Carlo Ancelotti has been offered a four-and-a-half-year contract and is set to take charge of his first game against Burnley on Boxing Day, according to Sky in Italy
Wednesday 18 December 2019 16:33, UK
With Carlo Ancelotti set to become the new Everton manager before the end of the week, Sky Sports News reporter Alan Myers reveals all the details behind the appointment in the latest Transfer Talk podcast...
"That's a really good question because when his name was mentioned just after Marco Silva left the club, I had heard Ancelotti was certainly under consideration and I also learnt from Italy that he was interested in the project.
"We have to look at one man in this and that's Farhad Moshiri. There have been a number of suggestions from the board of directors at Everton of different names. David Moyes has been mentioned, Mikel Arteta was mentioned and Vitor Pereira was talked about. All through this whole process Moshiri has had his own opinions and his own views of what he wants."
"He once said to the Everton fans that he wanted to bring in a Hollywood manager. They were the words he used and eventually he's got that. He will do everything he can to get this deal over the line.
"It's down to Moshiri. He has those high expectations for the club, and I'm sure everybody else has those expectations, but he has his own visions and Ancelotti would fit into that."
"It's a really interesting dynamic. The whole director of football position is still one we question on a regular basis.
"Brands came into Everton almost on a white horse and nothing he could do was wrong. The fans really took to him and the signings of Andre Gomes and Yerry Mina from Barcelona, he gave this impression he could go out and get pretty much who he wanted to a point.
"However, that's sort of waned a little bit in the last few months. There have a been a few question marks over some of the players that have come in, such as Moise Kean. However, he will be in the mix. He will be in the conversations Ancelotti will have and it's the same with Duncan Ferguson. The situation with Ferguson will be in the mix as well.
"Ancelotti won't be going into it blindly. He will know what is expected in that respect, however, it's definitely a big shift from have a Marco Silva-type manager, who is more a coach rather than a manager.
"I'm not so sure Ancelotti is or would be seen as a coach."
"I don't think it's the case that Ferguson was in the mix for two reasons. One, he doesn't have the experience. People underestimate the size of job managing Everton is. I've spoken to a lot of ex-players and a lot of ex-managers who say you don't quite realise the pressure that the Everton job brings until you are actually in it. A few people have gone into that job certainly in recent years and not really understood how difficult it is and the pressure you come under.
"More importantly, and this is a measure of the man, Ferguson himself feels he is not the man for that job at this point in time. It's a glimpse of his selflessness that he said that from day one that's he's not the man. They want a world-class manager and he wants a world-class manager because he's an Everton fan and he loves the club. If you look at every decision, he makes on the touchline it's from his heart. It's not from his head necessarily and that's really down to the fact that he wants the best for the club.
"Moving away from Duncan, I'm led to believe that there have been five or six managers spoken to. Pereira was definitely one. I think they've looked at Arteta but whether there's been a discussion, I don't know. Eddie Howe has been under consideration and I think there's been a couple of others. The River Plate manager, Marcelo Gallardo, is someone who there was strong interest in.
"Obviously, there's David Moyes and my information is he's been interviewed on more than one occasion with regards to taking over the role and we saw Bill Kenwright in the lounge at Everton after the Chelsea game telling people what happened when Ferguson was appointed as interim manager. He specifically said he told Duncan it was for one game.
"That would suggest to me that they had someone in mind to take over and I suspect that might've been Moyes until, of course, the night Ancelotti got sacked. I think that opened up the whole thing again and they had to take another direction.
"As I said, I think Moshiri then had his eyes set on Ancelotti."
"This is the big question. As we all know, Everton have spent a lot of money over the last few years. I think they are £230m-odd net spend over the last four or five years. Compare that with Leicester City, who have spent around £150m. They have won the league once and are challenging Liverpool again this season.
"If you are Moshiri you are looking and thinking what have I got for my money? At this moment in time, with Everton's league position and the situation they are in, not a lot.
"Will he be happy to just open the funds again for January? I think there are two issues. One, from what I gather, is there's an FFP, a profit and sustainability issue that they obviously have to work within those constraints, which I'm sure they will.
"Also, he's got to look at Ancelotti and he's not going to come in and not want to improve the squad. There are positions at Everton that still need filling and deals that have not worked. There are a lot of players still at Everton who are probably surplus to requirements. So, it is about getting rid of those players as well, which we know is not easy.
"There are a lot of questions around who he buys, how he can buy and when he can buy, but I'm sure they will all be in the discussions in regard to him taking the job."
"There's a lovely fact that post-war, the only managers to win silverware at Everton are ex-players. Joe Royle, Howard Kendall and Harry Catterick all played for the club previously and they are the only managers that have won silverware at the club.
"A lot of people were looking at that and thinking that was maybe in the thinking of Arteta and others, however, Ancelotti represents what I think every Everton fan hoped for and thought was going to be the case when Moshiri took over the club. They realised that under Kenwright there was a certain standard they could get to and no one ever made any other claims than that. It was always going to be a difficult one although they did tremendously well under those circumstances.
"Ancelotti will give Everton fans real hope that they can challenge, and more importantly, across the park, Liverpool fans will look at it and raise their eyelids and say: 'Wow, now we have someone who, if you look at trophies won, can match Jurgen Klopp in that respect in regards to what's happening at the moment'.
"The Everton fans will be absolutely delighted. They will see it as a coup from Moshiri in getting Ancelotti. He will be up there with the best managers we've had."
