Richard Keys in awe of Marco Silva comeback from Everton sacking after 5-0 Fulham win
RIchard Keys has hailed Marco Silva’s success since being sacked by Everton after the Fulham boss won 5-0 against David Moyes’ West Ham.
Keys wrote in his blog on 11 December about how the Portuguese former Toffees boss “hasn’t sulked” despite being “left on his ****” by his dismissal from Goodison Park four years ago.
Silva spent a year and a half out of work before taking over at Craven Cottage in 2021, where he has brought them back to the Premier League and has them comfortably in mid-table.
Key said: “I want to mention Fulham this week. Marco Silva has done a top job at The Cottage. He was on his **** when Everton sacked him, but he hasn’t sulked – he got back at it and he’s another one that deserves huge credit for what’s he’s done.
“Losing [Aleksandar] Mitrovic could’ve been a terminal blow to Fulham’s chances of staying in the PL, but they haven’t missed him. They’re banging goals in from everywhere now – as West Ham found out Sunday.
“As pleased as I was for Silva, I can’t pretend that I didn’t feel for David Moyes and his team. I’ve had a real soft spot for the Hammers since Moyes took over there.”
Folly
Given the repeated changes in the dug out at Everton since Silva was jettisoned, and the way he has rehabilitated himself in West London, there will be more than a few Toffees supporters who feel it was an error to get rid of him in the first place.
That Sean Dyche is the fourth permanent manager since Silva was dumped, with two caretaker spells from Duncan Ferguson thrown in, is a measure of the disfunction on Merseyside in recent years.
The Fulham boss’ replacement in the Toffees job, Carlo Ancelotti, was the sort of big name that Farhad Moshiri dreamed of in his lavish early years in charge but ultimately couldn’t take Everton to the top.
In Dyche the club have appear to have finally got the right man for the right moment at last, albeit with that moment coming in far more embattled circumstances than any of his predecessors other than Frank Lampard.
For all the praise Keys has lavished on Silva it can’t go unnoticed that Everton would be just three points behind and have an identical goal difference to Fulham were it not for the 10-point deduction that they are currently working back from.
On paper it is therefore tempting to conclude that Moshiri has gone all round the houses at great expense in the past four years to end up roughly back where he started.
Things aren’t as simple as that, clearly, but now Everton have a manager who has built a distinct unit that feels like it can go places despite the upheaval off the field caused by all the needless waste the owner, still for now at least, might conclude he arguably had one some time ago.
In other Everton news, the 777 takeover could now be completed within 11 days amid a new update from high up at the club.