When Carlo Ancelotti left Everton to return to Real Madrid this summer, Everton took four weeks to replace him, their exhaustive search leading them reluctantly to Rafa Benitez. I say ‘reluctantly’ because Benitez is not quite the coach that he used to be and because his Liverpool connections (and some of his comments about Everton while in that role) made him a controversial appointment. The appointment of Ancelotti in December 2019 was arrived at with similar reluctance. Marco Silva was sacked during that month and the only real candidates available to Everton were Ancelotti- a faded managerial force- or former player Mikel Arteta, who had never managed a game. Arsenal were searching...
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