Monday, May 14, 2018: a date which should be ringed in blue at Everton.
Not because it will mark the end of a traumatic season, although that is ample enough reason. But, rather, it must signal the start of a move to unify a club fragmented by discord at present.
Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s major shareholder, has endured testing times since buying his stake two years ago, but the real difficulty lies in getting a succession of key decisions right over the coming weeks in order to give the club a chance to stride purposefully forward.
Everton’s CEO Robert Elstone is leaving for rugby league and a role with Super League and a replacement needs to be identified. Decisions need to be made over the future of the director of football Steve Walsh, and the reshaping of the playing squad.
And, to begin with, there needs to be clarity over the manager’s position.
There was another example of Sam Allardyce’s flawed relationship with the club last weekend when he was discussing the prospect of Davy Klaassen, the £23.5 million signing whose sole contribution to the Merseyside derby was his family’s sponsorship of the match ball, being granted some minutes in the coming week.
Allardyce explained he wanted to pick the Holland midfielder but added he did not have the “luxury” of doing so. “If we lose, it’s me that gets the stick,” he opined.
Rooney showed his frustration with Allardyce when he was substituted against Liverpool last weekendPA
The Everton manager’s default position whenever any mention of discontent over his reign has been raised has been to dismiss its significance. The grumbling, he said, is confined to the world of social media, to the prism of Twitter and Facebook, and not truly representative.
Yet saying his own reputation was more important than nurturing that of Klaassen not only felt small-minded, but it took a sledgehammer to his own argument.
If he had stated his focus was on reeling in Leicester City and Burnley over the remaining five games, and that grabbing the additional £4 million prize money on offer precluded experiments then that would have been more acceptable.
The reasoning had to be about what is best for Everton not Allardyce (who is clearly still under the impression he can safeguard his position with a few wins between now and the end of the season).
Allardyce has done what was asked of him since arriving in November, but he has not gone the extra mile. The situation in which he finds himself immersed is symptomatic of deep-rooted issues throughout the club where the disconnect seeps through at most levels.
A recent visitor to the training complex at Finch Farm, one with Everton links, said the atmosphere was noxious.
Patience is in short supply at all football clubs, but the first sign of a downturn at Everton and, generally, there is no way back. Roberto Martinez reached two cup semi-finals, and the last 16 in the Europa League in 2015-16, but was sacked because the crowd and some players believed his tenure had run its course.
This season Goodison Park has witnessed The People versus Ronald Koeman, The People versus Morgan Schneiderlin. Let’s hope we are not seeing the start of The People versus Yannick Bolasie because that would be harsh given the winger, whose substitution last weekend against Liverpool was cheered, is still coming back from a career-threatening injury.
Simmering in the background is Wayne Rooney versus Allardyce, the former England captain’s relationship with the manager is clearly under strain following his substitution against Liverpool having failed to last beyond the hour-mark against Manchester City the previous week.
Moshiri, right, the club’s major shareholder, has a decision to make over the future of Allardyce at the end of the seasonALEX LIVESEY/GETTY IMAGES
Overall, it is Big Sam versus the world and the cynicism towards him does not feel conducive to lasting improvement at a club trying to regain its passion behind a united cause.
Moshiri will be aware of the candidates present elsewhere. Marco Silva is still out of work with Everton having been prepared to pay up to £15 million for him last November when he was at Watford and Paulo Fonseca is coming to the end of his contract with Shakhtar Donetsk. Three of the managers contacted before Koeman’s appointment could also be available in Unai Emery, Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes.
Yet whoever Moshiri entrusts with leading the club forward must be ready to get to work next month alongside the director of football if Everton are persisting with that model.
Either Walsh stays or he is replaced by PSV Eindhoven’s sporting director, Marcel Brands. The idea that the two will work together feels like a fudge, complicating a process that has gone horribly awry since Moyes and chairman Bill Kenwright, and initially Martinez-Kenwright, worked together.
Bucket-loads of cash will not necessarily be the panacea this summer even though any assumption that the nucleus at Everton is good enough is a leap of faith. Trimming back a bloated squad will be easier said than achieved.
Karius proves his worth to earn a point for Liverpool
But all these decisions must come together by mid-May and not late June/July as was the case with the appointments of Koeman/Walsh in 2016. Put simply there is too much to do. Everton are at a pivotal juncture. The vision must become clear.
Across Stanley Park, Liverpool are basking in the limelight this week following progress into the Champions League semi-finals, but Fenway Sports Group are in their eighth year of ownership and would look back now at early decisions (Damien Comolli in and out, Kenny Dalglish in and out) and accept the strategy was initially muddled.
The extent of the problem is such that the most popular figure at Everton right now is Dan Meis.
If he was the young winger Walsh had recruited under the radar during that £200 million spending spree that would be permissible. But Meis is an American architect who is designing Everton’s new stadium. He has just got an Everton tattoo with the number “1878” (which signifies the year the club was founded) inked onto his arm.
The grand plan is for the ground at Bramley Moore dock to be ready for 2022, but dreaming of four years’ time is no longer an option. It is about the present and, specifically, May 14.
