Everton told to abandon Rafa Benitez pursuit after journalist’s Jurgen Klopp comparison
Everton should look across Stanley Park at Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp and abandon their pursuit of Rafa Benitez, according to the Mirror’s Andy Dunn.
Benitez, who managed Everton’s Merseyside rivals between 2004-2010, is reported to be high on the list of potential successors to Carlo Ancelotti, who left Goodison Park on June 1 to return to Real Madrid.
Indeed, it was reported by Simon Maddock in the Mirror earlier this week [17/06/21] that a deal to take Benitez to Everton was on the verge of completion.
However, that would be a big mistake, according to Dunn.
“Of course, Benitez had a great job at a great club, but he left Newcastle United for a whopping deal in China,” Dunn wrote in the Mirror.
“When you get to that age, stuffing your retirement pot is a sensible option.
“And this would just be blue icing on the nest-egg cake.
“What a contrast to Jurgen Klopp.
“Benitez has been a good coach and is clearly a decent man. But across the park, Liverpool have a manager who gets the club, who is in his prime, who is fiercely ambitious, who sees his current job as the absolute pinnacle of his career.
“Benitez, after the money-grab in China, will be on job number 13.
“Farhad Moshiri is looking for his fifth permanent manager and he only took over in 2016.
“If he gives Rafa the gig, it won’t be long before he is looking for his sixth.”
Marriage of convenience
It’s a cushty little job for Benitez to take.
He still lives locally and he will be handed a mega contract to tie him to the Blues for a number of years, and that will protect him in the event that Moshiri realises his mistake and pulls the trigger on his Goodison Park stay.
Unless he goes on to win something with us, the Spaniard’s reputation with Liverpool fans will not be hugely tarnished. They’ll just claim that we appointed an over-the-hill manager who only gave his best years to them, and then fleeced their fierce rivals of millions.
It’s us, though, that will have to pick up the pieces from the inevitable failure.
The environment already feels toxic, and that’s before anything has actually been officially announced.
If Moshiri has any sense, he’ll listen to people like Dunn, as well as our fans, and realise the major mistake he is about to make.
In other Everton news, two journalists were left stunned by ITV pundit’s remarks on this Blues star.
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