Is the Value of Silva Decreasing?

When Marco Silva was named as Watford’s new manager back in May 2017, many felt that it would be an appointment that would take the club into the upper reaches of the Premier League. However, just months into his tenure, it seemed as if someone else had caught his eye.

That’s because with Ronald Koeman being given his marching orders at Everton, there was now a vacancy in the Goodison Park hot seat and Silva made no real secret of the fact that he wanted to be the man to fill it.

Lust from afar?

Hardly. Silva’s flirting with the Toffees created something of a dangerous liaison. But any hopes of a swift move to Merseyside foiled when Sam Allardyce was named as Koeman’s replacement.

The knockback that Silva received was more down to Watford not allowing their marriage of convenience to come to an end and not a reflection of how Everton viewed the talents of the prodigious young manager.

The now 41-year-old was smitten with Everton and could not hide his visible displeasure at the fact that he was left at Vicarage Road. That displeasure almost bordered on teenager-like petulance.

Freedom at last

Quite frankly the former Hull City boss did not want to be based in Hertfordshire any longer and eventually, he would get his way. With his position almost untenable, the Watford board finally put him out of his misery, by showing him the exit door in January 2018.

This was too late for him to take the Everton job post-Koeman, but he became the perfect man in waiting once Sam Allardyce’s firefighting duties came to an end last season. With the former one time England boss parting company after a solid but unspectacular stint at Goodison, the heir apparent was obvious.

After much deliberation and tribulations, Everton finally got their man in May 2018 and it is fair to say that their new manager came with an awful lot of promise. However, the question that many are now asking is whether the value of Silva has decreased?

This is a club that has long since threatened to spoil the party held each season by the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ and with Farhad Moshiri becoming a majority shareholder in 2016, it seemed to be a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ Everton would be invited to English football’s top table once again.

Europa League at stake

Unfortunately, though, things have not gone to plan for Moshiri. He’s now overseeing the third manager installed at the helm during his relatively short tenure and will soon have to decide if there will be a fourth.

Everton’s progress has certainly halted over the past couple of seasons: you could even argue that they’ve gone backwards. They currently find themselves lying 9th in the table, some six points off of Wolves who lie in 7th, a position that will more than likely offer up a Europa League place next season.

Wolves coming up from the Championship last season and making such a smooth transition to the top flight will undoubtedly be a bitter pill for Everton to swallow.

But if anyone looks likely to be invited to the Premier League’s elite, it’s arguably the new kids on the block over the division’s old timers. A point Wolves reinforced with their recent 3-1 win at Goodison Park.

It could even be a case that, because Wolves have become such a dominant force in such a short space of time, Everton’s path to the league’s upper echelons may well have been blocked off once and for all.

Indeed, when you look at the current Premier League betting markets, it seems that there is not a great deal of confidence in Everton managing to leapfrog Wolves to finish up as the best of the rest come May. At the time of writing, Wolves were priced 4/6 to hold on to 7th place, while Everton were clutching at a rather unfancied 9/1.

A kick in the teeth

Somewhat ironically for Marco Silva, it’s his former club Watford that currently split the two sides in 8th. It was certainly not a happy return for the former Watford manager when he took his Everton side to Vicarage Road recently. In a key game in the battle for a Europa League place, it was the Toffees who came unstuck as they lost by a goal to nil.

Everton seem to be caught between two methodologies at the moment and perhaps there is an element of the current boss having to undo the mess that his recent predecessors have left him with.

Time is of the essence

You could therefore argue the only way Everton can move forward is by backing the man in charge and giving him what is a priceless commodity as far as the Premier League is concerned: time.

They waited so long to get their man, it would almost be churlish of Farhad Moshiri and the board to decide they now want a further change ahead of next season. At the same time, they will have to balance that against how long they are prepared to stagnate.

It may well be that the greater desire for stability overrides the need to start all over again and therefore the status quo will remain the same going into the 2019/20 campaign. However, should Marco Silva get off to a shaky start, it may well be that his Goodison tenure soon comes to an end.