Nick Ware

Tue 22 June 2021 18:40, UK

Everton should forget Rafa Benitez and hire Brighton manager Graham Potter, according to former Blues captain Don Hutchinson.

The Liverpool Echo reported on Tuesday [22/06/21] that Benitez was still the frontrunner to succeed Carlo Ancelotti at Goodison Park, although the likes of 46-year-old Potter, Nuno Espirito Santo and Christophe Galtier have still been discussed.

Responding via his personal Twitter profile Hutchinson, one of the few players to cross the Merseyside divide when he signed for Everton in 1998, four years after leaving Liverpool, expressed his dismay at the suggestion Benitez could still be appointed.

Hutchinson, who was made Blues captain by Walter Smith after Duncan Ferguson was stripped of the honour, and when Dave Watson was out, wrote: “This will end in tears inside one season. Never going to work.

“Just get Potter in, give him two or three years. No drama, no big ego, no massive payoff if it doesn’t work.”

Benitez bite just around the corner

The ex-Liverpool boss isn’t exactly famed for his ultra-cool, laidback personality that washes well with boardroom bigwigs.

Benitez clashed with Liverpool figures on multiple occasions, and he gained a reputation as a snidey, grumbling individual who couldn’t handle losing.

Just ask Sir Alex Ferguson for the ‘facts’.

Benitez is not a manager with a charming personality that will be able to change the course of opinion in a few smooth interviews and cajole supporters into thinking he’s the ‘one’.

It would take a sensational start to the season for the tide to turn. We’re talking a 10, 15, 20 game unbeaten streak.

That’s unrealistic, and even if the dream did come true, there would still be vast swathes of supporters that still wouldn’t have him as their manager.

In other Everton news, Simon Jordan has fired a warning to Farhad Moshiri over this materialistic manager.

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