I saw him as the ideal man for us.”
If ever you needed a perfect example of the dysfunctional factionalism that existed within Goodison Park’s corridors of power under Moshiri for the greater part of his time at Everton then this was it. Former long-serving Blues boss David Moyes has gone on record about this period with the Scot who had previously been in charge of Everton for over 11 years from 2002-13, also having been in discussions for the vacancy.
Like Nuno Espirito Santo when he went for the job in 2021, Moyes was far from being the only person who came out of a conversation with Moshiri thinking one thing, only for something else to happen and speaking last September, said: “When I was being offered the West Ham job, I had actually been in Germany with Farhad Moshiri to take the Everton job. The phone rang, and it was David Sullivan – in the middle of the meeting with Everton.
“I had to say, ‘I can’t speak just now’. But Carlo Ancelotti was sacked by Napoli that night, and they changed tack, even though I was due to sign the day before – I had told David.
“But the next day Everton didn’t make more contact, so I phoned David and said, ‘If it’s still there’, and it couldn’t have gone better – it was the right choice.”
Although Moyes discloses that he was in talks with Moshiri, the ECHO understands that he was he choice of Bill Kenwright, the man who of course hired him first time around some 22 years ago when he coined his “People’s Club” phrase. So there you had Kenwright, typically wearing his heart on his sleeve and yearning for an established ‘Blue blood’ in the dugout again with the late chairman also yearning for David Unsworth and Duncan Ferguson to prove their mettle during caretaker stints.
Brands, as we’ve heard, wanted the modern, cosmopolitan, technical coach, while ultimately Moshiri had the final say and reached for the stars. In the Monaco-based businessman’s defence you could argue that getting a manager of Ancelotti’s stellar CV was a major coup and Everton were fortunate that their paths aligned for their vacancy to crop up just before the Italian, who had won trophies in all of Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues, fell victim to the capricious nature of Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, who the previous month had threatened to put the club’s entire squad up for sale.
But while the Neapolitans’ maverick president might share Moshiri’s twitchy trigger finger, he has revived the club, having bought them when in Serie C and steered them to a first Scudetto since the days of Diego Maradona in 2022/23 whereas Everton’s owner’s profligacy has only led to the worst-performing seasons in their entire history on the pitch and a second PSR charge following their points deduction off it.
Fate decreed that most of Ancelotti’s reign was played behind closed doors and with the Blues currently left fighting for Premier League survival, his tenure has the strange feel of a coronavirus-induced dream with star signing James Rodriguez never even getting to turn out in front of a Goodison Park crowd. Having been given a generous salary befitting a highly-decorated coach of his status, Ancelotti penned a four-and-a-half year contract with Everton but hopes that he’d be the man to lead them into their new stadium were dashed when he was poached by one of his many previous employers Real Madrid, reportedly after he’d called them asking about potential players.
Was it any wonder though? A long-term deal and seemingly relaxed manner as he strolled around local haunts as varied as Crosby Beach and Bootle’s New Strand Shopping Centre – he was the first Everton manager this century to live in Merseyside – made it look like Ancelotti was at home in his surroundings but in truth he was another nomad like Ronald Koeman. The Dutchman had been Moshiri’s first blockbuster name to compete with Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho in England’s North West.
Perhaps the pandemic that robbed Ancelotti of more opportunities to sample the atmosphere of ‘The Grand Old Lady’ and a burglary at his house which left Ancelotti’s teenage daughter screaming when she discovered masked men who stole jewellery and a safe, did not help. However, over his long coaching career, other than his time in charge of AC Milan where he also enjoyed the most-successful spell of his own playing days he had never stayed in a post for longer than two seasons.
At the time, many Blues buzzed off Ancelotti’s cool, calm and collected demeanour, blowing on his cup of tea when those around him on the Goodison touchline celebrated wildly following Bernard’s extra time winner in the 5-4 FA Cup success against Tottenham Hotspur, but perhaps he just wasn’t that bothered? Also, given the severe belt-tightening that Everton were faced to endure in the summer of 2021 after Ancelotti left with Benitez spending just £1.7million on Demarai Gray and bringing in free transfers Andros Townsend, Asmir Begovic and Salomon Rondon, did he know the writing was on the wall in terms of having to slash the budget?
Ironically, if he’d not been the great Carlo Ancelotti, he’d have been facing serious questions over the way the 2020/21 season finished with Everton slumping from second place on Boxing Day to ending the campaign in 10th and missing out on Europe. Yet, back in his natural habitat of massaging the egos of galacticos and into a third season with a club other than Milan for the first time, the now 64-year-old, has won a maiden La Liga title, another Copa del Rey and record-breaking fourth Champions League, showing that unlike his Goodison successor Benitez who got the chop from Celta Vigo earlier this month following his failures back on Merseyside and in China, he’s not a busted flush.
For Everton though it’s been eight managers in as many years under the now want-away Moshiri who has been left sweating on approval of his deal to sell to 777 Partners for over six months. Kenwright warned him against both Sam Allardyce and Benitez but on both occasions the majority shareholder pulled rank.
After Brands and Benitez both departed, those left at the top were united in their choice of Frank Lampard but while the Chelsea legend possessed the kind of glamour as a player that Moshiri craved and was an intelligent and affable unifying force at a time of rifts in the club, make no mistake, as a manager, Everton were hurtling towards the Championship before he was relieved of his duties after less than 12 months in charge.
Even when we turn to the Blues’ most-recent appointment last year, the varying football philosophies at the top of the club were manifesting themselves. How else could you end up with a choice between Sean Dyche and Marcelo Bielsa?
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