They won’t appreciate him enough. That’s for sure.
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And it won’t be easier to shift the dead weight out. 5 managers in 5 years and there’s a lot of players bought for different styles. What Rafa is good at is making 1-2 low cost signings and getting the best out of what he has. You’ve seen that with Newcastle and Ashley has had to spend money on the team more after Rafa’s left just to finish around the same positions.
For all the banter and lack of respect paid to them (mostly for how their teams where rubbish at Everton) most of the managers Everton have had since Moyes have actually been perfectly fine. Its the club that’s the problem. I don’t see how appointing Rafa fixes that. They’ve got no consistency or plan in place, they lurch from one tactical set up under one manager to a dramatically different one under the next meaning there is always significant amounts of “deadwood” and square pegs in round holes. And they’re getting more and more impatient, if the fans never take to him and Rafa fails to challenge for top 4 (say like West Ham did this year, not make top 4) and/or win a cup they may well do the popular thing by letting him go after only one year. At which point they’ll probably hire another manager with another completely different tactical style. They’re a mess and there is no guarantee Rafa will be given the time, resources and autonomy to even start to fix things.
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I think when managers go into a difficult job, how much credit they have walking in on day 1 counts for a lot. Rafa had a ton because of how ruthlessly effective that valencia side in 02-03 was that he brought to Anfield and put on what many consider one of the most one sided beat downs they’d ever seen us subjected to. I know many Rafa Skeptics who emotionally leaned on this heavily after bad results. There was an obvious throughline from what he was trying to do with the team he inherited to the Valenciapool side he was trying to create.
For a lot of Everton fans that base level of credit is negative, and even if the majority of fans are willing to give him a shot, for such a negative ground the prosects of it not spilling over unless he gets off to a fast start are near certain Im afraid.
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One thing I know is Rafa will not be fazed by any negativity from the Everton fanbase. The guy’s got balls the size of grapefruits. The Chelsea fans hated him to a man and most of the players weren’t delighted about him being there but he didn’t care. Just came in, did his thing, got them into the top 4 and won the Europa League. They still hated him.
Much as I love him I think he’s a bit past it now. There was a time when he could have had his pick of jobs but not many queuing up to take him now so the combination of convenience and it being one of the few well paid jobs he’s likely to get makes Everton a good choice for him personally although professionally I am not sure it’s so great. Tend to agree with ARD that Everton are just going from one big name to another, just to show they can actually get them but without any real plan in place.
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I think the biggest red flag is their director of football, who they recently invested in retaining and placed on the board, was reportedly not even engaged about this hiring. It might work out well for Everton, but it’s exactly the sort of ownership that makes success at a club near impossible to acheive.
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This is best exemplified by their current shitshow. Let’s appoint a respected director of football and then completely freeze him out of the manager selection process.
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And as such, just adds to the growing list of bitty jobs Rafa has had in recent years.
The quality of the man, at least to my eyes, is such that he should be going down as one of the great managers, a man who is well regarded by the wider football world.
Instead, he will be seen as more of a jobbing manager. The way it ended for him at Liverpool, and what he has done since, serves to illustrate that talent is only part of what is needed.
The other huge ingredient can be summed up by the word ‘circumstances.’ You enter the right set up, and/or are allowed to create it, then when talent is added, you will shine.
Rafa has all the talent in the world, but the circumstances have never quite lined up for him post Liverpool. Everton will be another in that sequence.
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That’s what I meant by reputation damage by fighting H&G. As fans we loved him for sticking his neck out, disagreeing with hierarchy. But it came at a huge cost.
Much of the UK media already hated him. The public spat portrayed him as unhinged, difficult to work with, a control freak. More hassle than it was worth. Broughton parachuted in only reinforced that perception with his comments afterward.
Once his was tarred with that brush clubs weighed up talent vs personality. Those clubs interested were only ever after a gun for hire, a short term option. I would include Everton in that category too. The best thing Rafa could do at this stage in his career is be become an international manager. I could see him taking a Croatia/Denmark/Greece and winning the Euros.
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I think nobody in football would care about his issues with the ownership situation at Liverpool if it was the only time he’d had issues. But directly before us he left Valencia (despite them being successful) because he didn’t have control of recruitment (which seems a bit ungrateful when you think of that clubs finances vs their rivals and how good a squad he was given/what he was able to do with it). And then straight after leaving us his next job lasted 6 months after a public falling out with the people who ran that club because he demanded they back him or sack him. Victim of circumstances maybe but you add those 3 jobs together back to back and how could he have anything but a dubious reputation? Longest he’s stayed anywhere since is his two year stint at Napoli (and the feeling was they weren’t sad to lose him at the end of the contract) and 3 years at Newcastle which did nothing to patch up his reputation whether he deserves it or not. The last place Rafa should have agreed to work when he went to Newcastle was a club with a dodgy owner he wouldn’t be able to get on with. He needed then (and needs even more now) a club where there would be a nice stable working relationship with the people who run the club and recruitment side. Fix the reputation issue and his next job would be a massive one again. You look at his managerial career and its a fall from grace.
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Like Rafa and will always appreciate what he has done for us, but don’t think I will wish him all the best at Everton.
I think he is a good manager for Everton, with his strengths being the ability to organise the defence and get the most out of limited players. I sense that he won’t last long at Everton though, given they got rid of Big Sam for playing boring football as well. For me, he and Mourinho belong in the early 2000s era of football managers when the intensity/speed of the game was slower and their football philosophy is based on denying space in dangerous areas rather than proactively trying to win the ball back (that more modern managers like Pep and Klopp employ).
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That’s hilarious! 
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This completely destroys his legacy for me. Others feel otherwise - so be it. That’s modern football for you. I hope it’s a disaster and he ends up getting them relegated but I know that this is not likely to happen. He is a very good manager and probably the best they could get.
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Quite right but someone very recently did win a premier league title playing exactly that brand of football in ranieri.
Everton will defeat themselves out of contention but give Rafa one CB one CM and assuming he gete richarlison to stay… He can make a team that is a europa level.
I don’t think he will be allowed to do well there.
A few bad results and they village idiots will want blood.
I can see there being an even more pungent version of toxicity round that place for the Rafa Era
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Ironically proving @ISMF’s point. At Valencia he didn’t get what he needed. They bought him a player in a position that he didn’t feel needed reinforcement, and didn’t get the position he needed. If Edwards ever did that to Jürgen you’d be protesting in the streets.
At Inter, he inherited a team full of old players who were completely drained by Mourinho, as is what usually happens with his teams. It’s not like Inter had resounding success after replacing him. Napoli haven’t actually achieved anything on top of what he did after either. I’m guessing that their ownership is more than happy to just keep treading water.
The fact you need to give context and reasons/excuses is why it looks bad. On the surface Rafa wasn’t happy someone else was in charge of recruitment at Valencia than him. On casual appraisal was that person doing a bad job? Certainly doesn’t seem to have been. Most clubs these days, especially top clubs, have that format. Next job whether justified or not he showed how he can go to war with owners in a manner that would scare the shit out of most owners. They aren’t in it for football reasons, they’re making money, washing blood money, making status symbols etc all things fans can be turned against at most clubs. And Inter, to come off such a successful period with the largest most expensive squad in Italian football at the time and make a “back me or sack me” not a “let me move on and bring in players as I like to change the squad how I want” just came across as … strange. And not something most clubs would be comfortable with.
I love the guy, but Rafa is as mad as a box of frogs and could start a fight in an empty room.
I think where Rafa is now, he is sort of yesterday’s man, a bit like Mourinho and Wenger in that he represents the best of the previous generation of manager - who wanted to run clubs themselves, run the scouting and transfer negotiations, etc.
The more modern managers are happy to trust to others and let specialists do their thing. Klopp will let his analysis and recruitment teams look after those areas.
If Liverpool needed a manager tomorrow, I wouldn’t look at Benitez, harsh as that sounds. I think football has just moved on.
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