Simon Jordan warns Everton off Rafa Benitez appointment
According to ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan, Everton could make a big mistake by hiring Rafa Benitez as their next manager.
Benitez is still in serious contention to replace Carlo Ancelotti at Goodison Park, despite reports that Everton owner Farhad Moshiri may pull the plug over fan pressure. [Alan Myers, Sky Sports]
However, speaking on talkSPORT [22/06/21], Jordan fears the Blues could be left high and dry by the Spaniard.
“My view on Benitez is he uses clubs as a stepping stone,” he said.
“He did a decent job at Newcastle United, I don’t think his career is in the ascendancy. He didn’t go to further his football knowledge to go to China, he went to China to get paid a big bag of money. It hasn’t worked over there because the Chinese league has fallen apart and the quality has dropped and he wants to come back.
“Is that the reasons Everton need a Rafa Benitez, or do Everton need somebody that’s going to get hold of it and get rid of the deadwood and build something, because you get the impression Moshiri will give them the time, to some extent.
“I think, quite frankly, Ancelotti has done them a favour by going to Real Madrid because all he would have done is given them another 10 or 12 months of monotony.”
Mercenary?
We’ve got no doubts that Benitez would sail off into the sunset at the first opportunity, were he to be handed the Everton reigns by Moshiri.
This is a marriage of convenience for him, in that he still lives locally and would not have to uproot while earning a hefty wage.
He showed little regard for Liverpool when he joined one of their bitter rivals Chelsea in 2012, only two years after leaving the Reds.
So how much faith is he really going to have with us after having such a strong history with Liverpool?
With Ancelotti, we’ve seen that managers, and people in football, can be very individualistic and self-centred, concerned only about their careers. Will Benitez be any different if, say, Real Madrid came calling for him again?
It would be a big risk appointing Benitez for a number of reasons, not least because this should be a defining point in our modern history where we really assess where we’re going going, and put some roots down for the future.
Unfortunately, it looks like Moshiri is heading for another mistake.
In other Everton news, the Blues have sounded out this 63-year-old manager with two league titles in Europe.
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