Everton may need to move on from Marco Silva

According to Sky Sports, Everton have seen another offer for Watford boss Marco Silva rejected by the Hornets. In fact, the Hertfordshire club have told the Merseysiders that Silva is not available at any price.

The 40-year-old is number one target for Everton major shareholder Farhad Moshiri in the Toffees search for a boss to move the team forward.

Reportedly, Silva is interested in talking to the Merseysiders. The former Hull boss has also refused to commit his long-term future to the Hornets, which also suggests that he would fancy the switch to Goodison Park.

It seems that the only way Silva could now move to Everton is if he decided to quit his role as Watford boss. However, there is no indication that he is preparing to do so at the minute.

Despite Watford’s seemingly firm stance on Silva leaving, the Portuguese boss is still the favourite to be the next permanent Everton at 5/4.

A huge gamble

Marco Silva moving to Everton would be a huge gamble for the Portuguese boss. Silva is highly-rated and regarded as a bright young coach heading to a club competing at the bottom of the table could be career suicide.

The pressure on Silva to succeed at Everton would be far bigger than he faces at Watford. The Hornets are no doubt happy to be midtable.

However, Everton have far bigger long-term ambitions, even if they are currently behind the Hornets in the Premier League table. Big expectations lead to big pressure.

From Everton’s point of view, Silva is the sort of forward-thinking boss they want to hire to do a long-term job at the club. He would be an exciting appointment.

The problem is his sole experience in English football is suffering relegation with Hull, before guiding Watford to midtable after 11 games. Everton’s squad is underperforming and unbalanced. The pressure would be on Silva to deliver instant results at Goodison Park.

The Portuguese boss has a history of fast starts with previous clubs. Whether he could turn around the current Everton team’s fortunes, we may never know.

Managerial search a real mess

Everton’s managerial search for a replacement for Ronald Koeman has become a farce. The Toffees sacked the former Southampton boss a month ago and fans quite rightly believed that the club had a replacement lined up.

However, that was not the case. Sam Allardyce and Sean Dyche were just a few of the names strongly linked with the job, along with Silva of course. Everton even reportedly offered Allardyce the job until the end of the season, but the former England boss was not prepared to take such a short-term deal.

Current interim boss David Unsworth has picked-up just one win from his five games in temporary charge. The under-23 boss is a popular figure at the club and everybody is willing him to succeed.

The team have produced spirited displays in recent games. However, there are major question marks over whether the inexperienced Unsworth can get the Toffees out of their current position just above the relegation zone.

With the Toffees seemingly struggling to appoint a boss on a permanent basis, Unsworth may just get the job until the end of the season. It is a sad state of affairs for a club that started the season in such high spirits.

Relegation a real threat

Hardly anybody would have foreseen Everton facing a relegation scrap this season. However, the confidence and atmosphere at the Merseyside club is very low at the minute, despite the team picking up four points from their last two league games.

A 2-2 draw at bottom club Crystal Palace showed both the good and bad of the current team. They conceded two poor goals but showed decent spirit to come back and get a point from the game.

Unsworth has lifted the spirits slightly in the Everton squad. However, whether the under-23 boss will get the job on a long-term basis remains unclear.

Whatever happens, the clubs hierarchy needs to bring some clarity to the situation, as it has now dragged on for too long. It is certainly not helping the team’s performances on the pitch or the fans worries off it.

Should Everton move on from Marco Silva?