As the saga of who will succeed Carlo Ancelotti continues, Everton legend Duncan Ferguson has apparently expressed an interest in getting the manager’s job.
Ferguson has apparently had ambitions to run Everton for a while and now that Ancelotti is suddenly gone he believes now is his chance.
At least that’s according to the Sun, which claims the Scot turned down a chance to go to Spain with Ancelotti to assert his claim to the top toffees job.
Reportedly, the Italian wanted Ferguson to continue with the kind of role he’s had under him for the past eighteen months, but he turned down the Iberian sun to stay on Merseyside.
Of course, the ex-Blues center forward had previously temporarily assumed responsibility when Marco Silva was dismissed in December 2019.
His brief tenure began with a resounding win over Chelsea that brought back memories of the best of his own times as a legendary player and restored some confidence and pride in the players and fans after the horrific final months of Silva’s reign.
Ferguson’s intense passion and determination, and the apparent joy he showed as he bounced up and down his beloved Everton, walked the sidelines and hugged random ball boys certainly cemented the strong bond between him and his followers.
He went undefeated in his four games – if you don’t count a loss on penalties to Leicester City – even though Chelsea’s level of performance was not maintained.
So many positive things, but still many questions unanswered. And from my point of view, Ferguson is not the right man for the job now, and that’s why.
Especially his lack of experience. Of course, experience isn’t everything, but I feel like he’s a little rough about his football tactics and approach.
I still believe that the Blues need a coach with a broader coaching background and a few years of football management experience to take on such a large rebuilding job as is needed at Goodison Park.
Second, I’m not sure his tactics are right for the team today. Ferguson got back to basics and, after all the hacking and switching under Silva, re-established a traditional 4-4-2 formation. It worked and the Toffees were more solid defensively and harder to beat.
In fact, it worked so well that Ancelotti stayed in the same formation when he took over in late December and enjoyed a honeymoon season in the New Year. But ultimately I think these tactics are limited and depend on the fact that there are few players in the modern game, especially traditional wingers.
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Ancelotti also found this a problem when attempting to use a variety of players in broad positions with limited success, then switching to a 4-3-3 early last season.
Third is his dealings with players. Ferguson has an old-fashioned attitude towards players, as his dealings with Moise Kean demonstrated, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it the way you manage and motivate footballers today?
Perhaps, unfortunately, modern multimillionaire gamblers are far less impressed with the nature of the elementary man-making of Everton’s Ferguson and his namesake, the former Manchester United manager, than they used to be. They don’t have to and can always find a new club and move on if they are decent enough.
Anyway, none of that means that Ferguson would necessarily be a disaster if he took over the reins, and who knows, maybe a bit of an old-fashioned blood and thunder approach could just bring results and give this blues team a more concrete identity.
But all in all I think he should continue to do this as an assistant to whoever is taking over, or if not elsewhere, maybe to a championship club or Scotland like Steven Gerrard did, and then come back at a later date .