If someone had said back in February 2016 that Everton's long-awaited billionaire owner was about to materialise, the club would have diggers at a stadium site in five years' time, the team would one day feature none other than James Rodriguez on the right side of his 29th birthday, it would be managed in that time by Sam Allardyce and Carlo Ancelotti, but it would all culminate in Rafael Benitez taking the helm, you would wonder what kind of fresh dysfunction had taken hold at Goodison Park.

Yet here we are. Benitez will make history by becoming the first man since the 1890s to manage both Everton and Liverpool, bringing with him all his baggage from Anfield, which includes a significant degree of reverence from the Reds' faithful and the not-insignificant legacy of an apparently disparaging comment aimed at the Blue half of the city following a goalless Merseyside derby almost a decade and a half ago.

It brings to an end weeks of speculation over who would succeed Ancelotti after the Italian walked out on Everton just 18 months into a 4½-year term to re-take the reins at Real Madrid having failed, in fairly alarming fashion, to capitalise on a gilt-edged opportunity to take the Toffees back into Europe. His departure, the tortuous football he inflicted on supporters during a miserable period of pandemic-enforced lockdowns and empty stadiums, and the limbo created at the club, have all left the fanbase a little bruised, let down but, perhaps more than anything, also yearning for a renewal of an “Everton” identity.

Here was the chance to reset and finally put the club's energy behind both Marcel Brands and a model of building something sustainable with younger players and a more youthful, up-and-coming, hungry manager who could work in tandem with the Director of Football to attract the right profile of players and bring academy prospects through. If it felt as though Ancelotti's gravitas meant that Brands's plan had to be temporarily shelved in favour of older players capable of making an instant impact, the close season offered Farhad Moshiri and the rest of the Everton Board of Directors time to bring in a head coach more suited to the over-arching vision.

The huge sense of disappointment at the route Everton have taken was a big part of the reaction to the suggestions that Benitez was the chosen successor. Benitez isn't young, he doesn't have a reputation for being very progressive, and there's an inescapable feeling that this will be another stop-gap appointment. But, just as Tottenham have learned following their decision to sack Jose Mourinho, Everton have been left in the lurch at an extremely inopportune time. The pool of available managers from which to choose has been depressingly small and, despite the salary that was reputed to have been thrown at Ancelotti and its membership of the Premier League, arguably the most popular in the world, the club is probably a hard sell given the instability that has characterised the past eight years at Goodison Park.

For his work at Saint-Étienne and in guiding Lille to the League 1 title, Christophe Galtier quickly became a favourite among Evertonians but, while media reports have alluded to him being on the shortlist, it's not known for sure whether he was actually approached or whether he turned the Blues down, either because of a verbal agreement to join Nice or because the Goodison job didn't appeal. Erik Ten Hag was an attractive option but has, it seems, committed his immediate future to Ajax. Antonio Conte was mooted but unrealistic; Graham Potter was also mentioned but it might have entailed an expensive battle to pry him away from a long contract at Brighton.

That left the likes of Nuno Espirito Santo (who appeared at one stage to be hours away from being unveiled as Ancelotti's successor), Eddie Howe, Roberto Martinez, Frank Lampard and Duncan Ferguson as varyingly unsatisfying options alongside more promising choices like Paulo Fonseca (considered for the role at the time Marco Silva was appointed) and Ralf Rangnick (who was interviewed in 2013 but was discarded in favour of Martinez), neither of whom, it seems, were really ever serious contenders.

That Moshiri has plumped for Benitez appears to be down to the lack of suitable candidates, the Spaniard's availability, his success from 15 years ago and before, his Premier League experience, and his proximity to Liverpool — he has maintained a residence on the Wirral since leaving Anfield in 2010. If it feels all very safe and convenient, maybe that's the point after the turmoil of five managers in as many years. But supporter reaction to Benitez means that this will be anything other than an easy appointment.

Indeed, in railroading through perhaps the only manager to rival Allardyce in the unpalatability stakes for Everton fans, and in the face of demonstrated — and increasingly sinister — opposition, Moshiri is either displaying significant testicular fortitude and conviction, worrying desperation and blind faith in his choice to coach his team, or a staggering tone-deafness bordering on, if not preposterous, then at least questionable arrogance. Not for nothing did one local source describe it to The Independent recently as perhaps the biggest gamble in Merseyside football history.

Yesterday's — Not Today's or Tomorrow's — Man?

The Everton-Liverpool rivalry runs very deep and there is no question that, despite the familial and community ties that bind Blues and Reds together, not to mention the brotherhood forged after Hillsborough, it's one that has become embittered over the course of the 21st Century so far. There's a case to be made that Rafael Benitez, with his infamous “small club” comment — more on that later — played some part in fostering that animosity but, in general, the “friendly derby” isn't as cordial as it once was (not that it ever truly was; but at no other fiercely-contested local grudge match do opposition supporters mix so readily in the stands).

Nevertheless, had Moshiri appointed Brendan Rodgers, a manager with an established Premier League pedigree built on a number of top-five finishes and demonstrated ability beyond his achievements in an inferior league with Celtic, there would be a much smaller issue with hiring an ex-Liverpool manager to the Everton post. It helps, of course, that Rodgers didn't ever win anything at Anfield; Benitez's Champions League success left an indelible mark on the Reds' history and he will, therefore, forever have a prominent place in their history.

So, had the purely footballing case been sound enough, the new manager's past allegiances would be far less of an issue, perhaps vanishingly so. What makes this decision more controversial, however, is that, while he isn't at all a bad manager, taken at face value, Benitez ticks very few of the necessary boxes for the situation in which Everton currently find themselves.

Again, he does not have youth on his side, his last major European trophy was eight years ago, he doesn't have a reputation for playing expansive, attractive football, his performance at Newcastle was middling at best, and he has a history of ruffling feathers with the decision-makers at the various clubs he has managed. His arrival immediately prompts questions over how he will interact and mesh with Brands, particularly as Benitez is said to be very particular about having heavy involvement in recruitment decisions.

There are plenty of Blues looking at the current Everton squad and doubting that a manager who wasn't able to push a mediocre Newcastle side into the top half of the Premier League will be able to get much more of a tune out of the personnel at Finch Farm than his predecessors did. It's a situation that appears to demand an energetic, inspirational coach with a dedicated system and way of playing rather than simply one with a preference for defensive solidity over attacking dynamism.

But, as has been argued in this column more than once since Ancelotti cut and run, the key to Everton's immediate progress lies less with the manager than it does in recruitment — simply, the acquisition of players capable of making a genuine and lasting impact on the squad to elevate it above the mediocrity that has come to define the Blues for far too long. Get the recruitment right and the task for the new man is immediately more favourable; indeed, it could completely transform the task at hand.

Even without a successful close-season that addresses some shortcomings in key areas, though, Benitez appears to offer a steady hand at the tiller. At the very least, he is a highly competent coach and tactician who is reputed to be obsessed with football in a way that Roberto Martinez and Marco Silva were — and Ronald Koeman and, perhaps to an extent, Ancelotti were not. His most recent job in a top-level league was one that was always hampered by the instability of the Mike Ashley regime and recruitment that ensured the Newcastle squad was weighed down by bang-average personnel.

Looking at it through an even more optimistic lens, there are plenty of people in the game who regard Benitez, who has helmed some of Europe's biggest clubs, as an excellent manager with a drive to succeed that will see him pour all his energy into the Everton project in ways that Koeman, for example, wasn't ever going to. Not an arm-around-the-shoulder man-manager in the Ancelotti mould, the 61-year-old from Madrid is more of a my-way-or-the-highway character who could be what a few in the current squad need to get back on track.

There's also something about this decision that means it could be mad enough to work. Everton have hired a smooth-talking Catalan, a well-respected Dutchman, a supposedly up-and-coming “new Mourinho”, and one of the most decorated coaches in the game — and they have all failed. Sometimes things just click and there has to be a lot about how Benitez interviewed and what plans he outlined to Moshiri et al that has convinced them to push through this decision despite unprecedented resistance. And there is something admirable about a man, who has done plenty of good for the city of Liverpool away from football, still wanting to manage our club in the face of such vocal opposition.

Forever Stained Red?

As much as many fans' concerns have been couched in terms of his fading credentials and current image as “yesterday's man”, it's Benitez's association with Liverpool FC that is ultimately what sticks in the craw of those Evertonians most vociferously opposed to his appointment as Blues boss. That he was the man to guide the Reds to Champions League glory over Ancelotti's AC Milan in one of the most dramatic comebacks in the history of the competition means that he will always have a place in Liverpool hearts.

That would, of course, be a stumbling block for many Blues but, while there have been former Liverpool players like Peter Beardsley and Gary Ablett who crossed the Park to play in Royal Blue and were welcomed, Benitez's post-match interview following a goalless draw in the 2007 Anfield derby, in which he referred to Everton as a “small club”, has never been forgotten, even though he has tried to clarify it in recent years. And it's that perceived lack of respect that is what chiefly lies behind the backlash. Some, this writer included, are prepared to overlook it, either because it was a partisan quip or was simply lost in translation.

Benitez claims that he was inferring that Everton, who, under David Moyes that day, employed a defensive posture chiefly aimed at avoiding defeat, had played like a small team — as opposed to implying that Everton itself was a small club. In an example of supreme irony, however, it could be argued that, in hiring a man whose last two jobs were at struggling Newcastle (a gig that included a stint in the Championship) and in the footballing backwater of the faltering Chinese league, Everton are behaving very much like a small club rather than one aiming for the Champions League.

Moshiri and the Board — how much of the Board is not clear; reporting from Paul Joyce in The Times, for example, suggests that Benitez does not enjoy universal support among the hierarchy — clearly see it very differently; they see the one-time Real Madrid, Chelsea and Napoli boss as the man to finally lead the Toffees into Europe's elite competition.

It is, nonetheless, an appointment fraught with difficulty from the outset, with Benitez beginning his tenure behind the proverbial eight-ball with very little margin for error. Everything negative in terms of performances or results is going to be amplified tenfold by fans. In many ways, Everton's relatively kind run of fixtures to start the 2021-22 season reduces that margin even further; he has to make a strong start in his quest to win over the apathetic, the skeptics and, hopefully, the staunchly opposed — otherwise, Goodison is going to be a very uncomfortable place. There is no question, also, that this season's Merseyside derbies will provide Reds fans with an irresistible opportunity to rub Evertonian noses in it, particularly if the results go their way; the “Agent Rafa” banners might already be written.

And therein lies the massive gamble of Moshiri pushing through the selection of Benitez as manager. The Spaniard himself is known to be thick-skinned and he famously endured a rough ride from Chelsea's supporters to deliver them the Europa League trophy before departing after just one season in charge. But while he may be able to shrug off a toxic atmosphere, the players, many of whom have been criticised for their weak mentality and who showed last season just how much they need a supportive crowd to enable them to perform at home, might not be able to.

In that respect, it'll be incumbent on Evertonians to back the new man and the team when the new season starts, irrespective of their misgivings over his appointment. A disgruntled atmosphere will do nobody any good; it would be cutting off our collective nose to spite our face. Better to save it for the I-told-you-sos and your ire at the Board rather than scupper our chances of making progress on the pitch this coming season.

That might be wishful thinking and what is already a difficult assignment as it is without the added complication of supporter angst will be a supreme test of Benitez's managerial and coaching ability. Ultimately, it'll come down to what he can do once he has the group at Finch Farm where he can instil in the players the right mindset, convince them to shut out the noise, and show them he can take them where they want to go as a team.

The squad, when the current first-choice XI is fit, is better than it looked for much of last season, especially at home, and with the right additions (and a quality replacement for James Rodriguez who even though he was managed by Benitez at Real sadly looks destined to leave this summer) there is plenty of scope for Benitez to do better than his predecessor.

If he is able to do that, to bring winning, more entertaining football to Goodison Park, help Brands bring in some exciting players, show clear progress and finish in the European spots, why on earth would any Blue wish to hold on to a grudge forged 15 years ago in what feels like was another lifetime? If — please, God! — he manages to land us a trophy, he will have succeeded where seven different manages have failed over the course of what will be approaching three decades. Achieve that — a very different kind of “Everton, that” — and Benitez will have earned our support, our respect, and his unique place in Merseyside football history.


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