A call between two billionaires, a meeting on a super-yacht, a drawn-out mystery with onlookers desperate for answers.
Everton’s latest manager search, in turns dizzying and soporific, at times resembled the complex plot of a Hollywood spy film.
In the end, though, the mystery made way for a more parochial episode. An appointment mired in disagreement, at first in the boardroom and then amplified a thousand times among the fans because it crossed a red, and blue, line. Unprecedented in the modern era — the new man becomes the first to cross Stanley Park.
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Rafa Benitez — the custodian woven so deeply into the folklore of rivals Liverpool by accomplishments that stretched beyond the Anfield trophy cabinet to plays, poems and songs.
And now he is at Everton.
In a statement released at 3:15pm on Wednesday, the club finally announced that Benitez would become their new manager, 30 days after Carlo Ancelotti left for Real Madrid.
The 61-year-old’s status as prime candidate had become increasingly clear long before it was confirmed.
Before the announcement, Benitez had been in isolation at his home on the Wirral following a meeting with Everton’s owner Farhad Moshiri and his business associate, the heavily influential Alisher Usmanov, on his luxury yacht off the Sardinian coast.
It was during those face-to-face talks, brokered by powerful agent Kia Joorabchian, the Iranian who advises Moshiri, that Benitez talked his way into a job he has long held an interest in.
But an important conversation had already happened. On Usmanov’s advice, Moshiri called Roman Abramovich, the man who also ignored the ire of supporters to appoint Benitez as interim boss at Stamford Bridge back in 2012, and the Chelsea owner provided a glowing reference.
Contract negotiations, over the length of Benitez’s deal, which members of his usual backroom team will join him and even exit terms should it go wrong, were then progressed.
Last Friday, several of the required negative COVID-19 tests later, Benitez was able to leave his Caldy home but those negotiations continued. They were important to both parties but also something of a sideshow to the Spaniard, who was busily planning for his first moves in the job. He had long since carried out a detailed audit on Everton’s squad.
Such granular preparation for multiple possibilities is not unheard of for Benitez. By Tuesday the formalities were complete. Twenty-four hours later a possibility had become reality.
Ancelotti’s successor was ready to begin one of the most controversial managerial appointments in the club’s history.
Ancelotti’s sudden departure left Everton in the lurch; the speed of his volte-face affording them no time to forge a succession plan. The early stages of the process are understood to have been chaotic, with numerous high-profile figures, including Moshiri, chairman Bill Kenwright and director of football Marcel Brands feeding in potential targets during hastily convened meetings.
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They were swamped by applications for the vacant position — despite the high-pressure stakes, still an attractive one across the globe. Intermediaries suggested a range of candidates to Brands, with former Porto and Olympiakos coach Vitor Pereira, a past frontrunner before Ancelotti’s arrival, and former Watford manager Walter Mazzarri among those to throw their hat into the ring.
It was difficult for the Everton board to reach a consensus. With names being filtered in from a range of different sources, alternative visions emerged, resulting in a muddled shortlist of potential targets.
As Ancelotti’s appointment showed, Moshiri preferred a name who could, in theory, quickly get Everton up the table and challenging. Kenwright is said to have wanted someone who understood the club, while Brands has long expressed an interest in building a project over time. As the shortlist was whittled down slowly, insiders urged patience. The message coming back was that they were prepared to take time to get the next step right.
The early favourites were Nuno Espirito Santo, Benitez and former manager David Moyes. Moyes retained a good relationship with Kenwright who had messaged at the end of the season to offer congratulations for his work done at West Ham over the season. Nuno and Benitez, meanwhile, had made their interest known in the position early into the process.
Long based in the affluent Wirral village of Caldy, Benitez was clear he would be open to talks as he sought a route back into management in a role that he felt offered the chance of success and meant he could be based from home instead of 5,259 miles away (the distance between Merseyside and the Chinese port city of Dalian where he last worked).
Everton had long been aware of his interest, but with plenty of water under the bridge from his time at Anfield, serious reciprocal interest had been unforthcoming. The suspicion was that some at Goodison were still burned by comments from Benitez in 2007 where he labelled Everton a “small club”. Equally, Kenwright has always made a point of telling the players not to wear red on club facilities.
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As time passed, the Spaniard had begun to row back on those controversial comments. “I made a mistake when I said it was a small club,” he told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football in 2019. “What I wanted to say was they are a small team because in this game I remember they had one chance. Liverpool fans were happy and the Evertonians were upset. But I didn’t want to say they were a small club, I wanted to say they were a small team.”
Several rounds of talks were held with potential candidates, but it was Nuno not Benitez that initially led the way. Suggested to Moshiri by trusted contacts, the former Wolves manager had a number of things going in his favour. He was available having left Molineux at the end of the campaign and was represented by super-agent Jorge Mendes, who had joined forces with Joorabchian to deliver James Rodriguez to Goodison in the summer of 2020.
The feedback received on Nuno by the Everton board was mixed. There was also some concern over what appointing a Mendes client would mean for recruitment, prompting some to suggest alternative directions. But the door remained open as the Portuguese delayed a decision over the vacant job at Crystal Palace. With Everton lying in wait and Moshiri still keen, Nuno’s move to Selhurst Park collapsed at the eleventh hour.
The suspicion at Palace was that the unexpected availability of the Everton job had turned heads. By the end, when deadlines were being imposed from one end and fresh demands made from the other, the alarm bells were ringing. And so began a drip-feed of unanticipated demands, caveats and “cake-and-eat-it clauses” put forward by Mendes, whether financial, contractual, logistical or over recruitment and staffing.
When talks broke down completely with Palace, Everton pounced; stepping up their discussions with Nuno and his camp. By the middle of June, those close to the Portuguese were confident that an offer would be forthcoming. At the same time, Mendes’ agency Gestifute were attempting to manufacture a deal for Sporting Lisbon midfielder Matheus Nunes.
But then the trail to Nuno went cold. While talks had hitherto been positive, all parties agreed to sleep on the decision, deferring it until the following Monday.
In the meantime, other Everton board members, less sure on Nuno, continued to plug other candidates.
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Brighton & Hove Albion manager Graham Potter and Christophe Galtier, then of Lille, were discussed and had admirers. The suspicion from those close to Potter was that Brighton had moved to tie him down to a new long-term deal in 2019 amid rumblings of interest from Everton.
Galtier could not command much support on the Everton board. Some wondered about his suitability for English football given his lack of English. In any case, a verbal agreement with fellow Ligue 1 side Nice was in place; the only delay was Lille’s reluctance to lose their manager to a rival club, prompting a disagreement over the compensation package. Neither, ultimately, had the sort of global standing that Moshiri wants in a manager.
Soon after, Moyes finally decided to sign a new three-year deal at West Ham after giving his verbal assent months earlier.
As Nuno seemingly closed in, Martinez again saw his claims advanced by sections of the board. They were aware the Spaniard retained major affection for the club despite being sacked in 2016 and believed that he could be convinced to return. On the weekend where Everton mulled over the potential appointment of Nuno, some key figures watched Belgium’s opener against Russia hoping a win could help prompt a late change of tack from Moshiri.
It was an approach that united certain strands of the board, but not one that was ever likely to work with Moshiri, who had made the decision to sack Martinez in 2016. The Spaniard’s participation at the Euros further muddied the waters as he urged total focus on the job at hand.
Martinez’s future will again be up for discussion after this summer’s tournament and The Athletic understands he has a number of different options available to him. While he is keen to manage in the club game again, staying with Belgium cannot be completely discounted.
Nuno’s pole position diminished in the same way that caught other managers out in the past. Before Ancelotti was handed the job in 2019, Moyes, Pereira and the German Ralf Rangnick left meetings with the Everton ownership under the assumption they would be handed the job. Paulo Fonseca was under the same impression before Marco Silva was handed the reins.
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History repeated itself again. As Nuno waited for an offer, Benitez’s camp sensed a decisive shift in their favour following a further round of positive talks. Nuno had, some suggest, not been as convincing in talks as his proponents hoped and he will look to make Everton pay having been named Tottenham boss yesterday. Meanwhile, over two Zoom calls preceding the yacht visit, Benitez certainly had.
Those close to discussions felt that he had decisively won the support of the “key decision-maker” at Everton. Joorabchian stepped in to negotiate the Benitez deal.
While the word is that Brands has been afforded extra scope since signing a new three-year deal and Kenwright still holds some sway, ultimately this is now Moshiri’s ship to steer.
Brands was not at Finch Farm for the obligatory signing photographs on Wednesday but not because of any discord, he was in quarantine after returning from a trip home to the Netherlands to make enquiries over a transfer target.
He is willing to work with Benitez and give the new man his full backing — but in the end he had next to no say on the final appointment.
Moshiri has chosen every Everton manager since he joined in 2016, including the controversial appointment of Sam Allardyce in 2017 despite opposition from other parts of the board.
Indeed while Kenwright’s quotes in the statement announcing Benitez’s arrival were uncharacteristically brief, Moshiri was prepared to lead. He was quoted in the initial release and a later question and answer about the appointment in which he mentioned “winning” 10 times.
The Iranian is burning to see Everton gatecrash the elite and felt that, after Ancelotti, Benitez is the best bet to deliver — despite the risks of a divided fan base from the start.
Benitez will earn in the region of £7 million a year at Goodison, with other incentives added which will kick in should he deliver silverware or European football.
While Duncan Ferguson will retain his position on the backroom staff, along with goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly, Benitez will bring long-time fitness coach Paco De Miguel with him. There are likely to be others.
It will be a summer of change at Finch Farm. Leighton Baines, who since retiring from playing has impressed in his role as a professional development coach working with young players under Ancelotti, could see his remit broadened into a more senior first-team coaching position.
But while his predecessor often delegated match preparation on the training ground to Ancelotti’s son Davide, Everton are getting an entirely more hands-on prospect for their money this time.
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Benitez, an obsessive with little or no “off switch”, has been known to sleep at training grounds.
The Athletic understands Benitez lived in a hotel which was a short walk from the stadium while at Napoli. Eventually the hotel’s night porter and stadium security got so fed up of being disturbed in the middle of the night to let him go back and forth that they just gave Benitez keys to both.
He is not the type to form close relationships with players, nor to pander to egos or star names, but he is often valued by former players who keep in touch with him.
Benitez signed Senegalese powerhouse Kalidou Koulibaly for Napoli, and the defender regularly texts him, while Newcastle youngster Sean Longstaff also seeks his counsel at times.
It was the impression he left on Abramovich which had a huge impact.
“Roman told him (Moshiri) Benitez is one of the best managers he has worked with,” a source told The Athletic. “He was extremely positive about him as a manager and a person. He praised the way he got the dressing room behind him, the performances he got at Chelsea under the pressure and his ‘big balls’ for weathering the storm. It was a very influential call in making up Moshiri’s mind.”
What else will Everton be getting for their money?
A coach with a pedigree for improving players. “This is good for Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ben Godfrey, players like them,” says the source. “If DCL wants to be the best centre-forward in the country or Godfrey wants to fulfil his potential they’ve got a coach who will bring that out of them. He will improve individuals and work with them on the training pitch.
“That’s where Rafa thrives. He’ll be first in and last out. Some managers like the finer things, the great restaurants or the best place for shopping etc. Rafa has lived in Merseyside for years and couldn’t tell you the best restaurant — his obsession is football. That’s it.”
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Benitez is a complex persona. He never swears and if he does “unwinding” it is playing the Spanish card game Mus with his staff.
He prizes loyalty and believes devoutly in systems, with a fast-fizzing nimble mind that constantly races; friends have said he can expound on everything from an obscure team’s tactical set-up to the NHS and how the vaccination roll-out could be better organised.
“He’s the fastest at adapting to things during a game that I’ve ever seen,” says one football insider. “Rafa reads games like no other. He will always back his starting game plan and system but when it gets to the point it’s just not working he is decisive enough to change and will have plans B, C and D ready too.”
Benitez has his own bespoke personal database of players and clips going back 20 years. In his six months away from the game there has not been a day when he has not watched clips of players and matches.
Now his work ethic will crank fully into gear. He will start pre-season training with the returning players on Monday, as he prepares to take them to the USA for the Florida Cup, which will see Everton face Colombian club Millonarios and either Arsenal or his former club Inter Milan.
Then it will be into a new season, with an opening run of fixtures that, on paper, offer an opportunity for a much-needed bright start.
Everton and Benitez, a marriage of convenience who some think will never last, will not get much of a honeymoon.
But the era of uncertainty is over. Benitez, for all the uproar, banners, threats and apathy, is here.
The union may yet shock the cynics, melt hearts and last — or it could end in tears after a whirlwind.
Either way, it will be interesting.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)