Phil Kirkbride rounds on Everton players as Rafael Benitez sacked
The Everton players need to take plenty of blame for the mess at Goodison as they are overpaid and have failed under multiple managers, says Phil Kirkbride.
The journalist expected that Rafael Benitez would follow Roberto Martinez, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce and Marco Silva out of the club sooner rather than later but pointed the finger at the playing squad, many of whom have outlasted more than one of those names.
Writing in The Liverpool Echo, he wrote: “Benitez has made mistakes – and his team selection has not gone down well – but we also cannot ignore that this group of players, many of whom have played under a succession of those managers, are failing too.
“How many more managers must the club hire to try and get a tune out of a squad that, routinely, comes up short? Everton pay a lot of players handsomely but, clearly, too many are vastly overpaid.
“Yes, this latest journey into the mire has to be Benitez’s responsibility but it’s also the players’ too, and many need to take a long, hard look at themselves.”
Plenty of blame to go round
It cannot be denied that the management of Spaniard Benitez has not been of a high enough level at Goodison.
Almost from the off there has been an air of the embattled relegation candidates that Newcastle supporters will be all too familiar with, as the ex-Magpies boss appeared to slot straight back into this mode upon his return to the Premier League despite two mid-table finishes under Carlo Ancelotti.
But the fact is that even those mid-table finishes are hardly a strong showing for a squad that has had extensive millions pumped into it and should be challenging in the European places.
The Italian is now back at Spanish giants Real Madrid and sitting comfortably at the top of La Liga, suggesting that he still has some of the ability that saw him win three Champions League titles.
Since Martinez was sacked in the summer of 2016, Ancelotti is the only manager who left of his own accord, with Benitez now the fifth manager sacked in that time.
And the players must take some of the blame for that as it is ultimately they who have to perform on the pitch, and the ones who have been at the club for longer must take a larger share.
But it is the ownership of the club that must surely be even more at fault as they are the ones who have presided over all those managerial sackings, have sanctioned huge money to be spent on the squad, and also saw director of football Marcel Brands leave in recent months, all with little to show for it.
In other Everton news, this European league-winning manager is reportedly being lined up to take the manager’s job at the club.