Duncan Castles: Everton urged Nuno not to take Crystal Palace job
Everton are yet to offer Nuno Espirito Santo a contract despite telling him he’s their number one choice for manager and urging him to not take the Crystal Palace job, according to Sunday Times journalist Duncan Castles.
Last week, it was widely reported that Nuno was set to be appointed as the next manager at Goodison Park with the Guardian reporting talks were at an advanced stage and a conclusion was hoped to have been reached at the end of the weekend.
However, nothing has progressed in a deal for Nuno and Castles reports that is down to the Merseyside club.
Speaking on the Transfer Window podcast [47m35s], Castles said: “That is the question being asked by Nuno Espirito Santo, basically where is the contract offer Everton said they had ready for him?
“He talked to them in the immediate aftermath of Carlo Ancelotti choosing to leave the club for Real Madrid. He was told he was first choice, waited for the contract to be presented to him but it didn’t come and then he had more extensive discussions with Crystal Palace, who did offer him a contract and they expected him to sign it – he had verbally agreed to sign it.
“Then he gets phone calls from Everton saying, ‘don’t – you are the man we want to be manager, money is not an object in terms of your wage demands’.
“And yet, here we are, almost a week further on from that discussion and the formal contract hasn’t been presented.”
Being messed about
Nuno must not be happy about this.
He was told he was the number one pick at Goodison as soon as Ancelotti left and walked away from another job offer in order to keep his options open with the Blues.
And now he’s sat around waiting for a contract offer from the Merseyside outfit.
Could something like this put him off?
It remains to be seen why Everton are yet to table a formal contract offer to the former Wolves manager, who led the Midlands club to promotion to the Premier League and the Europa League.
But Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright need to get this sorted as soon as possible because each day that goes by without a manager is a day wasted in terms of planning for next season.
We need to see a huge improvement upon this season from when Ancelotti was in charge.
Everton showed great promise at the start of the season but that all fizzled out in the New Year and our home form was wretched.
We need to see a manager in place in the next few days and we do think Nuno is the right man for the job.
In other Everton news, this Toffees ace has posted a picture of himself in a Leicester shirt on social media.
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