Everton squad breakdown a stark picture of dysfunctional management under Rafael Benitez
There are more players in the current senior Everton squad signed under the management of Rafael Benitez than any other manager, The Athletic shows.
This is despite the fact that the former boss only spent six unhappy months at Goodison, during which time the club slid towards the relegation zone and the atmosphere around the club turned toxic.
According to the Toffees section in The Athletic’s league-wide breakdown of Premier League squads and who was in charge when they came in, there are seven players signed under the Spaniard.
The next highest total is six who arrived during Marco Silva’s reign, with the next jump down to three each from Carlo Ancelotti and Ronald Koeman’s respective eras.
That would be a startling statistic, signifying major turnover in such a short space of time, if the manager was a success and in the midst of building a positive project.
For that to be the situation despite the man who was only appointed at the end of June already having been sacked, lays out quite clearly why fans were driven to protest at how the club was being run during the protracted search for a new manager in January.
Papered over the cracks
Frank Lampard’s short time in charge has given the Toffees an air of stability, with Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright able to slip into the background after being the focus of so much ire only a month ago.
The former Chelsea boss has brought in a new backroom staff, signed two midfielders and brought about an improvement in results and style, in home games at least.
But it cannot entirely gloss over the fact that the man in charge of the club handed the keys so completely to a former Liverpool man who the fans never accepted in the first place, and then gave up on him after six months anyway.
Wasted money on big transfer flops has been a hallmark of Moshiri’s time at the club, but it was a sudden switch to bargain-basement free agent signings that allowed Benitez to overhaul the squad so heavily.
Andros Townsend, Asmir Begovic and Salomon Rondon all arrived this way, with Demarai Grey also coming in for a small fee.
The January situation was perhaps the most glaring example of the twisted logic that saw the former Newcastle manager backed in clashes with director of football Marcel Brands and Lucas Digne.
The former resigned in December and the latter was sold to Aston Villa days before the man in the dugout was sacked.
Vitalii Mykolenko, Nathan Patterson, and the loan signing of Anwar El Ghazi, none of whom have featured to any great level under the new manager were brought in during the window according to the wishes of the former boss.
Lampard, and now the recently appointed Kevin Thelwell, are having to try to rescue the team from relegation with an uneven squad.
The decision-making from the top that allowed Benitez to stamp his authority so heavily over things, only to finally succumb to pressure and sack him, has caused a great deal of the current mess.
And questions should not go away just because the new regime has achieved a few positive results.
In other Everton news, there is reportedly a decision on whether Lampard will be punished for his VAR comments.